DIDSBURY - Conservative Party of Canada candidate Blaine Calkins won the new Ponoka-Didsbury riding in Monday’s federal election, according to unofficial Elections Canada polling numbers released after polls closed Monday.
Calkins, 56, faced off against four other candidates: United Party of Canada’s Grant Abraham, People’s Party of Canada’s Larry Gratton, New Democratic Party of Canada’s Logan Hooley, and non-affiliated candidate Zarnab Zafar.
With 203 of 216 polls reporting in the riding (93.98 per cent), Calkins had 50,557 votes. Hooley had the second highest number of votes with 6,677. Abraham had 1,892, Zafar had 1,472 and Gratton, had 1,161 votes.
The 114,521-resident Ponoka-Didsbury riding includes Innisfail, Olds, Didsbury, Bowden and portions of Mountain View and Red Deer counties along with other municipalities.
A total of 27,715 people cast ballots in the federal election advance poll in the new Ponoka-Didsbury riding between April 18 and April 21, according to Elections Canada.
There were 90,227 registered voters in the riding not including electors who registered on election day.
Calkins was first elected to Parliament in 2006 as the Conservative candidate in the Wetaskiwin riding. He was re-elected in the riding in 2008 and 2011
When the riding was abolished in 2015, Calkins was elected as MP in the Red Deer-Lacombe riding in 2015 and 2019.
The Ponoka-Didsbury riding was created prior to the 2025 federal election.
