Marlin Schmidt

Marlin Schmidt ECA MLA (born October 16, 1978) is a Canadian politician who currently represents the electoral district of Edmonton-Gold Bar in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. First elected in the 2015 Alberta general election, Schmidt served as the Minister of Advanced Education in the New Democratic Party (NDP) government led by Rachel Notley.

Prior to serving with the Legislative Assembly, Schmidt specialized in site remediation for over a decade. From 2008 to 2015 he worked for Alberta Environment as a soil and groundwater contamination specialist, and previous to this, he worked as a remediation specialist, beginning in 2002. He holds a master of science degree in applied environmental geosciences from University of Tübingen in Germany and a bachelor of science from Queen's University in Kingston.

Schmidt drew criticism in July 2020 for comments he made in the Legislature about the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His remarks were in opposition to a bill proposed by the governing United Conservative Party that modified the province's referendum laws, which Schmidt said Thatcher would have opposed. Schmidt went on to say that he "count[s] on enjoying the fact that Margaret Thatcher is still dead" and regretted she had died "probably 30 years too late". The comments were deemed "totally inappropriate," by the Speaker of the Legislature, which prompted Schmidt to withdraw his comments and apologize.

Electoral history

2023 general election

vte2023 Alberta general election: Edmonton-Gold Bar
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Marlin Schmidt	15,508	69.48	+10.00
	United Conservative	Miles Berry	6,174	27.66	-1.64
	Independent	Graham Lettner	321	1.44	–
	Green	Ernestina Malheiro	316	1.42	+0.41
Total	22,319	99.36	–
Rejected and declined	144	0.64
Turnout	22,463	63.31
Eligible voters	35,481
	New Democratic hold	Swing	+5.82
Source(s)Source: Elections Alberta

2019 general election

vte2019 Alberta general election: Edmonton-Gold Bar
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Marlin Schmidt	14,562	59.48%	-9.40%
	United Conservative	David C. Dorward	7,174	29.30%	+4.31%
	Alberta Party	Diana Ly	2,008	8.20%	5.23%
	Liberal	Steve Kochan	315	1.29%	-1.86%
	Green	Tanya Herbert	247	1.01%	–
	Alberta Independence	Vincent Loyer	176	0.72%	–
Total	24,482	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined	27	64	16
Eligible electors / turnout	35,555	68.98%	7.94%
	New Democratic hold	Swing	-10.05%
Source(s)Source: . officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta.

2015 general election

vte2015 Alberta general election: Edmonton-Gold Bar
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Marlin Schmidt	15,349	68.89%	40.17%
	Progressive Conservative	David C. Dorward	4,147	18.61%	-14.35%
	Wildrose	Justin J. James	1,422	6.38%	-9.21%
	Liberal	Ronald Brochu	702	3.15%	-16.91%
	Alberta Party	Cristina Stasia	662	2.97%	1.27%
Total	22,282	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined	96	25	16
Eligible electors / turnout	36,688	61.04%	-1.25%
	New Democratic gain from Progressive Conservative	Swing	23.01%
Source(s)Source: . officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta.

2012 general election

vte2012 Alberta general election: Edmonton-Gold Bar
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	David C. Dorward	6,701	32.97%	-4.64%
	New Democratic	Marlin Schmidt	5,836	28.71%	14.96%
	Liberal	Josipa Petrunic	4,078	20.06%	-24.83%
	Wildrose Alliance	Linda Carlson	3,169	15.59%	–
	Alberta Party	Dennis O'Neill	345	1.70%	–
	Evergreen	David J. Parker	198	0.97%	–
Total	20,327	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined	144	18	1
Eligible electors / turnout	32,868	62.29%	14.43%
	Progressive Conservative gain from Liberal	Swing	-1.51%
Source(s)Source: . officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta.