Skip to content
  1. Home
  2. Local News

FEDERAL ELECTION 2025: Stevenson voted in as MP for Yellowhead, Liberals to form federal government

William Stevenson is the new federal representative for the Yellowhead riding.
Greg Colgan, Cathy Ellis, Peter Shokeir

YELLOWHEAD – William Stevenson is the new federal representative for the Yellowhead riding.

Stevenson handily won the election, defeating his four competitors. He earned 69.1 percent of the riding’s vote – or 45,305 – with 245 of 252 polls reporting as of 12:15 a.m. Tuesday.

The Outlook attempted to reach Stevenson by phone and email multiple times after he was declared winner, but was unable to reach him and will update the story when we do.

Stevenson will head to Ottawa to represent the riding, with Mark Carney and the Liberal Party forming a federal government.

Stevenson is a chartered professional accountant in Carstairs who has been involved in provincial and federal politics for about 30 years. His work included representing multiple MPs as a financial agent in past elections.

However, this was the first time he put his name forward to represent constituents when he challenged former MP Gerald Soroka for the nomination and was named the winner last June.

The runner-up, Michael Fark, received 25.2 per cent – or 16,515 votes – of the votes for the Liberal Party.

Fark, the former general manager of municipal infrastructure and director of recovery for the Municipality of Jasper, earned the Liberal nomination in March.

He said his hope is that with the election finished, all sides can find a way to work together to address issues being faced by Canadians.

“If you look at the [election] results [across Canada], I think what it really comes to down to is there’s that sense of anger and division that needs to be addressed and we need leaders who are going to try and focus on what unites us to bring us together and what we have in common and bring forward common solutions and not lead through division,” he said.

Fark said with a Conservative heading to represent the region in Ottawa, he hopes Stevenson will do his best in representing all people across the diverse riding.

“I hope William takes seriously the role as a representative and the accountability that comes with it,” he said. “That’s something we consistently heard across the riding is people felt their voices were not being heard and they didn’t have a seat at the decision-making table. … I hope he’ll do the work to be a representative across the riding for all constituents.”

The riding had roughly a dozen candidate forums in places such as Banff, Canmore, Jasper, Rocky Mountain House, Springbank, Sundre and Waiparous during the five-week campaign.

With the divisive nature seeping into politics, Fark pointed to the lack of “reasonable disagreement,” with all sides becoming more entrenced in their specific position. He said it was vital for sides to find ways to work with one another to find common ground.

However, in travelling the riding, Fark said he felt there were many meaningful discussions with voters of all political spectrums. Though there may have been disagreement, he said both sides felt heard and respected.

“We’re looking at how do we motivate each of our bases rather than how do we find real practical solutions to our common solutions,” he said.

“If we don’t start introducing that back into our politics, we are going to go the way of the United States and that’s something I don’t want for my country.”

Throughout the campaign, Yellowhead was projected to be a Conservative stronghold.

“That’s likely the kind of voice that’s going to dominate here, unless there’s a real surge in momentum for the Liberals,” Lori Williams, a political scientist at Mount Royal University previously told Great West Media.

Despite the Liberal Party's projected poor chances federally up until a few months ago when former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned and Carney formed a government, the Liberal Party surged throughout the country.

A key election promise made by Carney was national parks and historic sites would be free this summer if he was elected, which came as many people in Canada questioned whether to visit the United States in recent months due to the tumultuous relationship since Donald Trump was elected president and threatened to make Canada the 51st state.

If it were to move forward, it could have a significant impact on visitation in the Bow Valley this summer, particularly in Banff and Banff National Park.

Voters across Canada overwhelmingly gave the Liberal Party a fourth mandate. The last time a federal government had four consecutive terms was Jean Chrétien from 1993 to 2003 and Paul Martin from 2003 to 2006.

For the NDP, Canmore’s Avni Soma was third in the riding with 2,622 votes or four per cent. She was selected as the party’s candidate in 2024 and spent several months visiting all areas of the riding.

Not a good night for the NDP across the country, Soma gave a concession speech at her watch party in Canmore.

While disappointed in the result, she said she wasn’t surprised Stevenson was winning the redrawn Yellowed riding, particularly because much of the riding is rural Alberta.

“It is going to take time to change hearts and minds in rural Alberta,” she said.

Despite the loss in her first election campaign, Soma said this is not the end for her.

“This is the beginning of the next chapter because I am so grateful to have campaigned for over seven months and built an amazing team throughout this very large and very diverse riding,” she said.

“The next chapter is going to be building on that,  so building on those relationships and all the conversations and continuing to campaign for the next election. I am in it for the long run.”

Vicky Bayford for the People’s Party of Canada received 912 votes for 1.4 per cent, while Canmore’s Dale Heath of the Christian Heritage Party got 238 votes for 0.4 per cent.

The riding had 27,666 eligible voters take part in advanced voting before April 28. The riding has a population of 115,086 people and 92,461 people eligible to vote.

Yellowhead riding diverse, geographically large

The Yellowhead federal riding was redistributed in 2022 and 2023 when Elections Canada went through a nationwide process of redrawn electoral maps and creating new ones.

Yellowhead is among the largest in Alberta – more than 80,000 square kilometres – and has about 115,000 people. It stretches from Banff and Canmore in the south to Grande Cache in the north and Carstairs and Sundre in the east.

The diverse riding has multiple issues ranging from housing, healthcare, affordability, oil and gas, manufacturing, forestry, wildfire risk and tourism.

Stevenson previously told Great West Media if elected, he would rely on technology such as video conferencing to represent all constituents.

“To me, this riding is not built to make it easy,” Stevenson said in a February interview. “The city ones, [an MP] can be across their entire one in 10 minutes. This is possibly seven hours from north to south, so it's gonna be very difficult on that end to get to everybody there.”

He also said he would look to get on a committee that involves matters of Canada Revenue Agency to potentially work on tax reform.

VOTING RESULTS (245 of 252 polls reporting as of 12:15 a.m. April 29)

  • William Stevenson (Conservative): 45,305 for 69.1 per cent
  • Michael Fark (Liberal): 16,515 for 25.2 per cent
  • Avni Soma (NDP): 2,622 for four per cent
  • Vicky Bayford (PPC): 912 for 1.4 per cent
  • Dale Heath (CHP): 238 for 0.4 per cent

 

  • ELIGIBLE VOTERS: 92,461
  • POPULATION: 115,086
  • ADVANCED VOTERS: 27,666

 

ARTICLES ON FEDERAL ELECTION YELLOWHEAD RIDING

YELLOWHEAD RIDING CREATION

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks