NDP MLAs stood behind by-election candidate Bob Turner at a campaign event in Sept. 2014. Left to right: David Eggen, Rachel Notley, Bob Turner, and Brian Mason.
Turner’s victory in 2015 was not an anomaly in Edmonton, as the New Democratic Party swept every seat in the city and region, but it was his strong second place finish in the October 27, 2014 by-election that foreshadowed the rise of the NDP in Edmonton. The by-election was held after long-time PC MLA and former deputy premier Dave Hancock was abruptly shown the door when Jim Prentice became premier in 2014.
In a statement released earlier this week, Turner described his main goals and achievements since becoming an MLA. “From the beginning, I spoke about the need to move forward in building Nellie Carlson School, with upgrading the Misericordia Hospital and eliminating flavoured tobacco,” Turner wrote.“I’ve been proud to see all of these goals accomplished.”
A respected hematologist and oncologist at the University of Alberta Hospital and Cross Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine and Oncology at the University of Alberta, Turner was the perfect fit for this district, which includes some of Edmonton’s most affluent neighbourhoods. His departure is not shocking, as Turner turned 70 years old this year, but his retirement does mean this could be one battleground district to watch in next year’s election.
Michael Janz
Rakhi Pancholi, a lawyer with McLennan Ross LLP, plans to seek the NDP nomination to run in Edmonton-Whitemud in the next election. Pancholi’s legal experience includes working as the staff lawyer for the Alberta School Boards Association and as a Solicitor with the Government of Alberta before joining McLennan Ross, which is known in the world of labour relations as an employer-friendly law firm.
Pancholi is the former director and adoptions coordinator for the Humane Animal Rescue Team and has volunteered with the Edmonton Community Legal Centre and the Treatment Action Campaign in Cape Town, South Africa. Find more exclusive content on legal advice here.
Pancholi already has the support of a popular progressive elected official representing the area, Edmonton Public School Board trustee Michael Janz. It was rumoured that the NDP were courting Janz to run for the provincial nomination following his landslide re-election in October 2017. But he is now expected to endorse Pancholi in her bid to become the NDP candidate in Edmonton-Whitemud.
A date for the NDP nomination meeting has not yet been announced.
With an election expected to be called in spring 2019, the NDP have begun to announce what is expected to be a flurry of nomination meetings to be held in the first few months of 2019.
NDP members will select candidates in Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin on January 8, 2019, Morinville-St. Albert, Spruce Grove-Stony Plain, and Sherwood Park on January 10, 2019, Calgary-Cross on January 17, 2019, Calgary-Peigan on January 19, 2019, Edmonton-Castle Downs on January 23, 2019, Calgary-Bow, Calgary-Shaw and Highwood on January 26, 2019, Airdrie-Cochrane on January 31, 2019, Camrose and Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville on February 2, 2019, and Cypress-Medicine Hat on February 9, 2019.
Reading the pages of the Postmedia newspapers or the #ableg hashtag on Twitter you might believe that Albertans from roughneck Fort McMurray to trendy Kensington are calling for Independence and rising up in arms against their political overlords in Ottawa.
Nope.
A flurry of recent opinion-editorials and columns in the pages of Canada’s Postmedia newspapers have been fanning the flames of discontent and frustration in Alberta. The discontent and perennial alienation from Ottawa is mostly a result of the economic slump and a delay in the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, but it is difficult to believe that there is any real appetite for Albertans to leave Canada, and the consequences that would follow.
University of Calgary economist Jack Mintz wrote in the Financial Post newspapers this week that an “Albexit” could draw inspiration from the United Kingdom’s disastrous “Brexit” from the European Union. Mintz drew inspiration from another European dumpster fire in 2015 when he penned another cringeworthy Financial Post op-ed predicting that “Alberta is not yet Greece, but it’s heading along that path.”
Three years later, Alberta is not Greece and probably should not be looking to Brexit for inspiration.
The arguments for Alberta’s separation from Canada are so weak and the concept of forming an Alberta Republic is so ridiculous that even the thought of writing this article made me cringe. It is the political equivalent of a toddler’s temper tantrum. But because I am a sucker for punishment, here I go.
Among the many of the disastrous consequences of Alberta leaving Canada would be that it would become virtually impossible to get any new pipelines constructed to the deep water ports that pipeline proponents argue the province’s oil industry needs.
If you believe it has already been acrimonious to get the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion built in two provinces, just imagine how difficult it would be to negotiate a pipeline project with a suddenly hostile foreign government, whether it be the prime minister of Canada in Ottawa or the president of the Pacific Republic of British Columbia in Victoria. Not to mention the inconvenient fact that the Government of Canada actually owns said pipeline and its expansion project.
