Stage set for 21 federal races in northern, central Alberta as candidate deadline passes

With the deadline for candidate registration passed, voters in Edmonton and northern Alberta can now consider their options.

Candidates had until Monday to submit their nomination papers, and on Wednesday Elections Canada released a final list of confirmed candidates.

The electoral map looks different from the last election, after a nationwide redistribution of federal electoral districts based on the 2021 Canadian census. A total of five new ridings were created, three of which are in Alberta, and other districts were redrawn to account for population changes.

There are 21 electoral districts in central and northern Alberta. These include nine ridings in Edmonton as well as:

• Battle River–Crowfoot
• Fort McMurray–Cold Lake
• Grande Prairie
• Lakeland
• Leduc–Wetaskiwin
• Peace River–Westlock
• Ponoka–Didsbury
• Red Deer
• St. Albert–Sturgeon River
• Sherwood Park–Fort Saskatchewan
• Parkland
• Yellowhead

Of the 123 candidates running in those 21 ridings, 16 are incumbents, a few are ballot stalwarts, and many others are making their first appearance.

Six incumbents are running in districts that have had their boundaries redrawn. Of the five ridings that are open races, only two existed with the same boundaries in the last election.

The Conservatives and NDP fielded full slates as usual, while the Liberal Party and the People's Party of Canada both came up one shy, missing nominees in Ponoka–Didsbury and Peace River–Westlock respectively.

The Green Party previously put forward a candidate for each Alberta riding in all five federal elections between 2004 and 2015. But this year marks the second election in a row that they have not done so, with nine candidates in northern and central Alberta.

Some parties' appearances on the ballot fluctuate between elections. The Maverick Party, previously known as Wexit Canada, fielded 10 candidates in 2021, but folded in February.

Meanwhile, Naomi Rankin — leader of the Alberta chapter of the Communist Party of Canada — has stood as a candidate in every federal election since 1988, this time in Edmonton Centre.

One notable shift this year is the number of candidates running without the endorsement of a political party.

Those candidates can choose to run as independents, in which case "independent" appears under their name on the ballot in place of where party affiliation would appear. Alternatively, they may instead choose "no affiliation" and have a series of dashes appears on the ballot.

Ten independents and two non-affiliated candidates are running in the 21 districts in central and northern Alberta. That's a big jump from the two independents that ran in each of the last two elections.

Determining a reason for these kinds of shifts isn't possible with such a small data set, according to Anthony Sayers, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary.

"The challenge with changing numbers of independents or even other candidate features (such as variation in number of women, minorities etc.) is whether the effect is random variation or a response to some structural factor (say, increased unhappiness with the major parties, or the growing influence of women in parties)," he said in an email to CBC News.

"This would require a good deal of empirical work over a least a few elections."

Of the 123 candidates in northern and central Alberta, 31 publicly identify as women.

Previously, Edmonton had several ridings which extended beyond the city limits. With the redistribution, Edmonton still has nine districts, but all are now fully inside the city proper. Meanwhile, the areas surrounding the city have redrawn electoral boundaries, with new ridings like St. Albert–Sturgeon River and Leduc–Wetaskiwin.

Election Day is April 28. Advance voting runs from April 18-21 and the deadline to apply to vote by mail is April 21.