Alberta’s opposition parties are preparing for a spring by-election in Calgary-Greenway. The east Calgary constituency was represented by Progressive Conservative MLA Manmeet Bhullar from 2008 until late 2015, when Mr. Bhullar was killed in a traffic accident on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway. A by-election is expected to be called before the end of May 2016.
The Green Party is the first party to nominate a candidate to run in this by-election. Environmental engineer Thana Boonlert will carry his party’s banner. Mr. Boonlert recently ran as a federal Green Party candidate in the Calgary-Centre riding, where he earned 2.2 percent of the vote.
I am told the New Democratic Party has scheduled its nomination meeting for Feb. 20, 2016, though this is not publicly listed on the party’s website. Past NDP candidate Don Monroe posted on his Facebook Page on Feb. 1, 2016 that he is “wondering what’s going on in Greenway concerning representation” and is still waiting for the party to inform him when a nomination meeting will be held. Mr. Monroe earned 36 percent of the vote in the May 2015 election, placing eight points behind Mr. Bhullar.
The Progressive Conservative Party will hold a candidate selection meeting on Feb. 27, 2016 at Abbeydale Community Centre.
Aryan Sadat has announced his intention to seek for the PC nomination. Mr. Sadat challenged former MLA Teresa Woo-Paw for the Progressive Conservative nomination in the Calgary-Northern Hills constituency in January 2015. In 2014, he hosted a fundraiser with then-PC leadership candidate Jim Prentice and Mr. Bhullar.
Some PC members have expressed hope that Calgary police chief Rick Hanson will seek the nomination. Mr. Hanson stepped down as police chief to run as a star candidate for the PC Party in the May 2015 election, but he was defeated by New Democrat Ricardo Miranda in the Calgary-Cross constituency.
The Wildrose Party has scheduled March 5, 2016 as their nomination date. Robin Martin, son-in-law of Calgary-Forest Lawn Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai, is running for the Wildrose nomination.
Memories of the 2012 election could haunt the Wildrose Party. Four years ago, the party’s candidate in Calgary-Greenway helped destroy Wildrose chances of winning the election when he was quote as saying he had a Caucasian advantage in this multi-cultural constituency.
These comments hit the newspaper headlines about the same time as the Lake of Fire blog post from another Wildrose candidate was made public. Those two comments have saddled the Wildrose Party with a reputation as being the party of social conservatives in Alberta.
Fantastic turnout at #YYCGreenway AGM.Great words by @davidswann & @MattAGrant.Good to see @darshankang too! #ablib pic.twitter.com/w6SEA2IfNW
— Alberta Liberals (@ABLiberal) February 9, 2016
The Liberals have scheduled their candidate selection meeting for Feb. 29, 2016. A recent annual meeting of the local Liberal association was attended by the party’s interim leader David Swann, recent federal candidate Matt Grant, and Calgary-Skyview Member of Parliament Darshan Kang. Mr. Kang was the MLA for the neighbouring Calgary-McCall constituency from 2008 to 2015.
It appears that the Alberta Party has yet to schedule a date for a nomination meeting.
A recent poll released by Mainstreet Research showed the Wildrose Party with 32 percent support in Calgary, narrowly ahead of the PCs with 29 percent and the NDP with 24 percent.
