[1] The riding of Calgary-West was vacated by incumbent MLA Ken Hughes in late September, 2014, after he failed to win the leadership contest for the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta.
This riding was one which the Wildrose expected to gain, given their dominance of the opinion polls under former premiers Dave Hancock and Alison Redford, but their candidate was defeated by a small margin.
[2] This result was consistent with province-wide opinion polling at the time, which saw a surge in support for the Progressive Conservatives under Prentice since he was elected as the party leader.
The New Democrat candidate Brian Malkinson, who placed fourth in the 2014 Calgary-West by-election, went on to win the 2015 general election in the riding of Calgary-Currie less than a year later.
He had previously served within the Progressive Conservative caucus, but sat as an independent in protest of incumbent premier Alison Redford's leadership.
However, the office of the Premier cannot be assigned on an interim basis, so Hancock formed a government and then resigned once Prentice was selected as the next leader of the Progressive Conservatives.
She had stepped down as Premier some months earlier, to be replaced by Dave Hancock until a successor could be chosen through a leadership election for the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta.