Calgary in the spotlight as Albertans head to the polls

All of the campaigning and political posturing has led to this.

Alberta electors who have yet to cast their ballots will head to the polls on Monday following a gruelling and contentious campaign trail from both the United Conservative Party and the Alberta NDP.

• Follow full election coverage on Alberta Votes 2023

A record number of voters have already decided, with 758,550 advance votes cast in the week leading up to election day.

That surpassed the record set back in 2019 when 700,476 voters showed up to the polls early.

As has been the case since the first day of campaigning, there is a lot of attention on Calgary and its 26 electoral divisions.

Before the election was called, the UCP held 23 of those seats.

Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP will likely need to flip that number around and win the majority of Calgary to form government.

RIDINGS TO WATCH

The Calgary-Elbow electoral division is one that political watchers are keeping a keen eye on.

The UCP won that seat in 2019, with Doug Schweitzer serving as the MLA before resigning last summer. Since then, the riding has remained vacant.

Calgary-Elbow candidates include Chris Davis with the UCP, Samir Kayande for the Alberta NDP, Kerry Cundal representing the Alberta Party and Solidarity Movement of Alberta Party leader Artur Pawlowski.

In 2015, the then-leader of the Alberta Party, Greg Clark, was elected as the MLA for Calgary-Elbow. That is the last time the party has won a seat, despite some strong support for Clark and the party in 2019.

This time around, it's Cundal who will be looking to play spoiler to the NDP and UCP to snatch up what is likely the only seat the Alberta Party has a chance of winning.

Calgary-Varsity is another electoral division that could go either way between the NDP and UCP.

Jason Copping won that seat in the last election, but only by a margin of 638 votes.

In 2015, the area voted in NDP candidate Stephanie McLean after the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose Party split the conservative vote, which was essentially the story of the 2015 election.

This time around, the candidates are Luanne Metz with the NDP and Jason Copping for the UCP.

Calgary-Acadia is another seat that flipped from NDP to UCP in the last election.

Tyler Shandro won the seat for the UCP in 2019 and will be looking to defend his position against four other candidates.

Diana Batten is representing the NDP, Paul Bechthold is the candidate for the Green Party of Alberta, Larry Heather is running as an independent, Linda McClelland is for the Solidarity Movement, and Donna Kathleen Scott is with the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition.

Unlike in advance voting, electors must vote at their designated voting location between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.

More information on where to vote and which candidates are running in each electoral division can be found here.