Bedford (provincial electoral district)

Bedford is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. Its current Member of the Legislative Assembly is Kelly Regan.

Bedford

Nova Scotia electoral district
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Nova Scotia House of Assembly
MLA	Kelly Regan Liberal
District created	1978
Last contested	2009
Demographics
Population (2011)	27,783
Electors	19,154
Area (km²)	32.00
Pop. density (per km²)	868.2
Census division(s)	Halifax RM
Census subdivision(s)	Bedford

The electoral district was created in 1978 as Bedford-Musquodoboit Valley from the redistribution of Halifax Cobequid. The name was changed to Bedford-Fall River in 1993 and the district lost the Musquodoboit Valley area to Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley.[1]

In 2003, the district was renamed Bedford. It lost the Fall River and Waverley areas and gained one third of Halifax Bedford Basin, as well as an area along the Hammonds Plains Road. It comprises most of Bedford and all of the community southeast of the Bicentennial Highway.[2]

The district is notable for the electoral loss of Liberal leader Francis MacKenzie, in the 2006 election. MacKenzie attempted to win the seat in 2006 for the Nova Scotia Liberal Party. The party polled less than 24% across the province. He lost by more than 800 votes to Len Goucher.

On September 30, 2008 the name of the Bedford district was officially changed to Bedford-Birch Cove. With the 2012 electoral boundary changes, the area of Kearney Lake and Birch Cove moved to Clayton Park West and name of the district officially changed back to Bedford.[3]