Calgary-Buffalo

Calgary-Buffalo is a provincial electoral district covering Calgary's downtown core and several of its oldest residential neighbourhoods, including the Beltline, Chinatown, East Village, Inglewood, Ramsay, and Mission. It is the smallest riding in Alberta by geographic area yet has the highest population density in the province. Its boundaries were adjusted during the 2017 redistribution to include communities like Inglewood and Ramsay that had previously been in other districts. Heading into 2019, NDP Finance Minister Joe Ceci — who had represented the now-abolished riding of Calgary-Fort since 2015 — sought to continue his legislative career in this reconfigured seat.

Candidates

Joe Ceci (NDP) — Born in Toronto in 1957, Ceci earned a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Western Ontario in 1980 and a master's degree in social work from the University of Calgary in 1989. He spent 15 years as a clinical social worker and community organizer in Calgary before serving as a city alderman for Ward 9 from 1995 to 2010. Elected to the provincial legislature in 2015, he served as Alberta's Minister of Finance and President of the Treasury Board throughout the NDP government's term.

Tom Olsen (United Conservative) — Olsen is a former journalist who worked at the Calgary Sun, Calgary Herald, and Edmonton Journal, including a stint as an assistant editor. In 2007, he was hired as Director of Media Relations for then-Premier Ed Stelmach. He ran as the UCP candidate against Ceci in Calgary-Buffalo.

Local Issues

The downtown Calgary office vacancy crisis was the defining economic issue in this riding. Since the energy sector downturn began in 2014, the vacancy rate in Calgary's downtown office towers had reached 27.8 percent by mid-2018. By early 2019 it had fallen slightly to around 26.5 percent, but entire floors of corporate towers sat empty. Property assessments for non-residential buildings in the core had dropped by more than $12 billion in three years, putting enormous pressure on the city's tax base and shifting the burden onto residential and small-business taxpayers. Candidates debated how provincial policy could help attract new tenants and diversify the downtown economy.

Homelessness and affordable housing were acute concerns in a riding where luxury condominiums and emergency shelters existed in close proximity. The Beltline and East Village had seen substantial redevelopment, but the cost of new units was out of reach for many lower-income residents. The NDP government had increased funding for social housing, but demand continued to outstrip supply. The riding's concentration of social services made this a persistent issue for any representative.

The proposed Green Line LRT also intersected this riding, with planned stations in the Beltline and East Village that promised to improve transit connections. Residents and business owners debated the construction disruption, timeline, and whether the project would spur further economic development in a downtown struggling to recover from the energy downturn.