Two central Alberta MPs, Calkins and Bailey, reflect, make predictions after 2025 federal election

Calkins earned 81.8 per cent of the vote this time around, which tops his previous high of 81.4 per cent in 2011, when he won for the now non-existent riding of Wetaskiwin.

The (unofficial) 56,110 votes Calkins received is also the most he’s ever gotten, beating out the 53,843 he was given in 2019, running in the also defunct Red Deer-Lacombe riding.

The NDP’s Logan Hooley received 7,419 votes, and United Party of Canada leader Grant Abraham earned 2,129. Zarnab Zafar, who garnered 1,641 votes, was initially endorsed by the Liberals but wound up running with no affiliation.

“The results are clear in the sense that the Liberals have 20 more seats or so than the Conservatives, but the country is still very much divided on the path forward and has not made a clear decision,” he continued.

“We’re all going to have to work really hard as Members of Parliament to get our country back on track. The reality is if we’d have made good decisions 10 years ago and carried on with the legacy that Stephen Harper had left Justin Trudeau, we wouldn’t have been so vulnerable to the tariffs from the United States and all the other issues facing us. We would have had half a dozen pipelines built, we would’ve had a number of LNG terminals coming online, and we could have supplied our allies with energy.”

He lamented too, opining that it would’ve meant bigger paychecks, increased attention to the military, and the betterment of aging infrastructure.

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“Unfortunately, we’re back to where we were and Prime Minister Carney has a very short window, I think, to tell Albertans what he’s going to do because I think there is not a lot of patience here,” said Calkins.

“I would hope he’d not just use words, but show some clear and definitive actions that would reassure the west we are equal and valued partners in this confederation.”

Calkins added that many people he met while campaigning were “at their wit’s end” in terms of being able to make ends meet.

That’s why affordability is top of mind for him as he returns to Ottawa.

“We’ll conduct a full post-mortem and see what went right and wrong, and learn from those mistakes … (people) were counting on us to secure that victory and we came ever so close,” he said. “I’m proud of our leader.”

In Red Deer, Burton Bailey will go to Ottawa as a first-time MP, after securing nearly 44,000, or 71.6 per cent, of the vote.

With a background in business and health care, Bailey resigned on election day from his posting with the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, where he was an executive assistant to Red Deer-North MLA and health minister, Adriana LaGrange.

Bailey repeated four points, reflecting his priorities, those being affordability, crime and community safety, health care, and recovery.

“With 41 per cent of the national vote, and 144 seats, our movement is growing. We’re just getting started, and we as Conservatives need to hold this Liberal government accountable. We didn’t form government, but Canadians sent a clear message that they want Conservatives and they want change,” Bailey said Wednesday.

“We’re going to have to hold Carney accountable for some of the things he said in his campaign.”

That includes, said Bailey, energy corridors and removal of the carbon tax.

“We probably won’t be passing a budget if he isn’t accountable to some of the things that he said he’s going to do,” said Bailey, then touching on what can bring Canadians together, no matter where they put an X on the ballot.

“I don’t care if you’re Liberal or Conservative, we as Albertans know we need safer communities, we need housing, we need affordability, and we need to work on recovery and health care.”

That’s noteworthy given Premier Danielle Smith’s recent comments that the election results have left Albertans feeling hurt and betrayed.

After Bailey’s 43,765 votes, Liberal candidate Ayaz Bangash received 13,402, the NDP’s Elias Assefa got 2,360, and the People’s Party finished fourth, followed by the Green and Christian Heritage parties.

That’s a stark turnaround for the Liberals, who in 2021 placed fourth in the defunct Earl Dreeshen-led riding of Red Deer-Mountain View. That year, the Liberals only received 3,704 votes, while the NDP had nearly 9,000, and the PPC was just shy of 8,000.

Bailey opined that now’s not the time for the party or its leader, Pierre Poilievre, to make any hasty decisions.

“We need to meet as a caucus, which will happen next week, and I need to hear from colleagues,” he said. “I hope Pierre continues to be a political leader like he has been; he has led us through this historic moment, and the fact we gained seats and 41 per cent, is huge. That speaks volumes of the leader he is, and I hope he stays on.”

For more election coverage, visit our dedicated 2025 Federal Election page.

by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

Two central Alberta MPs, Calkins and Bailey, reflect, make predictions after 2025 federal election

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