Foothills

The Foothills riding sweeps across southwestern Alberta, running from the southern outskirts of Calgary to the United States border and from the British Columbia boundary east to Highway 2. The constituency encompasses ranching country, mountain parkland, and the fast-growing commuter towns south of Calgary, and takes its name from the rolling terrain where the prairies rise toward the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains.

Candidates

John Barlow (Conservative) -- The incumbent MP, Barlow first won a seat in Parliament in a 2014 by-election in the former riding of Macleod, which was reconfigured into Foothills before the 2015 general election. He spent two decades as a journalist, including a long tenure as editor of the Western Wheel newspaper in Okotoks, and holds a political science degree from the University of Regina. He had previously run provincially in the Highwood district in 2012. Heading into the 2019 campaign, Barlow served as the Conservative shadow minister for employment, workforce development, and labour.

Cheryl Moller (Liberal) -- A retired teacher and president of the Liberal riding association in Calgary-Rocky Ridge, Moller was recruited by the party to contest the Foothills riding. During the campaign she identified agricultural trade and rural crime as key local concerns.

Mickail Hendi (NDP) -- A University of Calgary music student and Calgary-based writer and director, Hendi entered the race partway through the campaign period after being acclaimed as the NDP nominee. He argued that increased federal investment in social programs would help address root causes of rural crime across the constituency.

Bridget Lacey (Green Party) -- Raised on her grandparents' farm southwest of Turner Valley, Lacey attended the University of Calgary, where she studied subjects including economics, political science, and philosophy. She spent years working in permaculture and regenerative agriculture and campaigned on a Green New Deal, guaranteed livable income, and proportional representation.

Greg Hession (People's Party) -- A civil engineering graduate of the University of Ottawa who had lived in the Pincher Creek area for nearly two decades, Hession was president and CEO of INDI Solar Inc. He ran on the People's Party platform of lower taxes, reduced regulation, and lower immigration levels.

About the Riding

The Foothills constituency spans a large stretch of terrain ranging from prairie grassland to alpine meadow. Okotoks, approximately 20 minutes south of Calgary, is the riding's largest community, with a population exceeding 28,000 and a growth management strategy tied to the carrying capacity of the local watershed. High River, situated on the Highwood River, remains marked by the devastating June 2013 southern Alberta floods that inundated much of the town and displaced thousands of residents. The Cargill meat-packing plant in High River employed over 2,000 workers, making it one of the riding's largest private-sector employers.

Further south, the communities of Nanton, Claresholm, and Fort Macleod serve the surrounding ranching and grain-farming operations that have defined the landscape for over a century. Black Diamond and Turner Valley sit near the site of one of Canada's earliest major petroleum discoveries in the 1910s. The Crowsnest Pass municipalities of Blairmore, Coleman, and Bellevue draw visitors to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre, while Waterton Lakes National Park -- part of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park UNESCO World Heritage Site -- anchors the riding's southwestern corner. The park and surrounding area were still recovering from the 2017 Kenow wildfire, which burned approximately 35,000 hectares. The riding also includes Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a UNESCO World Heritage Site west of Fort Macleod preserving nearly 6,000 years of Indigenous buffalo hunting culture. The Pincher Creek area is one of Alberta's leading wind energy corridors, with multiple wind farms generating electricity along exposed ridgelines where prairie winds accelerate against the mountain front. Federal issues in 2019 included pipeline approvals, agricultural trade policy, disaster mitigation infrastructure, and managing the pressures of suburban growth in communities near Calgary.