One of Calgary’s three political parties won’t be running a full slate of candidates in the upcoming election, in an effort to avoid splitting conservative voters.
The A Better Calgary Party (ABC Party) held a one-time “bypass vote” amongst its members to determine whether to run a candidate in certain wards.
“We felt that for the sake of Calgarians, we need to stop splitting the vote,” ABC Party executive director Roy Beyer told Global News.
ABC Party members voted to refrain from running a candidate in five wards across the city: Ward 1, Ward 4, Ward 7, Ward 10 and Ward 13.
The incumbents in those wards include Sonya Sharp, Sean Chu, Terry Wong, Andre Chabot and Dan McLean.
However, Sharp has announced her intention to run for mayor and it remains unclear if Chu will seek another term, after telling reporters this term would be his last back in 2021.
Beyer said Sharp’s endorsement is based on her work as a councillor and not for her candidacy for mayor.
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The ABC Party’s endorsements of incumbents include candidates of Communities First, the other centre-right party formed by Sharp, Wong, Chabot and McLean.
“You just need eight council members,” Beyer said. “If we can get there between us and others, we will have a true conservative coalition or centre-right coalition and that’s the goal here.”
Communities First declined to comment when asked by Global News on Monday.
Lori Williams, an associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University, said it’s too early to tell whether the endorsements could stand to benefit the Communities First party.
“It could help them,” Williams said. “But the affiliation with or the endorsement of a further right political party could potentially hurt them amongst those who are not interested in ideology or parties, or are much more moderate in their conservatism.”
The Calgary Party, the third party on this year’s municipal ballot, said it plans to run a full slate of candidates in the election.
Its mayoral candidate Brian Thiessen said he feels it’s important for a party to run candidates in each of the city’s 14 wards.
“I think Calgarians deserve the right to vote for policies of the party, so if you don’t run in certain wards, you’re depriving Calgarians the right to vote on your policies,” he said. “I think if Communities First or A Better Calgary has good policies, they should run in every ward and let Calgarians decide.”
According to the ABC Party, all other incumbents including Mayor Jyoti Gondek received a no vote from the members, and the party will move forward with nominating and supporting challengers including in the mayoral race.
“People like Wong got a vote, or Sharp, their voting records don’t necessarily scream conservative,” Beyer said. “But our people said, ‘No, overall we still see them as good candidates,’ and we want to see that we avoid vote splitting.”
Gondek has announced she is running for re-election as an independent, while former councillors Jeromy Farkas and Jeff Davison are also vying to become Calgary’s next mayor without party affiliation.
The ABC Party said it will announce its nominated candidates in Wards 2, 9, 12 and 14 “in the coming days.”
The nomination deadline for candidates is on Sept. 22, and Calgarians head to the polls on Oct. 20.
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