Alberta politics are shaping up to be pretty interesting these days. With things moving along in the Alberta PC leadership race, the Alberta Liberals have been taking advantage of the Tories inward preoccupations by nominating candidates across Alberta over the past six months.
With all their incumbent MLA’s now nominated, there are some interesting nomination races shaping up around the province.
Kent Hehr and Keith Purdy have both declared their intention to seek the Alberta Liberal nomination to run for election in Calgary Buffalo in the next Alberta Provincial Election.
Kent Hehr is a 35 year-old quadriplegic lawyer with Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP. Hehr is also the President of the Canadian Paraplegic Association (Alberta) and Chairman of the City of Calgary Advisory Committee on Accessibility.
Keith Purdy is a Calgary-based same-sex rights advocate. Interestingly, Purdy ran for the Alberta NDP in the 2001 Provincial Election in Calgary Mountain View, and the Federal NDP in Calgary South Centre in 2004. Does Purdy’s move to the Alberta Liberals signal a shift of New Democrat support to the Liberals in Alberta?
Here are the 2004 Provincial Election results from Calgary Buffalo:
Harvey Cenaiko, PC – 3,365 (43.5%)
Terry Taylor, AbLib – 2,815 (36.4%)
Grant Neufeld, Grn – 670 (8.7%)
Cliff Hesby, NDP – 457 (5.9%)
Nadine Hunka, AA – 294 (3.8%)
Elizabeth K. Fielding, SC – 73 (0.9%)
Carl Schwartz, AP – 56 (0.7%)
Voter Turnout – 7,730 (31.5%)
Calgary Buffalo has been represented by Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko since 2001 and was previously represented by Alberta Liberal MLA’s Sheldon Chumir (1986-1992) and Gary Dickson (1992-2001).
As usual, it should be a close race come next election.
