Former Liberal Party leader Raj Sherman won the United Conservative Party nomination in Edmonton-Whitemud. Sherman defeated David Masieyi and UCP Caucus staffer Varun Chandrasekar.
“I’m honoured and grateful for the opportunity to bring a positive conservative message to the community,” Sherman said in a statement released after his win. “Together, we will fight for the people of Edmonton-Whitemud and work towards a brighter future for all Albertans.”
Sherman briefly served as a Progressive Conservative MLA before becoming leader of the Alberta Liberal Party. After a short few years of attempted rebranding and a poor showing in the 2012 election (after which Danielle Smith replaced him as Leader of the Official Opposition), he resigned a few months ahead of the 2015 election.
While the UCP rolled out the red carpet for Michelle Rempel Garner to run for the party leadership in 2022 (she declined), Sherman was denied a chance to run for the UCP leadership in 2022 but he didn’t let that stop him.
Now he will face Alberta NDP MLA Rakhi Pancholi in the upcoming provincial election. The riding is considered a safe seat for the NDP in this election but there is little doubt that Sherman will be a candidate to watch in the next few months.
Myles McDougall beats establishment backed nominees in Calgary-Fish Creek UCP vote
Economist Myles McDougall defeated Christina Steed and Dave Guenter to win the UCP nomination in Calgary-Fish Creek.
McDougall previously ran for the Progressive Conservative nomination in Calgary-Fish Creek in 2015 and the federal Conservative Party nomination in Calgary-Midnapore in 2017. He had an endorsement in this race from Calgary-Glenmore MLA Whitney Issik and support from Take Back Alberta-connected organizers.
Steed was endorsed by retiring MLA Richard Gotfried and former south Calgary MLA Cindy Ady. Guenter had endorsements from Finance Minister Travis Toews and local Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie.
And from Wednesday night, Albert Mazzocca defeated Jaspreet Saggu to win the UCP nominaton in Edmonton-Manning.
Upcoming nomination votes
With just more than 90 days left until Election Day, the Alberta NDP have nominated candidates in 73 of Alberta’s 87 ridings. The United Conservative Party has candidates named in 65 ridings and the Green Party has 26 candidates. The Alberta Party has nominated 6 candidates and the Liberal Party has one.
Candidate nomination votes are currently scheduled for the following dates:
- February 25 – Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock NDP
- February 25 & 26 – Lesser Slave Lake UCP
- February 28 – Cypress-Medicine Hat NDP
- March 1 – Edmonton-Meadows UCP
- March 2 – Edmonton-West Henday UCP
- March 4 – Red Deer-South UCP
- March 5 – Calgary-Bhullar-McCall UCP
- March 9, 10, 11 – Livingstone-Macleod UCP
- March 11 – Edmonton-Strathcona NDP
- March 13 – Calgary-Lougheed UCP
- March 14 – Calgary-Lougheed NDP
- March 14 – Lethbridge-West UCP
- March 18 – Leduc-Beaumont UCP
The Daveberta Substack
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to check out the Daveberta Substack and listen to the latest episode of the Daveberta Podcast with former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi.
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One reply on “He’s back, again! Raj Sherman wins the UCP nomination vote in Edmonton-Whitemud”
Why is he back? Wasn’t destroying one party good enough? He probably should have stuck to what he knows best.