QR77 radio host Dave Taylor wrested the riding of Calgary-Currie from the Conservatives in 2004, and four years later another journalist-turned-politican — foreign correspondent Arthur Kent — is hoping to reclaim the riding for the Conservatives.

The battle of the broadcasters heated up when Kent recently turned his rhetorical guns on his own party, blasting Conservative staff for being condescending and communicating poorly after leader Ed Stelmach cancelled a morning breakfast appointment with him February 8. “I really like [Stelmach] and I support him entirely,” said Kent in an interview February 11. “But many of the people around him have not been communicating in a professional two-way fashion.”

University of Calgary political scientist Doreen Barrie says Kent’s public criticism of his own party is “bizarre.” “These prima donnas come in and they don’t understand how the system works,” she says. “They don’t understand that you’d have to submit to party discipline, but more than anything you’re part of a team…. You can’t be a loose cannon.”

Taylor says he’s keeping his focus on his own campaign amidst the controversy. “What goes on between those guys on that side of the issue — let them fight if they want to fight,” he says. Taylor says his work as an MLA, and particularly his work on affordable housing, speaks for itself. (Taylor wrote the Liberals’ affordable housing policy, which calls for rent controls and a moratorium on condominium conversions.) “That policy came out in January of last year and, quite frankly, has driven the debate on affordable housing,” he says.

Marc Power, who works for ING Canada, is running for the NDP in Calgary-Currie. He says people in the riding are “tired of Stelmach.” “People are frustrated that he’s been so unresponsive and arrogant,” says Power. “They see that I’m a passionate candidate who’s ready to get out there and make a real difference.” Graham MacKenzie (Green Party) and Ken Mazeroll (Wildrose Alliance) are also running in the riding.

In 2004, Taylor beat Tory incumbent Jon Lord by 634 votes.