Banff-Cochrane was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1940 to 1975, and again from 1979 to 2019. The Banff-Cochrane electoral district is home to the town of Banff and the popular tourist destination Banff National Park, environmental issues tend to dominate here. The cost of living is significantly high especially in Canmore where there is a struggle to fill low wage service sector jobs, due to the high cost of living. Bears and wildlife encounters are also common in this riding, requiring extra attention to waste disposal. The area has many ski resorts and a number of ranchers and farmers make their home in the Alberta Foothills. The riding was first created in 1940 out of the north half of the old Rocky Mountain riding, and the Cochrane riding. From 1975 to 1979 the riding was renamed Banff but was later reversed. History The electoral district has existed twice. The first iteration was created in the 1940 boundary re-distribution from the electoral districts of Cochrane and Rocky Mountain. In 1975 the riding name was changed to Banff and it was set back to Banff-Cochrane in the 1977 re-distribution. The 2010 electoral boundary re-distribution saw Banff-Cochrane gain the land south of Cochrane that was in the old Foothills-Rocky View electoral district. The Banff-Cochrane electoral district was dissolved in the 2017 electoral boundary re-distribution, and portions of the district would form the newly created Banff-Kananaskis and Airdrie-Cochrane electoral districts. Boundary history Electoral history The electoral district was created in the 1940 boundary redistribution primarily from the ridings of Cochrane and Rocky Mountain. The first representative to win the district was Independent candidate Frant Laut who defeated former Cochrane Social Credit incumbent William King in a hotly contested race. Laut was defeated running for a second term in the 1944 general election by Social Credit candidate Arthur Wray. Two years into his term Wray was suspended by the Social Credit caucus on February 20, 1946 for criticizing the Alberta government after requests to the Public Works department to remove snow from Cochrane roads was ignored. The situation came to a head a year later when the Social Credit members passed a motion in the legislature to force Wray to move his desk to the opposition side of the house. His stand against cabinet won praise from his constituents in