Mciver makes winning return
For nearly a decade, Ric Mciver represented the constituents of Ward 12 as a city alderman.
Now he’s moving up the political ranks to represent Calgary-hays at the provincial level following a decisive win over Wildrose Alliance candidate Wayne Anderson.
“I’ve worked for (voters) for nine years before,” Mciver said at his Mckenzie Towne campaign office. “After that, if they didn’t like me, they weren’t about to start, and if they did like me, in most cases they weren’t about to stop.”
“We ran a clean campaign, we talked to people on their doorsteps about the issues, it seems they responded.”
At press time, Mciver held an extended lead of about 1,700 votes over Anderson with 46 of 67 polls reported.
Mciver was a city alderman from 2001 to 2010 before entering the mayoral race, where he finished second behind Naheed Nenshi.
Across the street from Mciver, Anderson was seated in Muldoon’s Pub watching the results come in.
Despite the loss, Anderson said he was proud of his campaign team.
“I can’t tell you what went wrong,” Anderson said. “I can tell you what we did in our campaign. We ran a very clean, a very concise campaign.
“We didn’t have the resources our competitors had. They are like the New York Yankees.”
Also in the competition was Liberal Brian Macphee and Regina Vergara from the NDP, who finished well back of the frountrunners.
The young riding, which hasonlyexisted since 2004, had elected Conservative MLA Art Johnston the previous two trips to the polls.
However, Johnston missed out on a chance at a third term, losing the nomination to Mciver in December.
The riding includes the communities of Mckenzie, Mckenzie Towne, New Brighton, Cranston and Douglasdale.