Author: Dave Cournoyer

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Alberta Politics

Once upon a time Alberta MLAs had meaningful ideas about Senate Reform

Strengthening Canada Reform of Canadas Senate

Until last weekend, 2 of Alberta’s 6 seats in the Canadian Senate sat empty for years

Did you know that until recently, two of Alberta’s six seats in the Canadian Senate had been vacant for years?

You’re not alone if you didn’t know before last weekend. Most Albertans probably didn’t know.

You’re also not alone if you didn’t even hear about the appointments, because it was out of the news-cycle in about 24 hours.

Despite playing a big role in how federal laws are shaped in our country, the profile of Canada’s Senate, a place of sober second thought, usually flies far under the radar of most Canadians.

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Alberta Politics

Ask me anything about Alberta politics

Alberta’s Legislature grounds in Edmonton under construction in July 2024 (photo: Dave Cournoyer)
Alberta’s Legislature grounds in Edmonton under construction in July 2024 (photo: Dave Cournoyer)

With the end of summer fast approaching and the Labour Day long-weekend just days away, I’ve opened up the mailbag to answer a few Alberta politics questions about health care privatization, early election speculation, and small nuclear reactors sent in by Daveberta subscribers. Read it all on the Daveberta Substack.

 

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Alberta Politics

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Alberta's Legislature Building (photo licensed by University of Alberta Libraries under the Attribution - Non-Commercial - Creative Commons license)
Alberta's Legislature Building (photo licensed by University of Alberta Libraries under the Attribution - Non-Commercial - Creative Commons license)

For about 15 years I published a post almost daily on Daveberta.ca. A growing family and full-time day job meant that I had to scale back the quantity of content I was publishing but moving to a Substack newsletter has been a good change of pace.

I enjoy having a bit of time to write a weekly (and bi-weekly in the summer) column about Alberta politics and not feeling the pressure to publish new content every single day.

Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck with me and joined the Daveberta readership since I launched Daveberta nearly 20 years ago.

I still publish links to my Substack newsletter on this site, but if you want them delivered directly to your email inbox you can sign up at Daveberta.Substack.com/Subscribe.

If you find my columns and podcasts about Alberta politics useful and interesting, please consider contributing $5/month for a monthly subscription or $50/year ($4.17/month) for an annual subscription. And if you’re feeling very generous, please consider becoming a Friend of Daveberta for $150/year (this includes some limited edition Daveberta swag).

Paid subscribers will have access to new episodes of the Daveberta Podcast and extras.

Thank you!

Dave

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Alberta Politics

The stakes are high for Nenshi’s NDP in the Lethbridge-West by-election

Two former City Councillors running for NDP nomination

The stakes are high for Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi in the upcoming Lethbridge-West by-election. This will be the new NDP leader’s first electoral test since his landslide victory in June and, because of that, it’s also a race that Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party really want to win.

The by-election to choose who will succeed former three-term NDP MLA Shannon Phillips’ hasn’t been called yet but the date of the vote will need to be set by January 1, 2025. The NDP and UCP have both started their nomination process to select candidates.

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Alberta Politics

It’s all about the UCP leadership review

Minister of Public Safety Mike Ellis and Premier Danielle Smith respond to questions about politicians accepting tickets to NHL playoff games (source: Screenshot from YourAlberta / YouTube)
Minister of Public Safety Mike Ellis and Premier Danielle Smith respond to questions about politicians accepting tickets to NHL playoff games (source: Screenshot from YourAlberta / YouTube)

Protected rights for the unvaccinated and tax cuts aimed at appeasing unruly UCP members ahead of November vote

Summer is normally a time when politics cools down and politicians hit the BBQ circuit, but there’s something smelly in the air and it’s not just the wildfire smoke that Albertans have become accustomed to being part of our increasingly hot summers.

A political scandal surrounding Premier Danielle Smith and senior United Conservative Party cabinet ministers accepting tickets to skybox seats during the Edmonton Oilers NHL playoff run has erupted. Globe & Mail journalist Carrie Tait first broke the story that Smith and some UCP cabinet ministers had accepted box seat tickets to NHL playoff hockey games from private corporations that have close connections to or are lobbying the Alberta government.

