3 Edmonton ridings to watch during the federal election campaign

Conservatives won all but four of Alberta's 34 ridings in the 2021 election, with three of the four non-Conservative ridings in Edmonton. 

Now that another federal election has been called, Tom Vernon, a senior consultant with Crestview Strategy, said he'll be looking to see if the Conservatives can take back some of those seats. 

"The biggest question for the Edmonton area, really all of Alberta, but Edmonton in particular, is can the NDP and Liberals hold on to what they have?" he said in a recent interview with CBC News.

Here are three ridings political watchers say will be on their radars over the coming weeks.

Edmonton Centre

Edmonton Centre, which includes the city's downtown, has long been a battleground riding, flip-flopping between the Liberals and Conservatives.

Liberal Randy Boissonnault, after losing the riding in 2019, won it back in 2021.

Boissonnault said Friday evening he would not be running as a candidate in the election.

NDP candidate Trisha Estabrooks, who has been doorknocking for the past 18 months, hopes to turn the riding orange for the first time.

The former school board trustee said people tell her every day they are scared — worried about threats and tariffs from the United States and the cost of living — but they are also looking for hope and for something to vote for.

"It's exciting because I think people are tired of the flip-flop," she said.

James Cumming, the former Conservative MP for Edmonton Centre, said the riding's boundaries have changed in ways he believes favour the Conservatives. Sayid Ahmed is running for the CPC in the riding.

Thanks to recent federal electoral district redistribution, Edmonton Centre has gained some north Edmonton neighbourhoods and spread west, losing some of its southerly neighbourhoods to Edmonton West. 

Edmonton Griesbach

Vernon said he expects the NDP will hold on to the riding of Edmonton Strathcona.

Heather McPherson won the riding, which has been orange since 2008, in 2019 with 47 per cent of the vote. Conservative candidate Sam Lilly came in second place that year with 37 per cent of the vote.

She held the seat in 2021 with almost 61 per cent of the vote. Conservative candidate Tunde Obasan finished second in that election, getting 25.5 per cent of the vote.

North of the river and east of downtown, the Edmonton Griesbach riding could swing, Vernon said.

The riding was previously held by Conservative Kerry Diotte, but the NDP's Blake Desjarlais flipped it during the 2021 election, winning by a few thousand votes.

Diotte is once again running for the Conservatives in the riding and Cumming said he thinks there's a really strong chance he wins it back.

Cumming said though nationwide polls have tightened recently, Conservatives usually do well in Alberta.

"I'm still pretty optimistic that I think people want change," he said. 

No Liberal candidate has been nominated in the riding yet.

Edmonton Southeast

The Liberals announced Sunday that Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi will be running in the election in the Edmonton Southeast constituency.

Sohi served as a Liberal MP in the riding of Edmonton Mill Woods from 2015 to 2019, but that riding is being replaced by two new ones: Edmonton Gateway and Edmonton Southeast.

The news comes shortly after, Liberal Leader Mark Carney, who is running Ottawa's Nepean riding, announced his leadership campaign in Edmonton and appeared alongside Sohi during a housing announcement Thursday.

Carney, when asked about Sohi as a candidate for his party on Thursday, said he is a "big admirer" of the mayor and as a public servant, Sohi will continue to serve Edmontonians, Albertans "and I hope Canadians as well."

Political analyst John Brennan told CBC's Radio Active on Thursday that he suspected Sohi would run in Edmonton Southeast.

At the time, the Conservatives had nominated someone in that riding, but there was no liberal candidate. But Brennan said it "is squarely in the neighborhood where he used to represent Edmontonians on city council."

Sohi will have to beat Conservative candidate Jagsharan Singh Mahal. His former rival, Tim Uppal, the current Conservative MP for Edmonton Mill Woods, is running in the Edmonton Gateway riding.