Hughes keeps stronghold
EX-AHS boss fends off challenge
Tory candidate Ken Hughes, the former chair of Alberta Heath Services, took the riding of Calgary-west in one of the city’s most closely-watched battlegrounds.
“I’m delighted for Alberta that we have a clear focus on the future,” said Hughes. “The people have spoken.”
Calgary-west has been a Tory-blue stronghold for decades and one of the safest seats in Alberta for the long-governing provincial party.
The affluent riding on the city’s western fringe has been held by prominent Conservatives such as former prime minister R.B. Bennett, premier Peter Lougheed and Senator Elaine McCoy.
It was expected to be a tight two-way race between Hughes and rival Andrew Constantinidis, an oil and gas executive running for the Wildrose Party.
Contanantinidis could not be reached Monday evening. A volunteer at his campaign office, who declined to give his name, said only: “There is no comment. The results speak for themselves.”
Not surprisingly, the issue of health care dominated much of the debate in Calgary-west during the often acrimonious campaign.
Hughes faced criticism from Wildrose about his former job as chair of the province’s health superboard, which has come under fire as it grapples with issues such as emergency room wait times and allegations of doctor intimidation.
Indeed, Constantinidis launched a website devoted to attacking Hughes for his “disastrous” tenure at AHS.
But Hughes — a former Progressive Conservative MP and founder of Alpine Insurance and Financial — said Contantinidis’s criticism of both of both AHS and him hasn’t resonated with residents of Calgary-west.
“What people are interested in terms of my own background is that I’m a business person who’s taken public policy seriously,” he told the Herald recently.
The riding has been dogged by controversy since the election began. Hughes — a close ally of Alison Redford — won the provincial PC nomination in a controversial second vote after narrowly losing to former Calgary-mccall MLA Shiraz Shariff in the first vote.
The party declared the original contest invalid, citing voting irregularities, and Hughes prevailed the second time around.
Meanwhile, Ron Liepert, the riding’s retiring MLA, sparked headlines after he slammed Constantinidis as a “clone” of controversial federal MP Rob Anders. The Wildrose candidate has served as Anders’ riding association president and a volunteer in his campaigns.
But if the battle to win Calgary-west is perceived by many as a race between two conservative factions, candidates from other parties argue that residents are looking for a new alternative.
NDP candidate Mary Nokelby, a retired teacher, said voters are waking up “after a 30-or-40-year sleep.”
Lawyer Wilson Mccutchan, who is running for the Liberals, said people in the riding are “fed up with the culture of entitlement in the current government.”
Two nascent political parties are also fielding candidates in Calgary-west: Evergreen hopeful Karen Huggins, who works for Project Ploughshares, and Alberta candidate Pam Crosby, a consultant.