Some will argue that the United States of America would open its borders to Alberta or even welcome it as the 51st State, but it seems unlikely that the American government would want to antagonize Ottawa by dealing with a landlocked rogue nation and cause trouble on it’s northern borders.
American corporations already dominate our economy, which saves the US government the messy business of having to govern us. And the likelihood that most Albertans would be inclined to vote for the Democratic Party would also make the statehood route less appealing for many in America’s political establishment.
The Canadian Government saved Trans Mountain by purchasing the pipeline and the expansion project just as Texas-based Kinder Morgan Inc. was preparing to withdraw their application for expansion. The government of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid $4.5 billion for the pipeline and project, and it is expected Ottawa could spend another $7 billion on the project after it meets the necessary conditions set by the Federal Court of Appeal.
The Federal Court of Appeal ordered a stop to the project in August 2018 after the National Energy Board and federal government failed to conduct a proper environmental impact assessment of the increase of marine traffic and failed to properly consult First Nations communities along the route in the final phase of the approval process.
While Trudeau clearly sees the pipeline expansion as a national priority worth spending serious political and real financial capital on, it is unlikely to bring him positive electoral returns in Alberta in 2019. Despite purchasing the pipeline, ensuring it will be built, and announcing $1.6 billion in loans and financial support to the oil and gas industry, support for Trudeau in Alberta has dropped like a lead balloon.
“We didn’t ask for the opportunity to go further into debt as a means of addressing this problem,” Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said in response to the federal government’s bailout package.
It is unclear what Alberta’s politicians want to be done in the meantime. Many are calling the pipeline the only solution to Alberta’s economic problems. The big problem with that argument, if you believe pipelines are the solution, is that even if the Trans Mountain expansion project meets the conditions set by the Federal Court of Appeal in 2019 it might not actually be finished construction until 2022 or 2023. And even if other failed pipeline projects are resurrected, they might take even longer to complete.
That a Prime Minister named Trudeau is not popular in Alberta is no shock. The ingrained hatred for Trudeau and his father in the minds of many Albertans ensures that no matter what the Liberal government in Ottawa does to support our province, it will be seen as either a failure or a hostile attack.
While separatist sentiments bubble up in Alberta politics every decade or so, the last serious political push happened more than 35 years ago, when Western Canada Concept candidate Gordon Kesler won a February 17, 1982 by-election in the former Social Credit fortress of Olds-Didsbury.
The separatist MLA said at his swearing-in ceremony that he had “a lot of responsibility to those who believe in freedom and free enterprise,” but then spent the next few months in the Assembly railing against the metric system and official bilingualism. He and his party were crushed by Peter Lougheed’s Progressive Conservative juggernaut in the November 1982 general election.
Other separatist parties have come and gone since, but they have all faded in the right-wing fringes of Alberta politics.
Meanwhile, outside of the margins of conservative opinion writers and anonymous twitter accounts, two recent polls show that while Albertans might be a little angrier, support for separation remains consistently low.
A recent poll conducted by the research company Ipsos found that “Albertans are a little angrier at the moment, but across the west there is little interest in separation and most measures of connection to Canada are consistent with prior polls taken conducted as long ago as 1997.”
“The level of support for the idea of an independent Alberta is roughly the same as it was in surveys conducted in 2014 and 2016,” said Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. “Four years ago, with a Progressive Conservative government in Edmonton and a Conservative government in Ottawa, the findings were similar to what is observed in 2018.”
The vast majority of Albertans remain proud Canadians regardless of which party has been elected to run the government in Ottawa. The frustration felt by many Albertans towards Ottawa over pipelines construction delays and the low international price of oil should not be ignored, but let’s not pretend that separating from Canada is a viable solution to our economic problems, because it’s not.
Daveberta Best of Alberta Politics 2018 Survey Winners: Rachel Notley, Greg Clark, Shaye Anderson, Jessica Littlewood, and Janis Irwin
With more than 2,100 votes cast in two rounds of voting, we are proud to announce the results of the Daveberta Best of Alberta Politics 2018 Survey. Over the past two weeks, more than 2,100 readers of this website and listeners of the Daveberta Podcast submitted their choices for the survey and voted for the top submissions in each category.
