Calgary Heritage (Alberta) 47/338

 Calgary Heritage (Alberta)

Today we're in southwestern Calgary in Calgary Heritage!

Calgary Heritage has existed as a riding since the 2012 redistribution, almost entirely from Calgary Southwest, but a small portion from Calgary Southeast. The population of the riding was 112,087 in 2016. The riding is named for Heritage Park on the Glenmore Reservoir. The riding is fairly suburban, being south of Downtown Calgary.

Politically, the seat is very strongly Conservative, which could be due to the candidate we'll talk about later. This seat has historically given the Conservatives some of their largest margins, the smallest one since 1988 was 37.83% in 1997. In the 2015 Alberta Provincial Election, the NDP picked up the riding of Calgary-Glenmore within this riding by 6 votes! The riding is currently held by Conservative MP Bob Benzen.

That candidate from earlier? None other than the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper! He actually first ran in Calgary West as a Reform candidate, losing in 1988, but picking it up in 1993. He didn't run in 1997, but he came back in 2002 to replace Preston Manning in a by-election where he stayed in this seat until he resigned in 2016 after losing the general election to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In 2019, the riding was 17/34 in Alberta and 314/338 in Canada by margin.

Rating: 

Name: 8.8/10 - Heritage Park looks nice and has some relevance, but I wish it was named Calgary Glenmore like the provincial riding.

Shape: 5.5/10 - It really isn't that great, it juts out with weird shapes. Just weird.

Individuality: 6.7/10 - It's cool that Stephen Harper and Preston Manning both were party leaders from this seat, and it's interesting how Conservative it is.

Total: 21/30 (70%)

See you tomorrow in Calgary Midnapore!