Samir Kayande

Samir Kayande is a Canadian politician from the Alberta New Democratic Party who was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Calgary-Elbow in the 2023 Alberta general election.^[1] It was the first time the seat had been won by the NDP.^[2] He formerly worked as an energy analyst and strategy consultant.^[3] As of June 21, 2024, he serves as the Official Opposition critic for Finance (Fiscal Responsibility).

Samir Kayande MLA
Kayande in 2023
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Calgary-Elbow
Incumbent
Assumed office May 29, 2023
Preceded by	Doug Schweitzer
Personal details
Born	(1972-01-24) January 24, 1972 (age 53) Fort McMurray, Alberta
Political party	Alberta New Democratic Party
Alma mater	University of Alberta Carnegie-Mellon University
Occupation	Politician, engineer, business consultant, energy analyst, and executive

Life and career

He has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta, and an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Before entering politics, Kayande was an engineer, business consultant, energy analyst, and executive. He specialized in the economic analysis of capital assets, including nuclear power plants, wind farms, solar energy, oil sands facilities, and pipelines. In addition, he built software tools that helped institutional investors make investment decisions.

Kayande served on the board of the Pembina Institute from 2021 to 2022.

Kayande is married with two children.^[4]

Electoral history

v t e 2023 Alberta general election: Calgary-Elbow
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Samir Kayande	12,189	49.01	+25.54
	United Conservative	Chris Davis	11,446	46.02	+1.68
	Alberta Party	Kerry Cundal	1,136	4.57	-25.97
	Solidarity Movement	Artur Pawlowski	99	0.40	–
Total			24,870	99.12	–
Rejected and declined			220	0.88
Turnout			25,090	68.77
Eligible voters			36,483
	New Democratic gain from United Conservative		Swing		+11.93
Source(s) Source: Elections Alberta[5]