'Behemoth of Conservative support:' Why Liberals' hoped-for breakthrough in Calgary fizzled
Their campaign did all the right things but ran into a brick wall fortifying Calgary's Conservative fortress, said the campaign manager for Calagary Centre Liberal candidate Linsday Luhnau.
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It's a sentiment shared by non-Tory candidates, particularly Liberal, whose efforts failed to breach that bastion to realize a much-discussed breakthrough in the city, with four seats supposedly at play.
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When the dust from Monday's federal election cleared, the Liberals were left with one seat, a status they carried into the contest and their one sitting MP – George Chahal – was defeated.
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'Calgary is such a massive behemoth of Conservative support and voters view Conservatives as the home team,' said Hannah Wilson, campaign manager for Lindsay Luhnau, who went down to defeat at the hands of Calgary Centre incumbent Greg McLean.
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The riding, along with Skyview, McKnight and Confederation, were widely considered fertile for Liberal success among the 11 Calgary constituencies, but in the end, only the latter one fell into the Grit camp, and narrowly at that.
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Wilson said she's convinced Luhnau and her team ran a top-notch campaign and encountered encouraging signs along the way, including a receptive doorstep audience, an excited volunteer group and motivated Liberal voter base.
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But that campaign got on its feet five days after the writ was dropped and against a well-established incumbent meant 'we were always playing catch-up.'
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Luhnau, did well among advance voters, she said but some of the election day locales, such as Inglewood, proved more Conservative-leaning than expected.
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'A lot of voters felt left out (by the Liberal government) and that was hard to overcome – I don't think it was Lindsay herself,' she said.
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Liberal leader Carney, she said, might not have communicated his pro-energy stance clearly enough, added Wilson.
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Last October, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said the police force had evidence linking Indian government officials to other crimes in Canada, including extortion, coercion and homicide. Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, who led the public inquiry into foreign political interference last year, reported that China and India are among the primary actors behind foreign inference operations targeting Canada. Carney issued an invitation to Modi in a phone call on June 6. Dhaliwal said Wednesday that he met with Carney Wednesday before the weekly Liberal caucus meeting and shared concerns about that invitation that were raised by constituents. 'Now that (Modi's) invited, we have to move forward,' Dhaliwal said. '(Carney) is alarmed about the issue and he will be very strong in dealing with those issues that are important to Canadians.' Gurbux Saini, another B.C. Liberal MP, said the decision to invite Modi to the G7 and the invitation extended to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are undermining Canada's reputation as a champion of human rights. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'It is a damaging thing because we have been known in the world as caring and compassionate people who love human rights, and this is something the prime minister is aware of and it has been brought to his attention,' Saini said Wednesday. Canada has invited Saudi Arabia's de facto leader to the G7 summit, according to two Canadian government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly about maCanada's invitation list. As of mid-afternoon Wednesday, Riyadh had not indicated whether it had accepted the invitation. Carney did not respond to reporters' questions on his way into the caucus meeting Wednesday. 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ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'This is something we have to manage over the longer term, and there are not going to be these high-minded, declaratory solutions to this.' Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation, said he suspects India will be observing how Ottawa responds to any protests against Modi in Canada. 'New Delhi will be watching this very closely,' he said. Kugelman said the G7 visit could be a way to build trust between Canada and India, and might lead to more a substantive reset of relations before the November G20 summit in South Africa. — With files from Nick Murray This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2025. Politics Headlines Newsletter Get the latest news and unmatched insights in your inbox every evening Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. Please enter a valid email address. 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