Rajan Sawhney appointed as UCP candidate in Calgary-North West
The Trade, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister had previously announced she wouldn't seek re-election in her riding of Calgary-North East.
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Calgary cabinet minister Rajan Sawhney has been appointed the United Conservative Party candidate for the newly vacant Calgary-North West riding in the upcoming provincial election.
Premier Danielle Smith named Sawhney as the candidate following consultation with the local constituency association as well as current MLA Sonya Savage, the UCP announced in a media release Saturday.
Savage, the Alberta Environment Minister, announced last week she would not run in the expected May 29 vote, saying she was exiting politics to spend more time with her family.
The move comes as a reversal from Sawhney’s previous political plans. The Trade, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister had announced she wouldn’t seek re-election in her riding of Calgary-North East in February, but is now returning to contest another riding in the city. Sawhney did not respond to request for comment Saturday; a statement attributed to her provided by the UCP said she was honoured to be appointed in the riding and looked forward to gaining support in the riding.
Smith said in a statement the decision to name Sawhney as the new candidate was a collaborative effort with the UCP and the local constituency association board.
Appearing on her weekly radio show Saturday morning, she said she wanted to keep Sawhney involved from when she had made the decision to step down in her riding.
“When she stepped down in North East, the timing wasn’t right. We knew we needed to get the nominations going and it wasn’t the right timing for her,” Smith said on the Your Province. Your Premier Corus program.
“When Sonya Savage told me she was going to step down so she could spend more time with family, I went back to Minister Sawhney and I said, ‘Do you think you might want to run there?’ After some consideration, this morning she has agreed to do that.”
Sawhney also served as a cabinet minister in former premier Jason Kenney’s government, and was among the candidates who campaigned to replace him as UCP leader last fall.
Her campaign raised $458,000, the most behind Smith and runner-up Travis Toews, but she was eliminated from the leadership contest on the second ballot.
Sawhney had clashed with Smith during the leadership race, criticizing her in particular for her sovereignty act proposal, but later committed her support for the new premier. She did not share what she planned to do after leaving provincial politics when announcing her planned departure in February.
The Alberta NDP candidate for Calgary-North West said he welcomed Sawhney to the race, but questioned why she was running at all.
“I know many folks will be asking why Rajan Sawhney is appointed the UCP candidate in our community after she declined to contest the UCP nomination in the riding she currently represents,” read a statement from NDP candidate Michael Lisboa-Smith.
In a statement, Calgary-North West constituency association president Ward Sutherland said the riding’s board discussed the appointment Friday.
“Losing Sonya, a person who has been recognized widely for her professionalism and contribution to our province is always hard, but we understand her decision and we look forward to working with Rajan in the upcoming election,” Sutherland said.
The UCP still has a handful of nominations to fill with less than two months now until election day. Those include several ridings with open nomination contests as well as two other ridings which Smith will fill via appointments before the writ drops.
A candidate will be appointed in both Grande Prairie-Wapiti, where Finance Minister Toews decided he wouldn’t seek re-election, and Lethbridge-West, which became vacant Thursday after UCP candidate Torry Tanner quit her run there. Tanner had faced criticism after posting a video falsely claiming teachers were exposing children to pornography and gender reassignment without parental consent or knowledge.
The most recent opinion polling from Leger shows the NDP with a slim lead in vote intention over the UCP provincewide, with the two parties in a dead heat in the decisive Calgary battleground with 44 per cent support each.
The poll suggested the NDP carried the momentum ahead of the vote, however, having erased a five-point deficit in the city since last month.
Smith said the polls show her UCP have to work to earn votes this May.
“We’ve got more work to do. We’ve been polling behind the NDP for about two years, and I’m pleased to see that that gap has narrowed,” Smith said. She said she hopes her party’s focus on issues including affordability, job creation and health care can attract support.
Sawhney’s appointment places her in a safer UCP riding, said Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt. The party is expected to have a better chance to retain control of her new Calgary-North West riding than her previous Calgary-North East, where she would have likely faced opposition to even secure UCP nomiantion.
“Even if she had won the nomination, she may have lost the election,” Bratt said. “In the northwest right now, she automatically gets the nomination. While it’s not a slam dunk — it’s more of a swing riding right now — it may be a bellwether of who wins the election. Her chances aren’t 100 per cent, but they’re a lot better than they would have been.”
Twitter: @jasonfherring
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