Calgary-Peigan

Calgary-Peigan spans a diverse cross-section of Calgary's southeast, linking the century-old railway neighbourhood of Ogden with the contemporary corporate and residential enclave of Quarry Park, the family suburbs of Douglasdale and Douglasglen, and the northern reaches of McKenzie Lake. East of Deerfoot Trail, the riding extends into the former hamlet of Shepard and surrounding industrial and logistics lands that serve as a distribution gateway for the Calgary region. Since 2019, the riding had been represented by Tanya Fir, who won the seat in the riding's inaugural general election after it was created through the 2017 boundary redistribution. During her first term, Fir served as Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism, Associate Minister of Red Tape Reduction, Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation, and Parliamentary Secretary for the Status of Women.

Candidates

Tanya Fir (United Conservative)* --- Originally from Cranbrook, British Columbia, Fir moved to Calgary in 1985 and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary with a concentration in management and human resources. She spent sixteen years as a human resources advisor at Canadian Natural Resources Limited before entering politics. During her first term, she served initially as Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism before being appointed Associate Minister of Red Tape Reduction in 2021 and then Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation in 2022. She was later named Parliamentary Secretary for the Status of Women under Premier Smith.

Denis Ram (NDP) --- Ram is an award-winning technology entrepreneur and lawyer who works with tech companies ranging from startups to large corporations. He has developed applications aimed at helping Albertans access the justice system and is a community advocate in southeast Calgary.

Shaun Pulsifer (Green Party) --- Pulsifer ran as the Green Party candidate in Calgary-Peigan.

Local Issues

The fate of Calgary's Green Line LRT was a defining infrastructure question for Calgary-Peigan throughout the 2019--2023 term. In 2020, city council approved a revised alignment and design that replaced the originally planned tunnel under the Bow River with a bridge crossing, while the cost estimate grew to approximately $5.5 billion. The Ogden neighbourhood, which had been slated for a Green Line station that would connect its residents and Quarry Park workers to the broader transit network, faced growing uncertainty about whether the project's southeast stations would survive successive rounds of scope reduction. The transit question was particularly salient in a riding where some residents commuted long distances along congested corridors like Deerfoot Trail and Glenmore Trail.

The economic disruptions of 2020--2022 affected the riding's varied communities differently. Quarry Park's corporate campus tenants --- many of them energy and technology firms --- navigated the shift to remote work during the pandemic, raising questions about the future of the office-centric development model that had defined the neighbourhood. In Ogden, where household incomes are lower and many residents work in trades and service roles, the pandemic's economic impact was more directly felt through job losses and rising costs of living.

Affordability emerged as a crosscutting concern by 2023. Rising housing costs across Calgary pushed prices upward even in the riding's more modest neighbourhoods, while renters in Douglasdale and McKenzie Lake faced tightening vacancy rates. The combination of higher grocery and utility costs, inflationary pressures, and uncertainty about interest rates made cost of living a dominant theme for voters in a riding that bridges working-class and middle-class Calgary.