Some residents in the new riding of Calgary Skyview were upset with the absence of Conservative incumbent Devinder Shory at Tuesday night's all candidates debate at the Castleridge Falconridge community association in the city's northeast.

Organizers were not told why he was not there, but people who attended, such as Rahim Virani, were hoping to hear Shory's position on the refugee crisis, and bills C-51 and C-24.

"I was hoping maybe he could clarify some of that stuff for us, because it's really hard to get an idea of what's going on," he said.

Some residents were hoping to hear from Conservative incumbent Devinder Shory at last night's all-candidates forum at the Castleridge-Falconridge community association, but he was not there. (CBC)

Seven candidates are vying to become the MP for Skyview, which resembles the former Calgary Northeast riding before the boundaries were redrawn.

The Liberals had their strongest support in the area in 2011 and see possibilities for a breakthrough in Skyview, with their candidate Darshan Kang, who had represented part of the area provincially as an MLA.

CBC News poll analyst Eric Grenier says it is one of several Alberta ridings where the Liberals and NDP are hoping to make gains.

It adds up to a more interesting race, according to Virani.

"I think that's what makes this riding exciting for us, like, I don't think we've ever had this much emphasis living in this riding before," he said.

But the forum did not help some people, like Beverly Lang, narrow down her choice. She's critical of the Liberal Party's plan to run a deficit budget.

"I don't understand that in a country that's in recession, why do we want to go into more debt? I would like him to define what modest is," she said.

The others running are NDP candidate Sahajvir Singh, the Green Party's Edward Reddy, Democratic Advancement Party of Canada candidate Stephen Garvey and the Communist League's Joseph Young.

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