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Alberta Politics

Gearing up for another Calgary-Foothills By-Election

Voters in Calgary-Foothills will face their third election in less than a year when a by-election is called to replace Jim Prentice in the next few months. I’ve created a special page to track candidate nominations and news about the upcoming by-election. Here are the latest candidate updates:

New Democratic Party: Past candidate Anne Wilson and former MLA and city councillor Bob Hawkesworth, are seeking the NDP nomination. Ms. Wilson was the NDP candidate in the recent election and earned 32% of the vote. Mr. Hawkesworth represented Calgary-Mountain View from 1986 to 1993 and was elected as a city councillor for a ward south of the Foothills constituency. This will be the first electoral test faced by the new NDP government since Rachel Notley led them to victory on May 5. The nomination meeting has been scheduled for July 27, 2015.

Wildrose: Retired police officer Kathy Macdonald will seek the Wildrose nomination. Ms. Macdonald placed second with 30% in the 2014 by-election in this constituency.

LiberalAli Bin Zahid announced on Twitter that he would once again seek the Liberal Party nomination. He was that party’s candidate in the recent election and earned 7.2% of the vote.


I have not yet heard any rumours about who might seek the Progressive Conservative nomination. Voters in this constituency have elected PC MLAs since 1971 but following Mr. Prentice’s abrupt resignation in May 2015 they may not be sympathetic to the next PC candidate (who will now represent the third place party).

Update: Green Party leader Janet Keeping has confirmed she will stand as a candidate in the Calgary-Foothills by-election.

9 replies on “Gearing up for another Calgary-Foothills By-Election”

Bob Hawkesworth is a NAME candidate who might be able to win a seat that has not been friendly to the NDP in the past. Anne Wilson, while she is well known in the NDP, did well in her run against Prentice, and would no doubt be a good MLA, is a GENERIC candidate. Few people who have not participated in the NDP will know who she is. In a by-election, it is unlikely that the governing party can win on the basis of support for or opposition to the premier alone. Familiarity with the candidates will matter. So the NDP constituency association would be doing the government more good by nominating a well-known candidate who, like Joe Ceci, can likely pull together a large group of people, both from within and without the NDP, to work for him. Hawkesworth would almost certainly be added to an NDP Cabinet.

Anne Wilson has been doorknocking since early April. She has made a name for herself in the riding & at the forum in April where she blew Prentice out of the water. The people of Foothills don’t need just a name, they need an advocate like Anne who has been advocating for people for over 10 years as a criminal defence lawyer.

This will be an easy win for the PC or Wildrose. The public is quickly realizing the mistake of electing a party with extreme, unpopular ideas like raising a minimum wage to $15.00, raising corporate taxes by 20%, raising income taxes by 50%, and scaring investment out through the uncertainty of a royalty review.

The public has had enough of criminal defence lawyers who keep criminals on our streets. This will be a nail in the coffin for Anne Wilson.

This will be a three way toss up between the weak leadership of Brian Jean and the buyers remorse of the populace for the NDP and ire at Jim Prentice and his now rump PC’s.

Jonathan Denis is running for the Wildrose in Foothills and will probably narrowly win over the NDP. PC is dead.

Monty: You say “Income taxes were raised 50 per cent.” Actually, only the provincial income tax rate for the top 1 per cent of earners was increased by 50 per cent. That’s a few thousand Albertans. Maybe not even you. My income tax—and 98 per cent of Albertans’ income tax—didn’t increase at all. Actually my taxes essentially _decreased_, since the PC’s healthcare premium idea died with the NDP win.

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