Calgary-Beddington

Calgary-Beddington is a provincial electoral district in northern Calgary, created during the 2017 boundary redistribution when the former Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill riding was renamed and reshaped. The riding includes the neighbourhoods of Huntington Hills, Beddington Heights, Sandstone Valley, Country Hills, MacEwan, and Hidden Valley, and its southwestern edge borders Nose Hill Park. With a population of roughly 50,000 at the time of the boundary changes, Calgary-Beddington was contested for the first time in 2019. The riding drew early attention when the UCP removed its original nominee, Randy Kerr, in March 2019 over concerns about his financial contributions to Jeff Callaway's 2017 UCP leadership campaign, elevating runner-up Josephine Pon as the party's candidate.

Candidates

Josephine Pon (United Conservative) — Pon immigrated to Alberta in 1981. She spent more than 20 years in banking, working at HSBC, Royal Bank, and Scotiabank, where her most recent appointment was Regional Manager, Business Development responsible for Multicultural Banking in the Prairie Region. She also worked at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in mortgage insurance and assisted housing, and served as Vice President of the Taste of Asia Group, managing five restaurants.

Amanda Chapman (NDP) — Chapman is a communications and marketing consultant based in Calgary. She ran as the NDP candidate in the newly created riding of Calgary-Beddington in 2019.

Local Issues

Transit service was a significant concern in Calgary-Beddington. The communities of Huntington Hills and Beddington Heights had long been identified as needing better rapid transit connections, with a right-of-way reserved north of Beddington Trail for a potential LRT extension, though no firm construction timeline existed. The introduction of MAX Bus Rapid Transit lines in late 2018 improved some connections in north Calgary, but residents in the outer communities of Hidden Valley, Country Hills, and MacEwan continued to rely heavily on bus routes with long commute times to the city centre.

School overcrowding was another local issue. By late 2018, the Calgary Board of Education reported that 40 schools across the city were above 100 percent capacity, with much of the growth pressure concentrated in the suburbs. Families in newer communities like Country Hills and MacEwan faced uncertainty about whether new school construction would keep pace with development. Modular classrooms served as a stopgap, but parents expressed frustration about the quality of temporary learning spaces compared to permanent facilities.

The provincial carbon tax and broader energy-sector downturn coloured the campaign in this riding. Many residents of Calgary-Beddington commuted to downtown office jobs in the energy sector and had experienced the wave of layoffs since 2014. The UCP's promise to repeal the carbon tax resonated with voters who saw it as an added cost burden, while NDP supporters pointed to the government's investments in diversification and social programs funded in part by carbon tax revenue.