Calgary Northeast a riding to watch on election night: analyst

Last Updated: Wednesday, October 8, 2008 | 2:00 PM ET

CBC News

Independent Roger Richard is a small-c conservative. (CBC)

An election battle between two like-minded candidates — a conservative and a Conservative — is making Calgary Northeast one of the ridings to watch in Alberta on Oct. 14, says a political analyst.

Conservative Party candidate Devinder Shory and conservative Independent Roger Richard are facing off in a riding held since 1993 by MP Art Hanger, a Conservative who decided not to run in this election.

"It's not a contest about which is the best party to represent Albertans, it's which conservative is the best representative," said Mount Royal College instructor Lori Williams.

"So it looks like it could be a race."

Shory is a lawyer who has run a low-profile campaign, focusing on door-knocking. He won the nomination earlier this year.

Independent Richard runs a large taxi company. He has photos of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper in his campaign office, but has spent the campaign raising questions about Shory's qualifications and how he won the Conservative nomination. Richard's campaign manager, Hockey Calgary president Perry Cavanagh, was defeated by Shory for the nomination.

Sign of discontent: Williams

Conservatives won every seat in Alberta during the 2006 election. An Independent couldn't be a factor in Calgary Northeast unless there was discontent among conservative-minded voters, Williams said.

Devinder Shory is the candidate for the Conservative party.

"It's pointing to … a lack of democracy in Alberta in three senses," she said.

"There's an absence of leaders and even candidates in any public discussions or debates in Alberta. Second, there looks to be too much control in the nomination contests that have gone on … thirdly that whole sense that there has been a betrayal of Albertans and particularly some of the values that are supposedly represented by the Conservatives on key issues, things like income trusts."

The race between the two conservatives has even ended up in court. Earlier this month, a justice ordered Richard to stop using his current campaign brochures and to alter his signs because they were too similar to Conservative party campaign material.

Liberal holds out hope

While the two right-of-centre candidates are battling for votes, Sanam Kang is hoping a vote split might allow him to become the first Liberal elected in Calgary in 40 years.

"What we're seeing is two conservatives, fighting in the same sandbox, and all they're doing is going to court, running up legal bills and identifying who's the more conservative," said Kang's campaign manager James Maxim.

Also running are NDP candidate Vinay Dey and Green candidate Abeed Monty Ahmad.

Calgary Northeast is a riding of about 129,000 people, 37 per cent of whom are immigrants, the highest proportion in the province. The average family income is $78,121 and unemployment is 4.4 per cent.