2017 Calgary municipal election

The 2017 Calgary municipal election was held on October 16, 2017, to elect a mayor, councillors to the city council, trustees to the Calgary Board of Education, and trustees to the Calgary Catholic School District. From 1968 until 2012, Alberta municipal elections had been held every three years.[1][2] In 2012, however, the Alberta Legislative Assembly amended the Local Authorities Election Act to add a year to the cycle making terms four years.[3][4] In addition, council members are now referred to as councillors, whereas they used the title "Alderman" prior to 2013. Advanced voting began on October 4 and ran through until October 11.[5] The next election will be held on October 18th, 2021.

2017 Calgary municipal election
October 16, 2017
Mayor and 14 councillors to Calgary City Council
Turnout58.1%
 
Candidate Naheed Nenshi Bill Smith
Popular vote 199,122 169,367
Percentage 51.4% 43.7%
Results of the City Council election
Mayor before election

Naheed Nenshi

 Elected Mayor

Naheed Nenshi

The voter turnout was 58.1%, the highest the turnout had been in over four decades.[6]

Candidates

X = incumbent

Mayor
Candidate Vote[7] %
Naheed Nenshi (X)199,12251.41
Bill Smith169,36743.73
Andre Chabot11,9453.08
Curtis Olson1,7760.46
David Lapp1,2880.33
Emile Gabriel1,2580.32
Larry Heather8450.22
Stan the Man Waciak6640.17
Brent Chisholm5760.15
Jason Achtymichuk4650.12

City council
Calgary City Council, 2017 by ward

Ward 1
Candidate Vote %
Ward Sutherland (X)14,33645.27
Coral Bliss Taylor10,60133.48
Chris Blatch4,14713.10
Cole Christensen1,3134.15
Cam Khan1,2704.01

Ward 2
Candidate Vote %
Joe Magliocca (X)11,82849.39
Jennifer Wyness8,67736.23
Chistopher Maitland2,3519.82
George Georgeou1,0914.56

Ward 3
Candidate Vote %
Jyoti Gondek7,74541.97
Ian McAnerin4,86726.37
Jun Lin4,74725.72
Connie Hamilton1,0965.94

Ward 4
Candidate Vote %
Sean Chu (X)16,32748.42
Greg Miller13,96541.41
Blair Berdusco2,8758.53
Srini Ganti5541.64

Ward 5
Candidate Vote %
George Chahal6,60840.61
Aryan Sadat3,75923.10
Preet Baidwan2,33214.33
Raj Nijjar1,69810.44
Tudor Dinca1,5289.39
Hirde Paul Jassal3462.13

Ward 6
Candidate Vote %
Jeff Davison13,73544.72
Esmahan Razavi6,60521.51
Sean Yost2,5078.16
Jeffrey Michael Brownridge2,4277.90
Alex Columbos1,9616.38
Grace Nelson1,3764.48
Sanjeev Kad1,0763.50
Steve Turner1,0263.34

Ward 7
Candidate Vote %
Druh Farrell (X)9,75341.03
Brent Alexander8,91637.51
Dean Brawn2,88212.12
Margot Aftergood1,7657.42
Marek Hejduk4561.92

Ward 8
Candidate Vote %
Evan Woolley (X)15,83858.28
Chris Davis8,84432.54
Karla Charest1,8396.77
Carter Thomson6572.42

Ward 9
Candidate Vote %
Gian-Carlo Carra (X)9,76045.31
Cheryl Link8,06537.44
Trevor Buckler1,1265.23
David Christopher Metclafe9914.60
Cesar Augusto Saavedra5892.73
Boss Madimba5262.44
Omar M'Keyo4832.24

Ward 10
Candidate Vote %
Ray Jones (X)7,24035.53
David Winkler5,51227.05
Salimah Kassam2,12610.43
Michelle Rae Robinson1,2586.17
Najeeb Butt1,0545.17
Gar Gar8644.24
Issa Mosa6933.40
Kamilla Prasad6193.04
Faith Greaves5682.79
Hermann Muller3671.80
Numan Elhussein780.38

Ward 11
Candidate Vote %
Jeromy Farkas13,16938.39
Linda Johnson7,58822.12
Janet Eremenko6,88920.08
Robert Dickinson4,44612.96
Keith Simmons2,2146.45

