Calgary-shaw a real cliffhanger
How will increased voter turnout affect the results in Calgary Shaw?
By turning a rout into a cliffhanger that was far closer than the provincial election it was part of.
That was the situation late Monday night, as the lead in the southwest Calgary riding changed hands more regularly than the Flames change head coaches. With about two-thirds of the polls tallied, Wildrose candidate Jeff Wilson held a slender lead over Conservative candidate Farouk Adatia.
“It is indeed a roller-coaster,” said Wilson. “We knew it was going to be a historical evening, and it has been.”
In the 2008 election, the riding was won by Conservative Cindy Ady, who polled over 7,000 of the 12,000 votes cast, about 36 per cent of eligible voters. While Liberal John Roggeveen attracted nearly 25 per cent of the votes in 2008, Alberta Party candidate Bran- don Beasley figured that Adatia’s main opposition in 2012 would come from Wilson.
“Had she (Cindy Ady) run again, it’s quite possible her personal popularity would have served her well,” said 25-year-old first time political candidate Beasley, “and I think it would be less of a fight for the PCS than with Farouk.”
Beasley added that the highly regarded Adatia might also cause some disenchanted Conservative voters to stick with the party.
What Beasley discovered was rather than a single issue, Shaw voters are disenchanted with the general state of politics, particularly the negative campaigning of candidates.
That sentiment was echoed by Wild Rose’s Wilson.
“I heard a lot of people feeling it was time for a change,” Wilson said.