Here are the winners in the Daveberta Best of Alberta Politics 2018 Survey:
Best Alberta MLA of 2018: Rachel Notley, Premier of Alberta and NDP MLA for Edmonton-Strathcona
For a second year in a row, Rachel Notley was vote Best Alberta MLA. Notley earned 50.7% of the total votes cast, placing her ahead of Leduc-Beaumont NDP MLA Shaye Anderson, with 25.5 percent, and Calgary-Elbow Alberta Party MLA Greg Clark, with 23.7 percent.
Best Cabinet Minister of 2018: Shaye Anderson, Minister of Municipal Affairs
In a four-way contest, Shaye Anderson edged ahead with 31.8 percent. Health Minister and Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman earned 26.4 percent, Children’s Services Minister Danielle Larivee earned 21.5 percent, and Education Minister David Eggen, last year’s winner, earned 20.1 percent of the total votes cast.
Best Opposition MLA of 2018: Greg Clark, Alberta Party MLA for Calgary-Elbow
For a second year in a row, Greg Clark has been voted Alberta’s Best Opposition MLA. With 54.1 percent of the vote, Clark placed ahead of Freedom Conservative Party leader and Strathmore-BrooksMLA Derek Fildebrandt, with 34.4 percent, and United Conservative Party leader and Calgary-Lougheed MLA Jason Kenney, with 11.4 percent.
Up and coming MLA to watch in 2019: Jessica Littlewood, NDP MLA for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville
Jessica Littlewood, the NDP MLA for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville, won with category with 42.3 percent of the vote. Littlewood beat out last year’s winner, Edmonton-Centre NDP MLA David Shepherd, with 37.1 percent, and Fort McMurray-Conklin UCP MLA Laila Goodridge with 20.5 percent.
New candidate to watch in the 2019 election: Janis Irwin, NDP candidate in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood
This was a new category we introduced this year to recognize some of the new candidates running in next year’s expected provincial general election. Janis Irwin, the NDP candidate in Edmonton-Highlands Norwood, won in this category with 45.9 percent of the vote. Irwin was followed by Calgary-Elbow NDP candidate Janet Eremenko with 29.6 percent and Calgary-Varsity NDP candidate Anne McGrath with 24.4 percent.
Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who submitted your choices and who voted in this year’s Best of Alberta Politics 2018 Survey.
Daveberta Podcast back on Christmas Eve
Tune in on December 24, 2018 for a special episode of the Daveberta Podcast where we answer questions we have collected from listeners over the past few weeks. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you find podcasts online.
We’d love to hear what you think of the Daveberta Podcast, so feel free to leave a positive review and share the podcast with your friends and family. Also feel free to leave a comment on this blog, Facebook or Twitter or send us an email at podcast@daveberta.ca.
Thomas Dang with some of his NDP MLA colleagues at the recent party convention in Edmonton. (Source: Facebook)
MLA Thomas Dang was nominated as the New Democratic Party‘s candidate in the new Edmonton-South district. Dang was first elected as the MLA for Edmonton-South West in the 2015 election.
Dang received a considerable amount of media attention in 2017 when he tabled the Alberta Standard Time Act, a private members’ bill which would have ended the observance of Daylight Savings Time in Alberta. While the idea was fairly popular among the public, strong pushback by Alberta’s two professional hockey teams and a major Alberta-based airline company are believed to be what stalled the bill before it could complete second reading in the Assembly.
Shane Getson defeated Leah Wood to secure the UCP candidacy in the second nomination vote held by the main conservative party in Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland in less than six months.
A previous nomination contest was held in August 2018 and resulted in a win for Onoway business owner Dale Johnson, who was later disqualified after it was reported that he was alleged to have paid $5,584.60 to an employee he fired with whom he was in a romantic relationship.
Getson is a manager of a pipeline construction and maintenance company. He will face NDP MLA and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Oneil Carlier and Alberta Party candidate Don McCargar.
Speaker Wanner not seeking re-election
Medicine Hat NDP MLA Bob Wanner announced that he will not be seeking re-election when the next vote is called. Wanner, who was elected as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in 2015, was first elected in 2015, earning 38 percent of the vote. He previously ran for the NDP in this district in the 1993 election. The current Medicine Hat district faces a significant redistribution in the next election and has been redrawn into the new Brooks-Medicine Hat and Cypress-Medicine Hat districts.
Questions raised about UCP nomination in Highwood
Former local Progressive Conservative association president RJ Sigurdson secured the UCP nomination in Highwood in October 2018, but his win is now being challenged by two unsuccessful candidates. Okotoks town councillor Carrie Fischer, who was the PC Party candidate in the 2015 election, filed a complain with the UCP, and Wayne Anderson, the current UCP MLA who was elected as a Wildrose Party candidate in 2015, have filed a complaint with Elections Alberta, questioning the validity of the nomination process.
