Calgary Shepard

Calgary Shepard takes in the city's southeastern quadrant, named for the historic hamlet of Shepard that once served as a small agricultural stop on the CPR line east of Calgary. Created during the 2012 redistribution from parts of the former Calgary East and Calgary Southeast ridings, the riding encompasses everything from the older neighbourhood of Acadia in the north to rapidly expanding master-planned suburbs along the city's southern and eastern frontier.

Candidates

Tom Kmiec (Conservative) was born in Gdansk, Poland, and immigrated to Canada as a child, settling in Quebec where he was educated in the French-language school system. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Concordia University and a master's degree in American government from Regent University in Virginia. Before his 2015 election, he managed policy and research at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. He sought re-election as the incumbent and is fluently bilingual in English and French.

Del Arnold (Liberal) ran as the Liberal candidate in the riding.

David Brian Smith (NDP) carried the NDP banner.

Evelyn Tanaka (Green Party) represented the Green Party in Calgary Shepard.

Also on the ballot was Kyle Scott (People's Party).

About the Riding

McKenzie Towne, one of the riding's anchor communities, was developed beginning in the mid-1990s as a new urbanist experiment inspired by small-town Alberta, featuring a traditional town centre with grid-pattern streets and a commercial high street. Communities farther south follow a newer generation of lake-centred suburban development: Auburn Bay is built around a 43-acre private freshwater lake, while Mahogany centres on an even larger 63-acre lake. Cranston, perched on the rim of the Bow River valley, offers panoramic views of the mountains and the river below.

The riding's northern tier includes Acadia and Fairview, older neighbourhoods built in the 1960s with bungalows and walk-up apartments, providing a contrast to the newer subdivisions. Deerfoot Trail runs along the riding's western edge, connecting residents to downtown, while 130th Avenue SE emerged as a secondary commercial corridor anchored by big-box retailers. The South Health Campus, which opened in 2012, provides acute-care hospital services to the deep southeast. The riding's demographic mix reflects Calgary's broader suburban diversity, with significant Punjabi, Filipino, and Chinese communities concentrated in the eastern communities. Many residents commute to downtown energy-sector offices or to industrial campuses along Deerfoot and Barlow trails, and the prolonged delay of the Green Line LRT extension was a source of frustration heading into the 2019 campaign.