Prasad Panda

Prasad Panda is a Canadian politician who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in a 2015 by-election, replacing former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice, and the 2019 Alberta general elections to represent the electoral district of Calgary-Foothills.[1] He is a member of the United Conservative Party. With his party forming majority government Panda joined the Executive Council of Alberta as the Minister of Infrastructure beginning on April 30, 2019.

The Honourable Prasad Panda MLA
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Calgary-Edgemont
Incumbent
Assumed office April 16, 2019
Preceded by	new district
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Calgary-Foothills
In office September 3, 2015 – April 16, 2019
Preceded by	Jim Prentice
Succeeded by	Jason Luan
Personal details
Born	1962/1963 (age 57–58) Sangam Jagarlamudi, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh, India
Political party	United Conservative
Other political affiliations	Wildrose (until 2017)
Residence	Calgary
Occupation	Professional Engineer

In the by-election to the 29th Alberta Legislature, Panda was a member of the Wildrose Party and defeated former Calgary city councillor and Alberta NDP MLA Bob Hawkesworth by 1598 votes, winning 38.3% of all votes cast.[2][3] In 2017, joined the United Conservative Party and became the party's energy critic.[4] Panda introduced Motion 505, a resolution calling on the federal government to ban the import of oil from countries with a poor human rights or environmental record, and to facilitate pipelines within Canada to ensure better prices for Alberta oil.[5]

Electoral history

2019 Alberta general election: Calgary-Edgemont
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United Conservative	Prasad Panda	13,308	52.8%	-3.17%
	New Democratic	Julia Hayter	8,570	34%	+0.44%
	Alberta Party	Joanne Gui	2,740	10.9%	+6.4%
	Liberal	Graeme Maitland	305	1.2%	-5.16
	Green	Carlos Svoboda	155	0.6%
	Independence	Tomasz Kochanowicz	106	0.4%
Total valid votes			25,184
Rejected, spoiled and declined			299
Eligible voters			37,566
Turnout			67.6%

Calgary-Foothills

Alberta provincial by-election, September 3, 2015: Calgary-Foothills Voiding of general election results due to Jim Prentice disclaiming his seat
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Wildrose	Prasad Panda	4,877	38.35	+20.24
	New Democratic	Bob Hawkesworth	3,270	25.71	-6.65
	Progressive Conservative	Blair Houston	2,746	21.59	-18.74
	Liberal	Ali Bin Zahid	791	6.22	-0.94
	Alberta Party	Mark Taylor	610	4.80	+4.80
	Green	Janet Keeping	377	2.96	+0.92
	Independent	Antoni Grochowski	46	0.36	–
Total valid votes			12,717
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots
Turnout				39.48
Eligible voters			32,212
	Wildrose gain from Progressive Conservative		Swing		+19.49

Calgary-Northern Hills

2015 Alberta general election: Calgary-Northern Hills
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	New Democratic	Jamie Kleinsteuber	6,641	38.2
	Progressive Conservative	Teresa Woo-Paw	5,343	30.7
	Wildrose	Prasad Panda	4,392	25.3
	Liberal	Harry Lin	1,000	5.8
Total valid votes			17,376	100.0
Rejected, spoiled and declined			160
Turnout			17,536	46.1
Eligible voters			38,004
Source: Elections Alberta[6]

2012 Alberta general election: Calgary-Northern Hills
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Teresa Woo-Paw	6,144	49.02%
	Wildrose	Prasad Panda	4,637	37.00%
	Liberal	Kirstin Morrell	1,058	8.44%
	New Democratic	Stephanie Westlund	694	5.54%

References

1. "Wildrose's Panda defeats NDP in Calgary-Foothills byelection battle". Calgary Herald, September 4, 2015.
2. "Report on 2015 Calgary-Foothills and 2016 Calgary-Greenway By-elections". Elections Alberta, November 15, 2016.
3. Passifiume,Bryan:'Panda beats Hawkesworth as Wildrose wins Calgary provincial byelection' Calgary Sun, September 3, 2015.
4. David Thurton,'It takes forever': Another delay hits proposed Fort McMurray oilsands mine'. CBC News, November 9, 2017.
5. "Breakenridge: Governments should stand back and let energy economy take its course". Calgary Herald, June 6, 2017.
6. "2015 Provincial General Election Results". Elections Alberta. Archived from the original on 2017-08-01. Retrieved 2017-08-01.