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Alberta Politics

UCP launches attacks ads at Nenshi. Nenshi laughs it off and shoots back.

Politics in Alberta doesn’t skip a beat.

Less than a week after former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi won a landslide victory in the Alberta NDP leadership race, the United Conservative Party has launched a series of attack ads against him, framing the new NDP leader as “Justin Trudeau’s choice for Alberta” and “just another tax and spend Liberal.”

Nenshi’s team tossed out the old NDP playbook.

Instead of stumbling over fancy words and getting overly defensive (or even worse, ignoring the charge), Nenshi laughed off the attack and shot back with his own stinging criticism of Smith’s UCP.

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Alberta Politics

Nenshi wins Alberta NDP leadership vote in a landslide victory

Rachel Notley and Naheed Nenshi at the announcement of the NDP leadership vote results (source: Alberta NDP / YouTube)
Rachel Notley and Naheed Nenshi at the announcement of the NDP leadership vote results (source: Alberta NDP / YouTube)

Former Calgary mayor wins with a record 62,746 votes on the first ballot

Naheed Nenshi is the new leader of the Alberta NDP. The former Calgary mayor won with a huge landslide victory on the first ballot.

Here are the results of the NDP leadership vote:

  1. Naheed Nenshi: 62,746 (86%)
  2. Kathleen Ganley: 5,899 (8%)
  3. Sarah Hoffman: 3,063 (4%)
  4. Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse: 1,222 (2%)

Nenshi’s three-terms as mayor of Alberta’s largest city have made him one of the province’s most recognizable politicians. That name recognition and his history of electoral success in Calgary almost certainly helped carry him to his landslide first place finish in the race to replace Rachel Notley.

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Alberta Politics

NDP to announce new leader and Conservatives vote in Calgary Signal Hill

The view from the inside of the Wonderland Sculpture outside The Bow tower in downtown Calgary (source: Dave Cournoyer)
The view from the inside of the Wonderland Sculpture outside The Bow tower in downtown Calgary (source: Dave Cournoyer)

Calgary is in the headlines a lot these days, but today’s Daveberta newsletter doesn’t have anything to do with the busted water main that is threatening the city’s water supply (but I do hope to write more about that later).

Today’s newsletter focuses on two big political events happening in Alberta’s largest city this weekend: the announcement of the NDP leadership vote and the federal Conservative nomination vote in Calgary Signal Hill.

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Alberta Politics

Alberta politicians betting on the Stanley Cup

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (image from Danielle Smith / Instagram)
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (image from Danielle Smith / Instagram)

Harmless fun or shameless stunt? Does it matter?! Go Oilers!

As hockey fans pour into Rogers Place tonight to watch the Edmonton Oilers face the Florida Panthers in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals, their focus will be on the rink. Most fans probably won’t be giving much thought about what their local or provincial politicians think about the game (as long as they are cheering for the home team).

Playoff season in Alberta is exciting and it also means that politicians have jumped on the Oilers bandwagon with the long-held tradition of making public bets with politicians from the city or state of the opposing team. Whether you believe it’s a shameless media stunt or just harmless fun, there’s no stopping them.

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Alberta Politics

NDP MLA Shannon Phillips stepping down, opening Lethbridge-West by-election

Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips (source: Shannon Phillips / Facebook)
Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips (source: Shannon Phillips / Facebook)

I usually share Daveberta newsletters later in the week, but with MLA Shannon Phillips announcing her resignation yesterday, I wanted to share my thoughts earlier this week. Enjoy!

Shannon Phillips is smart as a whip and tough as nails but after nine years in the Alberta Legislature, she is stepping down as the NDP MLA for Lethbridge-West.

