PCs late to the party in two city ridings

Internal politics holds up the selection process

The Progressive Conservatives were supposed to complete their slate for the provincial election Monday night, with two final nomination races in Calgary- Fort and Calgary- McCall.

But a day later, with the writ dropped and the election campaign underway, there were still no candidates in place in either of the ridings.

Finally, late in the evening, the party put out a news release officially announcing the PC candidates.

Andy Nguyen is the candidate for Calgary- Fort. Jagdeep Sahota will represent the party in Calgary-McCall.

The Tories now have a full slate of candidates in all 87 constituencies.

Christopher Primeau, one of four Tories vying for the party’s nod in Calgary- Fort, said there

Prentice said the issue was in the hands of the party’s nominating committee.

was a holdup because the results were being challenged by another candidate.

Primeau said Nguyen, a Calgary police officer, convincingly won the nomination in a fairly run race, but one of the other candidates — whom he declined to name — was alleging that there were some illegitimate votes cast.

“It’s frustrating to me because I believe Andy to be a good man and he’s got a great reputation and this contesting of the result is setting him back,” he said. “I didn’t see any irregularities.”

The other candidates in the Calgary-Fort PC race were Bev DeSantis and Peter Singh.

Both of the ridings in question have incumbent MLAs who are stepping down — Liberal Darshan Kang in Calgary- McCall and Tory Wayne Cao in Calgary- Fort. In Calgary- McCall, there were five candidates seeking the PC nomination: Sahota, Kuldeep Sidhu, Rajinder Harika, Muhammad Rasheed, Issa Mosa and J. B. Sidhu.

Speaking to the Herald on Tuesday, Premier Jim Prentice said candidates were selected in each riding, with the decision in Calgary-McCall only coming on the fifth ballot.

Prentice said the issue was in the hands of the party’s nominating committee.