Fildebrandt nominated as a Fildebrandt Party candidate
Freedom Conservative Party MLA and leader Derek Fildebrandt was nominated as his party’s candidate in the Chestermere-Strathmore district. Fildebrandt was first elected as a Wildrose MLA in 2015 and is now expected to face his former caucus colleague Leela Aheer in the next election.
With Christmas less than one week away, nominations appear to have ended for 2018, but the first few months of 2019 are expected to included a flurry of nomination activity. The UCP have eight remaining districts in which to nominate candidates and the NDP have already scheduled nomination contests in January in Airdrie-Cochrane, Maskwaskis-Wetaskiwin, Morinville-St. Albert, Sherwood Park, and Spruce Grove-Stony Plain.
Calgary-Bow – Paul Godard defeated Frank Penkala to secure the Alberta Party nomination in this northwest Calgary district.
Calgary-North East – Gurbachan Brar defeated Roop Rai to secure the NDP nomination in this district. Brar is the former President of the Punjabi Likhari Sabha and is a former Broadcaster at RED FM 106.7.
Camrose – Morgan Bamford is seeking the NDP nomination in this central Alberta district. Bamford is the Acting Supervisor of Indigenous Relations with the City of Edmonton and is the co-founder of Bamford & Henbest Research and Consulting Partners Ltd. He is vice-president of the board of directors of Volunteer Alberta.
Drayton Valley-Devon – Ronald Brochu is seeking the Liberal Party nomination. Brochu was the Liberal Party candidate in Edmonton-Gold Bar in the 2015 election, earning 3.1 percent of the vote.
Edmonton-Castle Downs – MLA Nicole Goehring is seeking the NDP nomination for re-election in this north Edmonton district. Goehring was first elected in 2015, earning 64.5 percent of the vote. Goehring’s main challenger in the next election is expected to be Ed Ammar, a UCP activist who ran for the Liberal Party in Edmonton-Decore in the 2012 election.
Edmonton-North West – Brandon Teixeira has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate in this district.
Edmonton-West Henday – Leah McRorie has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate in this west Edmonton district. McRorie is a certified facilitator with the Alberta Caregivers Association.
Leduc-Beaumont – Coreina Hubert’s candidacy for the Alberta Party nomination is listed by Elections Alberta as not having been accepted by the party or constituency association. Hubert is the third candidacy to depart the Alberta Party nomination contest in this district, leaving Robb Connolly as the sole candidate. Connolly previously attempted to seek the Alberta Party nomination in the neighbouring Strathcona-Sherwood Park.
Lethbridge-West – Patricia Chizek is seeking the Liberal Party nomination.
Morinville-St. Albert – Cass Romyn is seeking the Green Party nomination in this district north of Edmonton.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Photo: Thomas Dang with some of his NDP MLA colleagues at the recent party convention in Edmonton. (Source: Facebook)
Best of Alberta Politics 2018 Greg Clark Sarah Hoffman Laila Goodridge Shaye Anderson
In our most recent episode of The Daveberta Podcast, Dave and Ryan asked you to vote in the Best of Alberta Politics 2018 Survey.
More than 500 of you responded to the survey over the last week with your choices for the biggest political players and defining political issues of 2018. We tallied all the responses from that survey and we are now asking you to vote on the top 3 choices in each category.
The top three choices in each category are now open for you to vote on until 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 19, 2018 and the winners will be announced on Thursday, December 20, 2018.
Premier Rachel Notley, NDP MLA for Edmonton-Strathcona
Greg Clark, Alberta Party MLA for Calgary-Elbow
Shaye Anderson, NDP MLA for Leduc-Beaumont
An honourable mention to Danielle Larivee, NDP MLA for Lesser Slave Lake, and Jason Kenney, UCP leader and MLA for Calgary-Lougheed, who placed a strong fourth and fifth in total submissions. Notley was last year’s winner in this category.
Who was the best Alberta cabinet minister of 2018? – Vote
Sarah Hoffman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Seniors
Shaye Anderson, Minister of Municipal Affairs
David Eggen, Minister of Education
Danielle Larivee, Minister of Children’s Services and Minster of Status of Women
Ministers David Eggen and Danielle Larivee were tied for third place, so they are both included in the voting round in this category. Eggen was last year’s winner in this category.
Jason Kenney, UCP leader and MLA for Calgary-Lougheed
Derek Fildebrandt, Freedom Conservative Party MLA for Strathmore-Brooks
Honourable mentions to Richard Starke, the Independent PC MLA for Vermilion-Lloydminster, and David Swann, the Liberal MLA for Calgary-Mountain View, who placed a strong fourth and fifth place.Clark was last year’s winner in this category.
