Naheed Nenshi re-elected Mayor of Calgary in 2017 General Election

The results are in.

Naheed Nenshi is officially (still) the mayor of Calgary, and will be sworn in for his third term in office later this month.

Challenger Bill Smith had been a front-runner in this election, with the most recent poll from Mainstreet Research and Postmedia had Smith ahead by 13 points, but, of course, a lot can change on Election Day as witnessed in Calgary tonight.

Ballots are still being counted for mayor, city councillors, and school board trustees, but with Nenshi leading Smith by more than 12,000 votes in 117 out of 234 stations reporting, the mayoral race has been called.

As of 11:30 pm tonight, Nenshi sits at 84,494 votes to Smith’s 72,148.

UPDATE: As of 12:17 am, Nenshi leads 131,461 to 114,901 with 171 of 234 stations reporting.

The incumbent mayor started with the lead early on, and it only grew throughout the night.

Enough people were refreshing the results that Election Calgary’s website had a few hiccups, switching the numbers all back to zero for a few minutes and being noticeably slow while updating the count.

The speed picked up later in the evening, however, just as Nenshi’s lead grew into an eventual victory.

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