Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to campaign in Calgary on Saturday - Action News
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Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to campaign in Calgary on Saturday

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau will spend one of his final stops in Calgary on Saturday night, making his second visit to the province of the election campaign.

Rally in Calgary Skyview riding will mark Trudeau's first visit to city during campaign

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau made a rally stop in Edmonton on Sept. 12, but his appearance in Calgary on Saturday night marks his first since the election campaign kicked off. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau will return to Alberta for one of his final stops of the election campaign, to attend a rally in northeast Calgary on Saturday night.

Trudeau is scheduled to appear at the Magnolia Banquet Hall, located in the northeast riding of Calgary Skyview.

Liberal candidate for Calgary SkyviewNirmala Naidoo will be in attendance during the rally, as will other candidates from the region, according to a release.

Calgary Skyview was won in 2015 by former Liberal Darshan Kang, who resigned from the party in August 2017.

Kang is not running in this election.

Trudeau has only made one other visit to Alberta during the campaign.Last month, he attended a Liberal rally in Edmonton and gave a stump speech touting hisgovernment's purchase of the Trans Mountain Expansion project.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and People's Party Leader Maxime Bernierhave also made stops in Calgary during the election campaign.

Former, current cabinet ministers fightto hang on to seats

Conservative candidates typically dominate in federal elections in Alberta. But the Liberals managed to snag a few seats in 2015, when they won two in Edmonton and two more inlocal ridings CalgarySkyview and Calgary Centre.

It marked the first time the party picked up seats in Calgary since 1968.

This election cycle,the Liberals are struggling to hang on to the Alberta ridings including those held by former and current cabinet ministerswhoare engaged in tight races with their conservative opponents.

In Calgary Centre, Kent Hehr, who was once minister of veterans affairs and later took on the sports and persons with disabilities portfolio,is battling Conservative candidate and chief rival Greg McLean.

Meanwhile,Amarjeet Sohi, who first served as Trudeau'sminister of Infrastructure and later natural resources, is up against Conservative candidate Tim Uppal in the riding of Edmonton Mills Woods.

With only two days to go until Monday's election,CBC'sPoll Trackercharts the Liberals and Conservatives nearly in a dead heat nationwide, with the Liberals barely inching ahead.

But in Alberta, where voters are reportedly resentful over Liberal initiatives like the carbon tax and frustrated with pipelines that failed to materialize, the numbers indicate more than 58 per cent of residents intend to vote Conservative, compared to more than 16 per cent for the Liberals.

Rally will be Trudeau's first Calgary visit during campaign

Saturday's visit will be Trudeau's first during the campaign to Calgary, a city that has sometimes given him a chilly reception.

This time around, the provincial United Conservative Partyinvited its supporters via email on Saturday to peacefully protest outside of Trudeau's event.

It asked people to bring signs and wear "pro-oil and gas gear."

"Trudeau has failed this province," the email read. "We don't believe Trudeau has earned the right to have any MPs from Alberta."

In another notable example,thousands of pro-pipeline demonstratorstook to the streetsand shut down part of the downtown core as Trudeau ventured into the heart of Canada's oil and gas industry in November 2018.

It wasjust a day after his government's fiscal update, which had drawn fire from the provincial government and others who felt it didn't do enough to help the ailing energy sector.

Nirmala Naidoo, the Liberal candidate for Calgary-Skyview, said she was glad Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was visiting her riding with limited time left in the campaign. (Hala Ghonaim/CBC)

Naidoosaid residents in her riding deserved visits from federal leaders.

"I hope it doesn't stop after the election, because these people deserve good representation," she said. "So I hope they feel empowered, and I hope that they feel their voices are going to be heard."

The candidates in the Skyview riding include:

Doors for the rally on Saturday night are scheduled to open at 9:45 p.m and the event will begin at 11 p.m.

With files from Hala Ghonaim