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Alberta Politics

Why Kathleen Ganley is running for the Alberta NDP leadership

Alberta NDP leadership candidate Kathleen Ganley (source: Kathleen Ganley / Facebook)
Alberta NDP leadership candidate Kathleen Ganley (source: Kathleen Ganley / Facebook)

Calgary NDP MLA Kathleen Ganley joins the Daveberta Podcast to share why she is running to replace Rachel Notley as leader of the Alberta NDP.

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Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith’s big win

UCP leader Danielle Smith on election night in Calgary (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)
UCP leader Danielle Smith on election night in Calgary (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Losing Calgary was the plan Smith shared with Rick Bell months before the 2023 election

Danielle Smith has never been interested in building a big tent political party.

It was October 2022 when Smith landed in hot water with United Conservative Party MLAs from Calgary when she told Postmedia columnist Rick Bell that she would be okay with her party losing half its seats in that city.

Fast forward seven months and that’s what happened when Smith’s UCP were re-elected on May 29, 2023.

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Alberta Politics

Say hello to the Calgary NDP

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley and former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi during the final week of the 2023 election (source: Rachel Notley / Twitter)
Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley and former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi during the final week of the 2023 election (source: Rachel Notley / Twitter)

Alberta NDP membership sales surged in Calgary, leaving Edmonton in the dust

The Alberta NDP announced last week that the party’s membership list has surged to 85,144 members in the race to replace party leader Rachel Notley. And the largest group of Alberta NDP members are now in Calgary.

How the times have changed.

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Alberta Politics

Controlling Everything Everywhere All At Once

Sherwood Park MLA Kyle Kasawski (source: Kyle Kasawski / Facebook)
Sherwood Park MLA Kyle Kasawski (source: Kyle Kasawski / Facebook)

NDP’s Oscar-winning film inspired catch phrase captures the UCP moment in Alberta politics

“Danielle Smith wants to control everything, everywhere, all at once…”

In the middle of the weekly chaos of Alberta politics, a catch phrase inspired by an Academy Award winning film has captured one of the driving themes of Alberta politics today.

“Danielle Smith wants to control everything. Pensions, police, health care, schools, local councils. Any dollar spent anywhere in the province, and any decision made by anyone. Everything,” NDP MLA Kyle Kasawski first said in an April 29 press release.

Kasawski is the rookie MLA from Sherwood Park who became the opposition’s sole Municipal Affairs critic when co-critic Sarah Hoffman joined the NDP leadership race earlier this year.

While Municipal Affairs can sometimes be a sleepy file, on both the ministerial and critic side, it has been front and centre over the past month as Premier Danielle Smith and Minister Ric McIver rein in municipal and university funding agreements with the federal government and expand the provincial cabinet’s power to fire locally elected officials and overturn municipal bylaws.

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Alberta Politics Daveberta Podcast

“We win by being more New Democrat, not less,” says NDP leadership candidate Gil McGowan

NDP leadership candidate Gil McGowan
NDP leadership candidate Gil McGowan

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Longtime labour leader joins the Daveberta Podcast to explain why he’s running for the Alberta NDP leadership

Labour leader Gil McGowan joins the Daveberta Podcast to share why he’s running to succeed Rachel Notley as leader of Alberta’s NDP.

The full interview with Gil McGowan is available to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack

McGowan was first elected as President of the Alberta Federation of Labour in 2005 and is an outspoken advocate for working Albertans, especially when it comes to the impact of the incoming energy transition on the province’s workforce. He has been one of the most vocal critics of the United Conservative Party government’s plan to withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan.

The Daveberta Podcast is hosted by Dave Cournoyer and produced by Adam Rozenhart. This episode was recorded on April 30, 2024 in comfort of the fully-furnished bank vault-turned-podcast studio in the basement of the Homestead building in beautiful downtown Edmonton.

The full interview with Gil McGowan is available to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack

New and recent episodes of the podcast are available to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack. Sign up for an annual or monthly subscription to listen to the whole episode.

Extra! Paid subscribers can also read a federal nomination update accompanying today’s podcast about former Enoch Cree Nation Chief Billy Morin being acclaimed as the federal Conservative candidate in the new Edmonton Northwest riding.

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