Hiya, folks. I just wanted to drop you a quick line to let you know that we haven't forgotten about you! While the content that has been posted lately is as high-quality as ever, we're very much aware that it's not coming at quite the volume you may have gotten used to in 2010. The [...]Read More

For anyone who follows me on twitter, you know that one of the things I am most passionate about is the fight to stop online voting. Today I am not here to go through the reasons again - the information is out there, between MIT, the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), and other sources, there [...]Read More

October 2013: Municipalities across Alberta will engage in civic elections, a process that until now was repeated every three years, although moving to four year terms hereinafter. Every time I hear some politician talk about bringing social media into elections, I have to giggle a bit. The fact is, #yycvote, and its counterparts including #yegvote [...]Read More

On November 26th, Canadian citizens normally resident in Calgary Centre will have the opportunity to elect a new Member of Parliament to replace the recently departed Lee Richardson. The conventional wisdom in Calgary when it comes to federal politics is simple: Win the Conservative nomination, and you win the election. Conventional wisdom only takes you [...]Read More

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate the Progressive Conservatives on their victory in yesterday's provincial election.  This was a hard fought victory, and candidates from all parties put a ton of time and effort into getting their messages out to constituents.  In this post, I am not advocating for any of the mentioned [...]Read More

Calgary Mackay-Nose Hill is a new riding under the 2010 boundary redistribution. It's a combination of Calgary Mackay, Calgary Nose Hill, and parts of Calgary McCall. The current MLA, Neil Brown, will be running for re-election and a third term. He previously represented the riding of Calgary Nose-Hill. Calgary Nose Hill has voted Progressive Conservative [...]Read More

Highwood was created in the 1971 boundary redistribution. The riding itself has had a rich history of elections and coverage, and this election is no different. Daneille Smith will be contesting this riding for the Wildrose as both a party member and as the leader of the Wildrose. Edward Benoit was elected in 1971 as [...]Read More

Calgary Northern Hill is a new provincial riding that was created from Calgary Mackay as part of the 2010 district redistribution. Calgary Mackay elected Teresa Woo-Paw in the 2008 election, and prior to that, Gary Mar (a leadership contender for the Progressive Conservative Party in 2012) in 2004. For historical reference, Calgary Mackay was Calgary [...]Read More

Calgary Northwest was created in 1979, and has been split and re-distributed as part of the 2010 boundary changes. The riding has elected two different parties since 1979, with the Progressive Conservatives spending the most time in the riding. Frank Bruseker won the riding for the Liberals in 1989 and served two terms before being [...]Read More

Though it took longer than I anticipated, it seems Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, gag order and all, has failed to contain the radical views held by some in her party from seeping out into the public sphere. These views would have been discovered eventually, mind you, as Smith cannot muzzle her candidates (or MLAs, for that [...]Read More

Calgary-Greenway is a new constituency formed in the redistribution, from sections of the former Calgary-Montrose as well as slices of Calgary-Cross and Calgary-McCall. It includes Applewood, Taradale, Coral Springs... just about everything north of 17th Ave. SE and east of 68th St. as far north as 80th Avenue N. The largest slice came from Calgary-Montrose, which [...]Read More

Created in 1997, Calgary-Fort has only ever been represented by one man: Wayne Cao, of the PC Party. A largely industrial part of the city, residents of this section of town are among the hardest-working in Calgary, and also the proudest. Even when they have the chance to move elsewhere, many choose to stay because [...]Read More

The 2008 race in Calgary Foothills saw the return of the Progressive Conservatives for the 12th time since the creation of this electoral district. That means the Progressive Conservatives have held onto this constituency since 1971, or 41 years for those who keep track. The Alberta Liberals tried to mount a serious challenge against Len [...]Read More

First formed in 1971, Calgary-Elbow has had 4 MLAs in the past 40 years - and 2 of them became Premier. One other became Deputy Premier. Pretty good odds, by any measure. Formerly held by PC's David Russell and Ralph Klein, the constituency elected Liberal Craig Cheffins in a by-election to replace Klein before electing [...]Read More

Calgary-East, not to be confused with the federal constituency of the same name, was formed in 1993 (a previous riding named Calgary East had been around in the 60's). It includes the communities of Vista Heights, Rundle, Marlborough, and Mayland Heights. Entrepreneurship and blue collar concerns carry a lot of weight as issues here. Many [...]Read More

    Most people that know me will confirm that I love to use Twitter and think that is an amazing social media platform.  Over the past three years, I have been engaged on this medium and have met some outstanding Calgarians of all party stripes online.  I have become friends with a [...]Read More

I received notice this past week of a grassroots group popping up on Facebook named "Dye for Democracy". Essentially, their target is simple: Advocate for no particular party or outcome, but rather encourage ALL eligible Albertans to cast a ballot (an INFORMED one, if you please). Members of the group have committed that [...]Read More

The riding of Calgary Southeast was created in 2010 with the Alberta provincial boundary changes, due to explosive population growth in this area.  The riding was carved out of Calgary Hays and parts of Calgary Shaw and includes the neighborhoods of Auburn Bay, Chaparral, Copperfield, Cranston, Mahogany, New Brighton and Silverado.  The riding [...]Read More

Created in 1971, Calgary-Buffalo is a classic "downtown urban" constituency - high-density housing, demanding campaigns that think outside-the-box in terms of contact with voters, and a committed self-interest that makes for unpredictable election results. The redistribution has resulted in the loss of the area west of 14th Street, which had been among some of the [...]Read More

Banff-Cochrane has existed in one form or another as a constituency since 1940. Long a bastion for independent thinkers, the voters here have never been scared to buck the trend - they've elected independent candidates 3 times, and once elected a "coalition Progressive Conservative/Liberal" candidate (in 1959, as one of only 4 constituencies in Alberta [...]Read More