Premier Jim Prentice was in Calgary on Monday morning and revealed plans for upcoming by-elections in four ridings in the province.
Jim Prentice spoke at 11:30 a.m. Monday at the Southern Alberta Pioneers Building.
By-elections will be held in the ridings of Calgary-Elbow, Calgary-Foothills, Calgary-West and Edmonton-Whitemud on October 27.
"In addition to the duties of government we all today begin campaigns to earn the trust and support of the Calgarians and Edmontonians who live in these four ridings," said Prentice.
Prentice does not hold a seat in the legislature and will run in the riding of Calgary-Foothills.
Len Webber stepped down from the position and has his eye on a federal seat. He has already won the Conservative Party nomination for the federal riding of Calgary-Confederation.
"The Foothills riding as of today is open. Secondly, it's perhaps an emotional thing, I'm a northside guy, Karen and I have raised our family on the north side of the city, we've lived there essentially our entire adult lives. I've been part of the community on the northside, I coached kids hockey, I was chairman of the Calgary Winter Club, it's where we've spent our lives," said the Premier.
Ken Hughes the MLA for Calgary-West announced Monday that he is resigning and said in a statement that he is leaving "in order to continue to create opportunities for renewal."
Prentice appointed Mike Ellis, a former police officer, to run for the seat in Calgary-West.
Education Minister Gordon Dirks will run in Calgary-Elbow and Health Minister Stephen Mandel will run in the riding of Edmonton-Whitemud.
The Edmonton riding was held by former premier David Hancock, who announced plans to leave politics, while the riding in Calgary has been vacant since former premier Alison Redford resigned as an MLA in early August.
Prentice has wasted no time making changes as premier and says the province is under new management.
"In the two weeks that have followed, we have begun to shape a new Progressive Conservative government with essentially new leadership, new voices and a new way of doing things," said Prentice.
"He's removed a lot of hot button issues off the opposition plate, so changing the budget format, getting rid of the planes, getting rid of the licence plate changes. I mean in one sense you could say well those were easy changes, well if there were easy changes, why didn't they do those in the first place, reversing the decision to close the Michener Centre, so and by doing those, day after day after day, you start to build up some political momentum," said Duane Bratt, MRU Political Scientist.
By-elections in all four ridings will be held on October 27, 2014.
