Calgary-Foothills byelection heats up with war of words

The war of words is ramping up in the homestretch of the Calgary-Foothillsbyelection,withtheNDP'sBobHawkesworthcalling out hisWildrosecompetitor for what he says isa disrespectful Chinese-language flyer.

"All I can say is I find it deeply disappointing that this should be the way that others are conducting their campaign," saidHawkesworth.

• Calgary-Foothills byelection could have low turnout

The flyer in question either labels Hawkesworth a communistor talks about the socialist philosophies of the NDP, depending on translation. Hawkesworth bristles at what he considers a personal attack.

"After 30 years in public life as a citycouncillorand as an MLA, this is not a true or accurate description and people have a track record of my work in this community that they can compare that to."

He's also upsettheWildroseappears to besaying something in Chinese that it wouldn't say in English, something hesays disrespects the Chinese community.

Hugo Chavez

PrassadPanda, theWildrosehopeful for Jim Prentice's former seat, says it's a matter of improper translationand that he never calledHawkeswortha communist, before launching an attack on the socialist ideology of the NDP.

"Many of their MLAs, they call themselves socialists," he said."They spoke in admiration of socialist dictator, Mr. Chavez Hugo [sic] and he's a self-described Marxist. And one of the NDP MLAs who was a former leadership candidate, he praised Chavez and the NDP didn't condemn that."

Panda is referring toEdmonton-EllerslieMLA Rod Loyola, who placed third in the leadership contest won byRachel Notley in 2014. Loyolahas expressed admiration for the late Venezuelan dictator.

When pressed on whether he thinksHawkesworthcould be described as a communist, he said "we have to go back and ask them why they didn't condemn when their MLA openly says he's a Marxist," before saying he doesn't think he is a communist.

Polls on September 3

Hawkesworthsays he's never seen this kind of campaign tactic during his political career and laments the descent into what he says is a personal attack.

Panda, meanwhile accuses Hawkesworth of diverting attention from the real issues of the campaign.

Voters in Calgary-Foothills will go to the polls for the third time in less than a year on September 3.

The other candidates are Janet Keeping for the Greens, Blair Houston for the PCs,Mark Taylor for the Alberta Party andAli Bin Zahid for the Liberals.