Canadian federal election results in Calgary

This is page shows results of Canadian federal elections in the city of Calgary.

Regional profile

Calgary is, by far, the most conservative major city in Canada. This political leaning goes back to the days prior to Alberta's creation as a province, when what was to become Southern Alberta (the Kickinghorse Pass) was selected over Central Alberta (Yellowhead Pass) for the route of the new Canadian Pacific Railway under the auspices of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald.

Like rural Alberta, Calgary has always gone for the most right-wing party on the ballot since the 1993 election, with one exception: Progressive Conservative Joe Clark in Calgary Centre in 2000, with his notability of being a former prime minister and the controversy of Stockwell Day's stances on same-sex marriage being an issue that caused many voters in that riding to turn away from the Canadian Alliance candidate Eric Lowther and support Clark instead. With Clark having retired by the next election, Calgary returned to a Conservative sweep in 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2011. The Conservatives won an outright majority of the votes cast in each Calgary riding from 2004 to 2011, with vote-splitting of the residual minority of the vote among the Liberals, NDP and Greens causing none of the races to even be close.

This trend was broken in the November 26, 2012 Calgary Centre by-election, where Liberal Harvey Locke made a formidable showing, capturing nearly 33% of the vote, leaving Conservative Joan Crockatt to capture the riding with just under 37% of the vote, well short of a majority. The Liberals have increasing support, especially in the centre, and the recent seat re-distributions made Calgary Centre and several other ridings somewhat less safe for the Conservatives. Meanwhile, the NDP has similar overall levels of support as the Liberals, while the Greens are stronger in Calgary than most other areas, and could finish ahead of the Liberals or NDP in some ridings (as is sometimes the case in Rural Alberta).

Conservative support is strongest in Calgary Heritage (formerly Calgary Southwest, the riding of Stephen Harper) and Calgary Midnapore (formerly Calgary Southeast), two of the most affluent and ethnically homogeneous Calgary ridings where Conservative support routinely tops 70%. The visible minority communities in Calgary are clustered in the ridings of Calgary Skyview (formerly Calgary Northeast) and Calgary Forest Lawn (formerly Calgary East), however these two ridings routinely suffer from abysmally low voter turnout levels (among the lowest in urban Canada).

In 2015, Calgary Centre fell to Kent Hehr, the longtime Liberal MLA for Calgary-Buffalo. Calgary Skyview was taken by Liberal Darshan Kang. They are the first Liberals elected from Calgary since Pat Mahoney served a single term from 1968 to 1972. As a measure of how deeply conservative Calgary has historically been, the Liberals had only elected three MPs from Calgary-based ridings in their entire history prior to 2015, all for only one term.

2015 - 42nd General Election

2011 - 41st General Election

2008 - 40th General Election

2006 - 39th General Election

2004 - 38th General Election

Template:Canadian federal election, 2004/ab-c

References

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