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Alberta Politics

Irfan Sabir running for re-election in Calgary-Bhullar-McCall, Usman Sadiq running for NDP nomination in Calgary-Foothills

NDP MLA Irfan Sabir has filed his papers with Elections Alberta to run for his party’s nomination in the recently renamed Calgary-Bhullar-McCall riding in the next election. Sabir has represented the riding in the Alberta Legislature since 2015.

Sabir was first elected in Calgary-McCall 2015 with 29.9 per cent in a four way race with the Wildrose, Progressive Conservative and Liberal candidates, and in 2019 he was re-elected with 51.7 per cent, defeating United Conservative Party candidate Jasraj Hallan (who is now the Conservative Member of Parliament for Calgary-Forest Lawn).

Manmeet Bhullar
Manmeet Bhullar

He served as Minister of Community and Social Services from 2015 to 2019.

The riding was renamed Calgary-Bhullar-McCall in December 2021 in honour of former PC MLA Manmeet Bhullar, who represented much of the area from 2008 until his death in November 2015.

The NDP have scheduled a nomination meeting in the riding on March 10, 2022.

Usman Sadiq running for NDP nomination in Calgary-Foothills

Usman Sadiq is running for the NDP nomination in Calgary-Foothills.

Sadiq is an instructor at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and previously worked as a Vice-President of Financial Services for CIBC. He also serves on the Board Of Directors of the Canadian Association for Children’s Education in Pakistan.

In March 2021, Sadiq spoke out about the lack of public schools in northwest Calgary after his children were forced to commute long distances to attend school.

“But not building new schools, it’s very short-sighted,” Sadiq told the Calgary Herald. “It has a huge impact on many families. If you don’t build now, what about in a year, or five years? Will families from places like Ontario even come to Calgary, invest in Calgary, where there aren’t enough schools?”

Jason Luan UCP MLA Calgary Foothills
Jason Luan

The riding is currently represented by UCP MLA Jason Luan, who currently serves as Minister of Community and Social Services. He was elected in 2019 with 56 per cent of the vote.

Luan previously represented the Calgary-Hawkwood riding as a PC MLA from 2012 until he was defeated by NDP candidate Michael Connolly in the 2015 election.

The NDP have scheduled nomination meetings in Calgary-North East on February 17, 2022 (Gurinder Brar is expected to be acclaimed), Calgary-Elbow on March 5 (Samir Kayande is expected to be nominated) and in Calgary-Klein on March 26, 2022 (a contested nomination between Heather Eddy and Mattie McMillan).

List of candidates running in 2023 election

I am tracking candidates and building a list of people running for nominations to run in Alberta’s next provincial election. If you know of someone running, please post a comment below or email me at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. Thank you!

2 replies on “Irfan Sabir running for re-election in Calgary-Bhullar-McCall, Usman Sadiq running for NDP nomination in Calgary-Foothills”

The Alberta NDP slate in Calgary is filling up fast with a diverse list of highly qualified candidates. Here’s hoping the party is aggressively trying to recruit Naheed Nenshi to run in a Calgary riding currently held by the UCP.

I just looked at the page Dave linked to listing nominations for the 2023 election. Noticeable by their absence were UCP candidates. Given the shape of the party right now, I guess it is not surprising.

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