Prasad Panda is a Canadian politician who was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

in a 2015 by-election, replacing former Alberta Premier

Jim Prentice Peter Eric James Prentice (July 20, 1956 – October 13, 2016) was a Canadian politician who served as the 16th premier of Alberta from 2014 to 2015. In the 2004 federal election he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a candida ...

, and the

2019 Alberta general election The 2019 Alberta general election was held on April 16, 2019, to elect 87 members to the 30th Alberta Legislature. In its first general election contest, the Jason Kenney-led United Conservative Party (UCP) won 54.88% of the popular vote and 63 ...

s to represent the

electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

of Calgary-Foothills. He is a member of the

United Conservative Party The United Conservative Party of Alberta (UCP) is a conservative political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. It was established in July 2017 as a merger between the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party ...

. With his party forming majority government Panda joined the

Executive Council of Alberta The Executive Council of Alberta (the Cabinet) is a body of ministers of the Crown in right of Alberta, who along with the lieutenant governor, exercises the powers of the Government of Alberta. Ministers are selected by the premier and typic ...

as the Minister of Infrastructure beginning on April 30, 2019.

Background

Prasad Panda was born in Sangam Jagarlamudi,

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

, India. Since coming to Canada, Panda has spent his entire life living in his constituency of Calgary-Edgemont. Panda holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and is a professional engineer by trade. He worked in the energy sector for 28 years, during which time he held senior management positions with

Reliance Industries Ltd. Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Its businesses include energy industry, energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail industry, ret ...

and Suncor Energy Inc. Panda was a key member of the project management teams that built world-scale projects worth over $100 billion, including petroleum, petrochemical, power, pipelines, marine infrastructure, and oil sands projects. He is a member of Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA). Panda is the president of the Telugu Association of Calgary and as the first vice-president of the India-Canada Association of Calgary. Panda also organizes an annual food drive for Calgary Veterans.

Political career

Panda was a member of the

Wildrose Party The Wildrose Party (legally Wildrose Political Association, formerly the ''Wildrose Alliance Political Association'') was a conservative provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. The party was formed by the merger in early 2008 of the Alb ...

and defeated former

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

city councillor and

Alberta NDP The Alberta New Democratic Party (Alberta NDP; ), is social democratic political party in Alberta, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left to left-wing of the political spectrum and is a provincial Alberta affiliate of the federal New Democrat ...

MLA

Bob Hawkesworth Robert Andrew "Bob" Hawkesworth (born February 18, 1951) is a Canadians, Canadian politician and a former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Life and career Hawkesworth was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He attended the University ...

by 1598 votes, winning 38.3% of all votes cast. In 2017, Panda joined the

and became the party's energy critic. Panda introduced Motion 505, a resolution calling on the federal government to ban the import of oil from countries with a poor human rights or environmental record, and to facilitate pipelines within Canada to ensure better prices for Alberta oil. Panda ran in the

and was elected to represent the electoral district of Calgary-Edgemont. He is a member of the United Conservative Party. With his party forming a majority government, Panda joined the Executive Council of Alberta as the Minister of Infrastructure, beginning on April 30, 2019. In October 2021, Panda sponsored and introduced Bill 73, the Infrastructure Accountability Act. The bill aims to increase transparency and accountability by setting a guiding framework for long-term, priority-based public infrastructure planning. It also legislates a governance framework to guide how capital projects are prioritized, as well as the development of a 20-Year Strategic Capital Plan, which will help guide the government's infrastructure decisions over the long-term. The bill passed on the 7th of December 2021, and it is the only bill sponsored by Panda while he was in the cabinet. Panda ran for re-election in the

2023 Alberta general election The 2023 Alberta general election was held on May 29, 2023. Voters elected the members of the 31st Alberta Legislature. The United Conservative Party under Danielle Smith, the incumbent Premier of Alberta, was re-elected to a second term with a ...

to represent the electoral district of Calgary-Edgemont. He lost his seat to Julia Hayter from the NDP, who received 34.03% of the vote in the 2019 Alberta general elections in the same riding.

Electoral history

Calgary-Foothills

Calgary-Northern Hills

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Panda, Prasad Wildrose Party MLAs Politicians from Calgary Living people Year of birth uncertain Canadian engineers Canadian people of Indian descent United Conservative Party MLAs Members of the Executive Council of Alberta Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian people of Telugu descent 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta