Gavin McCaffrey is running for the Alberta NDP nomination in Banff-Kananaskis. McCaffrey first arrived in the area in 1997 and has worked as a general manager for a series of Banff-area hotels. He is currently lives in Canmore and is a Branch Manager for the BMO Financial Group.
“The opportunity to represent the Banff Kananaskis region, that is so socially, culturally, geographically and economically diverse, is both humbling and exciting” McCaffrey said in a press release sent out today. “I look forward to engaging with community members from all parts of the constituency and to listen to their thoughts on the key topics impacting them the most.”
McCaffrey will challenge conservationist Sarah Elmeligi in a yet to be scheduled nomination meeting.
Banff-Kananaskis is currently represented by United Conservative Party MLA Miranda Rosin, who was elected in 2019 in the closest race outside of the province’s urban centres. In that race, former NDP MLA Cam Westhead was the only NDP incumbent in rural Alberta to increase his vote share from 2015. Westhead announced in August that he would not be seeking the nomination.
I had added McCaffrey to the list of candidates running for party nominations ahead of the expected 2023 provincial election.
One reply on “Bank manager Gavin McCaffrey is the second candidate to enter the Alberta NDP nomination race in Banff-Kananaskis”
I think it is fair to say that some of the NDP MLAs elected in 2015 were on the weak side, as a lot of potential candidates were deterred from running simply because they didn’t see much chance of winning. Between the NDP’s success in 2015, and the UCP’s struggles now, I expect we will see a lot more quality candidates contesting nominations.