Shifting to Election Season: 5 Key Ridings to Watch in May
The writ period is a mere 27 days away; election day is only 56 days from now. Nomination races continue to run across the province, though both the UCP and NDP are nearly finished at the time of writing. It does not appear that any other party will be able to table a full slate of candidates in 2023.
The party with the next highest number of candidates is, surprisingly, the Green Party with 27 individuals running (mostly in the Edmonton and Calgary regions).
To be clear, there are far more than five ridings across Alberta to watch in the upcoming election. There are a number of new-comers, familiar faces, and tight races around the province that you should pay a keen eye to; however, we wanted to narrow in on a select few ridings that will help give a sense of what ridings could impact the results on May 29th.
Lesser Slave Lake Danielle
Larivee (NDP)
Scott Sinclair (UCP)
Danielle Larivee is hoping to make a return to the Legislature in the 2023 election. She served as the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Minister of Children’s Services, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister of Service Alberta, and as the deputy government house leader. She won her seat in 2015 by 717 votes but lost in 2019 by 2,197.
Scott Sinclair is a new face to provincial politics. He narrowly won the UCP nomination by 5 votes following a recount where he initially held a 3 vote lead. He currently owns a windshield company based in Sherwood Park and spent three-years as the head coach of the Slave Lake Wolves Junior B hockey team.
With the departure of incumbent Pat Rehn (UCP), Lesser Slave Lake is a riding that is very much up for grabs for both major parties. MLA Rehn found himself at the centre of the Christmas travel scandal which contributed to his brief stint as an independent MLA. He had been ejected from the UCP Caucus but was later welcomed back. This riding will be an important one for the NDP to win if they hope to form government.
Calgary-Elbow
Samir Kayande (NDP)
Chris Davis (UCP)
Samir Kayande is another new face to provincial politics; however, he is already positioning himself for a potential ministerial appoint should the NDP form the next government. He holds degrees in both chemical engineering as well as finance, spending much of his career in the oil and gas sector, including time as a board member of the Pembina Institute and as a director at RS Energy Group.
Chris Davis also brings significant experience and education to the table in Calgary-Elbow. He holds degrees in both commerce and law with more than 30 years’ experience at the bar. He is also the founding president of the Calgary-Elbow UCP board.
This riding is the former home of Doug Schweitzer before his departure from provincial politics. It has infamously remained vacant since with no by-election to name a successor. With Calgary being the main battleground for the upcoming election, this vacancy is one that neither party can afford to give up.
Calgary-North West
Michael Lisboa-Smith (NDP)
Rajan Sawhney (UCP)
This riding is notable for two reasons – the first being that incumbent Sonya Savage has decided not to run in the next provincial election. The second reason is because that Rajan Sawhney, another UCP minister who announced she would not seek re-election, was appointed as the UCP candidate in this riding following Savage’s announcement.
At this time, not much is known about why Sawhney was appointed for this riding given her previous announcement. On the show Your Province, Your Premier, Danielle Smith indicated that “when Sonya Savage told me that she was going to step down so that she could spend more time with family, I went back to Minister Sawhney and I said, 'do you think you might want to run there? And she gave it some consideration and we announced this morning that she has agreed to do that.”
With this sudden, unexpected change of candidate for the UCP, it will be curious to see how this riding will be impacted at the polls. It is very much in play for the 2023 provincial election. The NDP are running Michael Lisboa-Smith, a Calgary teacher with experience in international e-commerce, as their candidate in Calgary-North West.
Banff-Kananaskis
Sarah Elmeligi (NDP)
Miranda Rosin (UCP)*
Sarah Elmeligi runs a conservation consulting company out of Canmore and is also the executive director of the Wildlife Society – Alberta Chapter. She holds a number of degrees, including a PhD focused on grizzly bear and visitor use of the Rocky Mountains in national parks.
Miranda Rosin is hoping to earn a second term as the riding’s MLA. During her first term, Rosin was appointed as the parliamentary secretary four tourism following Danielle Smith being sworn-in as premier. She also chaired the Select Special Ombudsman and Public Interest Commissioner Search Committee.
This is another riding that the NDP will need to win back if they hope to form government in 2023. The riding swung in 2019 by a margin of 1,969 votes.
Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville
Taneen Rudyk (NDP)
Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk (UCP)*
Taneen Rudyk is a four-term councillor in Vegreville and is currently the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. She also served as the first vice president from 2017-2022.Additionally, she served as a committee member for the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (now known as Alberta Municipalities).
Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk is a first-time MLA running for her second term in the Legislature. Since being elected, she spent some time as the Associate Minister of Status of Women and is the current Parliamentary Secretary for Ukrainian Refugee Settlement.
The “Edmonton Donut” will be integral to the success of both parties. While this particular riding has a strong conservative past (including as the home of former Premier Ed Stelmach), it was one of the ridings that turned orange in 2015. The NDP were late to nominate a candidate for the 2023 election, but they are hoping their new candidate will be enough to swing the riding with a short runway to work with.