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2017 Calgary municipal election

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2017 Calgary municipal election

← 2013 October 16, 2017 2021 →

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 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 to 2013, provincial legislation required every municipality to hold elections every three years.[1] The 28th Alberta Legislature introduced the Election Accountability Amendment Act (Bill 7) which among other reforms to provincial and municipal elections, amended the Local Authorities Election Act to extend the terms of local authorities including municipalities and school boards from three years to four years.[2][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 voter turnout was 58.1%, the highest the turnout had been in over four decades.[6]

Candidates

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X = incumbent

Mayor

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Candidate Vote[7] %
Naheed Nenshi (X) 199,122 51.41
Bill Smith 169,367 43.73
Andre Chabot 11,945 3.08
Curtis Olson 1,776 0.46
David Lapp 1,288 0.33
Emile Gabriel 1,258 0.32
Larry Heather 845 0.22
Stan the Man Waciak 664 0.17
Brent Chisholm 576 0.15
Jason Achtymichuk 465 0.12

City council

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Calgary City Council, 2017 by ward

Ward 1

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Candidate Vote %
Ward Sutherland (X) 14,336 45.27
Coral Bliss Taylor 10,601 33.48
Chris Blatch 4,147 13.10
Cole Christensen 1,313 4.15
Cam Khan 1,270 4.01

Ward 2

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Candidate Vote %
Joe Magliocca (X) 11,828 49.39
Jennifer Wyness 8,677 36.23
Christopher Maitland 2,351 9.82
George Georgeou 1,091 4.56

Ward 3

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Candidate Vote %
Jyoti Gondek 7,745 41.97
Ian McAnerin 4,867 26.37
Jun Lin 4,747 25.72
Connie Hamilton 1,096 5.94

Ward 4

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Candidate Vote %
Sean Chu (X) 16,327 48.42
Greg Miller 13,965 41.41
Blair Berdusco 2,875 8.53
Srini Ganti 554 1.64

Ward 5

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Candidate Vote %
George Chahal 6,608 40.61
Aryan Sadat 3,759 23.10
Preet Baidwan 2,332 14.33
Raj Nijjar 1,698 10.44
Tudor Dinca 1,528 9.39
Hirde Paul Jassal 346 2.13

Ward 6

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Candidate Vote %
Jeff Davison 13,735 44.72
Esmahan Razavi 6,605 21.51
Sean Yost 2,507 8.16
Jeffrey Michael Brownridge 2,427 7.90
Alex Columbos 1,961 6.38
Grace Nelson 1,376 4.48
Sanjeev Kad 1,076 3.50
Steve Turner 1,026 3.34

Ward 7

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Candidate Vote %
Druh Farrell (X) 9,753 41.03
Brent Alexander 8,916 37.51
Dean Brawn 2,882 12.12
Margot Aftergood 1,765 7.42
Marek Hejduk 456 1.92

Ward 8

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Candidate Vote %
Evan Woolley (X) 15,838 58.28
Chris Davis 8,844 32.54
Karla Charest 1,839 6.77
Carter Thomson 657 2.42

Ward 9

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Candidate Vote %
Gian-Carlo Carra (X) 9,760 45.31
Cheryl Link 8,065 37.44
Trevor Buckler 1,126 5.23
David Christopher Metclafe 991 4.60
Cesar Augusto Saavedra 589 2.73
Boss Madimba 526 2.44
Omar M'Keyo 483 2.24

Ward 10

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Candidate Vote %
Ray Jones (X) 7,240 35.53
David Winkler 5,512 27.05
Salimah Kassam 2,126 10.43
Michelle Rae Robinson 1,258 6.17
Najeeb Butt 1,054 5.17
Gar Gar 864 4.24
Issa Mosa 693 3.40
Kamilla Prasad 619 3.04
Faith Greaves 568 2.79
Hermann Muller 367 1.80
Numan Elhussein 78 0.38

Ward 11

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Candidate Vote %
Jeromy Farkas 13,169 38.39
Linda Johnson 7,588 22.12
Janet Eremenko 6,889 20.08
Robert Dickinson 4,446 12.96
Keith Simmons 2,214 6.45

Ward 12

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Candidate Vote %
Shane Keating (X) 17,923 72.79
Teresa Hargreaves 2,844 11.55
Brad Cunningham 2,732 11.10
Mackenzie Quigley 1,123 4.56

Ward 13

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Candidate Vote %
Diane Colley-Urquhart (X) 9,117 34.23
Mark Dyrholm 4,427 16.62
Art Johnston 3,747 14.07
Sherrisa Celis 2,959 11.11
Adam Boechler 2,909 10.92
Adam W. Frisch 2,732 10.26
Kay Adeniyi 745 2.80

Ward 14

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Candidate Vote %
Peter Demong (X) 28,430 90.27
Kelash Kumar 3,064 9.73

Issues

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Campaign finance transparency

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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

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  1. ^ "1968 Bill 23". Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Retrieved December 9, 2012.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ "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.
  3. ^ "More disclosure of donors required under new election laws". CBC News. Edmonton. November 20, 2012. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  4. ^ "28th Legislature, 1st Session (2012)". Legislative Assembly of Alberta. 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. ^ Anderson, Drew (October 16, 2017). "Nenshi wins 3rd term as Calgary's mayor in election marred by long voter lineups, ballot shortages". CBC News. Calgary. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  7. ^ "Official Results". calgary.ca. City of Calgary. Archived from the original on December 30, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  8. ^ Markusoff, Jason (May 24, 2013). "Council candidates embrace push to make donor lists public before vote". Calgary Herald. Archived from the original on September 14, 2015. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  9. ^ a b 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 978-0547204543. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  13. ^ a b c d e f 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.

Sources

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