Ward 12
Candidate Vote %
Shane A. Keating (X)17,92372.79
Teresa Hargreaves2,84411.55
Brad Cunningham2,73211.10
Mackenzie Quigley1,1234.56

Ward 13
Candidate Vote %
Diane Colley-Urquhart (X)9,11734.23
Mark Dyrholm4,42716.62
Art Johnston3,74714.07
Sherrisa Celis2,95911.11
Adam Boechler2,90910.92
Adam W. Frisch2,73210.26
Kay Adeniyi7452.80

Ward 14
Candidate Vote %
Peter Demong (X)28,43090.27
Kelash Kumar3,0649.73

Issues

Campaign finance transparency

According to a 2013 Calgary Herald article, campaign finance transparency had become a topic of interest with most candidates making their donor lists available before the election. One veteran candidate who raised $78,000 in contributions in the 2010 election preferred to file according to legal requirements by filing disclosure of donations with city hall at the end of the year.[8] By late summer 2017, campaign finance transparency was an issue again with the establishment of a political action committee (PAC), a third-party organization that is not required to reveal the identity of its donors.[9][10][11] PACS are commonly used in the United States to pool campaign contributions to target candidates.[12] Hadyn Place, Director of Alberta Can't Wait—one of Alberta's "unite the right" movement organizations—explained to CBC journalists that Save Calgary is targeting incumbents Mayor Naheed Nenshi, and councillors Druh Farrell, Evan Woolley, Gian-Carlo Carra, Diane Colley-Urquhart because "We feel that there are good candidates running against those current city councillors and we don't like their voting records, and their priorities, we feel, are out of step with everyday Calgarians' priorities."[9]

CBC News likened Calgary's "relatively lawless" finance rules for municipal elections, to the "wild west".[13] Municipal government election candidates can accept donations from corporations, unions and individuals and there is "no cap on how much candidates can spend".[13] This contrasts with federal and provincial elections where candidates are not allowed to accept corporate and union donations. At the federal level, candidates face a hard cap on campaign spending based on the size of their riding, and the laws are strictly enforced.[13] According to Alberta Municipal Affairs, the Alberta government of plans to add amendments to existing municipal elections laws, possibly in 2018. as early as next year.[13] Jack Lucas, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary told CBC News that Alberta will "likely curb donation limits and put a cap on campaign spending".[13] Lucas said, "Clearer disclosure rules for third-party advertising would make third-party campaigns like Save Calgary more transparent and less controversial."[13]

References
  1. "1968 Bill 23". Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
  2. "28th Legislature, 1st Session (2012)". Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
  3. "Election Accountability Amendment Act, 2012 - Section 105" (PDF). 2012 Bill 7, First Session, 28th Legislature. Legislative Assembly of Alberta. December 5, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
  4. "Election Accountability Amendment Act, 2012 – Section 105" (PDF). 2012 Bill 7, First Session, 28th Legislature. Legislative Assembly of Alberta. December 5, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
  5. "Vote early Advance vote: Oct. 4–11, 2017 (except Oct. 9)" (PDF). Calgary elections. nd. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
  6. "Nenshi re-elected as Calgary's mayor as all 10 incumbent councillors keep their seats". CBC News. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
  7. http://www.calgary.ca/election/Pages/results/Unofficial-Results.aspx
  8. Markusoff, Jason (May 24, 2013). "Council candidates embrace push to make donor lists public before vote". Calgary Herald. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  9. Fletcher, Robson; Anderson, Drew (August 28, 2017). "Save Calgary's campaign against city councillors raises questions about 3rd-party electoral laws: What's Save Calgary? It's not easy to find out, and some say that's a problem for democracy". CBC News. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  10. "About". Save Calgary. nd. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  11. Julie, Alyssa (August 29, 2017). "Mayor Nenshi, Druh Farrell tell Save Calgary group to 'stop hiding behind anonymity'". Global News. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  12. Janda, Kenneth; Berry, Jeffrey M.; Goldman, Jerry (December 19, 2008). The Challenge of Democracy: American Government in a Global World (10 ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning. p. 309. ISBN 054720454X. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  13. Fletcher, Robson (October 5, 2017). "Calgary's 'wild west' of campaign finance law likely to change — after the election: Province plans to review relatively lax laws governing municipal elections sometime next year". CBC News. Calgary. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
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