Calgary Northeast

This riding is bounded by the Calgary city limits in the north and east, by the Trans-Canada Highway in the south and by the Deerfoot Trail Northeast, Beddington Trail Northeast, Harvest Hills North and Centre Street North in the west.

Thirty-seven per cent of the people in this riding are immigrants – the highest proportion in the province. A diversity of cultures is represented: Punjabi is the mother tongue of 13 per cent of the population, and other languages spoken include Tagalog, Urdu, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. This is a young riding, with only 6.2 per cent of residents older than 65.

Economic activity in Calgary Northeast is based largely on retail trade, manufacturing and the service sector. The average family income is $78,121 and unemployment is 4.4 per cent.

This riding was created in 1986, largely from the Calgary East riding. In 1996, 40 per cent of its residents were redistributed, partly made up by gaining 23 per cent from Calgary North. In 2004, another 22 per cent were redistributed into other ridings.

Population: 129,015 (2006 census; an increase of 18% since 2001)

Political History

Art Hanger of the Conservatives, and previously the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties, has held this riding since 1993. His wins have never been narrower than 5,000 votes. In 2004, he defeated Liberal Dale Muti by 13,252 votes. Hanger continued his winning streak in the 2006 election by defeating Liberal Jaswinder S. Johal by 17,928 votes.

Before Hanger, Tories dominated in this area. Alex Kindy won the seat in 1984 and 1988, but was expelled from the PC caucus in 1990 after opposing the GST.

• 1988 - PC
• 1993, 1997 - REF
• 2000 - CA
• 2004, 2006 - CON