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Photo by Liam Richards / Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Size: 39,491 km2

Population: 73,506

Turnout in 2015: 66.5 per cent

Aboriginal population: 24 per cent

Visible minority population: 7 per cent

Seniors population: 14 per cent

Population with university degree: 8 per cent

Unemployment rate: 9.7 per cent

Median individual income: $37,180

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Battlefords–Lloydminster has had two Members of Parliament since it was created in 1996. Gerry Ritz was elected to represent the Reform Party in the 1997 general election, and hung onto the riding until he announced his retirement two years ago. Ritz, who served as agriculture minister under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was succeeded by Conservative Rosemarie Falk, a former social worker who won a byelection in 2017 with almost 70 per cent of the vote.

While by-elections are not reliable indicators of general election results, Falk’s margin of victory surpassed the 20,547 votes, or 61 per cent, Ritz secured in the 2015 election, his last. In that vote, the NDP and Liberal candidates finished with 5,930 and 5,550 votes respectively.

Virtually all of the polls that voted against Ritz were on First Nations, of which there are several in the riding. Pockets of support for other candidates tended to be small and isolated. In at least two polls — one on Red Pheasant First Nation and the other at Poundmaker Cree Nation — Ritz received just one vote.

Those results suggest Battlefords–Lloydminster is among the safest Conservative seats in the province. While that represented a significant jump for the Liberals, who received fewer than 1,000 votes in 2011, it remains to be seen whether a left-leaning party can make inroads in a conservative stronghold.