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“I can’t take anything for granted and I know why the big names are coming here,” Kokott said, adding she’s lived in the riding for three decades. “I think a lot of people in our constituency liked David Swann. I think, sadly, the Liberal party has always had a hard time with its brand in Alberta. It’s going to be different.”

Ganley said the riding has been well-represented by Swann, but she wasn’t worried about it staying red.

“Certainly, the Liberal leader is running there so that is . . . another progressive,” she said. “I guess there are some other options but I think the people of Mountain View have a clear choice in who they want to govern this province.”

Finance Minister Joe Ceci, whose current constituency of Calgary-Fort was eliminated amid redrawn electoral boundaries, will run in Calgary-Buffalo, causing Ganley to shift her focus to Mountain View next year.

Ganley noted that she and Khan have a history of squaring off. Ganley defeated Khan in the 2015 Calgary-Buffalo election.

“I know him well. I think we did well in the last election,” Ganley said. “There was no ugliness. I think we ran based on vision for the future, based on positive politics, and so I anticipate that will be the case again.”

But this time, Khan said, the race is “mine to win.”

“We know how that turned out, everybody voted NDP, but I think it was just largely a protest vote,” he said of their previous contest. “The NDP’s never had a very deep connection to Calgary . . . It’s also not the riding she’s the sitting MLA for, so she’s brand new to that. She doesn’t have a very high profile.”