Jessica Littlewood, NDP MLA for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville
Laila Goodridge, UCP MLA for Fort McMurray-Conklin
David Shepherd, NDP MLA for Edmonton-Centre
An honourable mention to Nathan Cooper, UCP MLA for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, who placed a strong fourth in the first round of voting. Shepherd was last year’s winner in this category.
Who is the new candidate to watch in the 2019 election? – Vote
Janis Irwin, NDP candidate in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood
Janet Eremenko, NDP candidate in Calgary-Elbow
Anne McGrath, NDP candidate in Calgary-Varsity
What was the biggest political issue in 2018 in Alberta politics? – Voting Closed
Not surprisingly, pipelines, oil, and the economy were by far the biggest political issue identified in this survey. More than 85 percent of you chose these as the biggest political issue in 2018 in Alberta.
What was the biggest political play of 2018 in Alberta politics? – Voting Closed
This category was a dog’s breakfast. Around 90 percent of the submissions were related in some way to pipelines and the oil industry, but most were difficult to group. Around 30 percent of you chose Premier Notley’s decision to curtail the production of oil as the Best Political Play of 2018, which was the clearest single choice in this category. The wide variety of submissions makes it difficult to choose any top three choices for this round of voting, so I am calling it a draw.
Photo: Greg Clark, Sarah Hoffman, Laila Goodridge, and Shaye Anderson.
Both MLAs, who were elected in 2015, saw their electoral districts significantly redrawn ahead of the next election. Horne’s district, Spruce Grove-St. Albert, was divided into the new Spruce Grove-Stony Plain, Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland, and St. Albert districts.
Renaud is a well-known advocate for persons with developmental disabilities, and worked for almost 15 years as the executive director of Lo-Se-Ca Foundation before her election in 2015. She was elected in 2015 with 53 percent of the vote, unseating PC MLA Stephen Khan, who earned 28 percent.
This was the first time two NDP MLAs faced each other in a nomination contest in more than 25 years. Ahead of the 1993 election, Edmonton-Kingsway MLA Alex McEachern and Edmonton-Jasper Place MLA John McInnis both sought the NDP nomination in the newly redrawn Edmonton-Mayfield district. McEachern won the nomination contest and McInnis ended up running in another district across the city.
St. Albert is a bedroom community northwest of Edmonton and this district has a history as a competitive elections, with voters electing New Democrat MLAs in 1986 and 2015, PC MLAs in 1989, 1997, 2001, 2008 and 2012, and Liberal MLAs in 1993 and 2004.
Real Estate Agent wins UCP nomination in Lethbridge-West
Real Estate Agent Karri Flatla defeated Richard Dempsey and George Rigaux to secure the UCP nomination in Lethbridge-West. The district is currently represented by NDP MLA Shannon Phillips, who has served as Alberta’s Minister of Environment and Parks since 2015.
UCP delay Red Deer-South nomination for mystery “high profile individual”
Despite four candidates already actively campaigning for the UCP nomination in Red Deer-South, the UCP announced last week that they are delaying the selection meeting until 2019 in order to give time for a “high profile individual” run join the contest.
This mystery individual has not yet revealed themselves, but it has been rumoured for months that the UCP has been trying to recruit Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer to run in the next election.
Veer has served as mayor of Alberta’s third largest city since 2013.
Edmonton-North West – Brandon Teixeira is seeking the Liberal Party nomination.
Edmonton-South West – Former CBC reporter and current ministerial press secretary John Archer is seeking the NDP nomination.
Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin – The NDP have scheduled a nomination meeting in this district on January 8, 2019.
Spruce Grove-Stony Plain: MLA Erin Babcock is seeking the NDP nomination in this district west of Edmonton. Babcock was first elected as MLA for Stony Plain in 2015, earning 38 percent of the vote and unseating PC MLA Ken Lemke. Spruce Grove City Councillor Searle Turtonwon the UCP nomination contest in this district last week.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
The First Minister’s Meeting, oil prices, and Premier Rachel Notley’s performance on the national stage are where we started the discussion in this episode. Dave and Ryan also delved into the latest nomination news and what 2019 holds for Alberta politics, including when the next provincial and federal elections could be called.
We also discuss our choices for theDaveberta Best of Alberta Politics 2018 Survey. Submissions will close on December 12, 2018 at 12:00pm and the top three choices in each category will be included in a round of voting starting on December 13, 2018. Voting will be open until December 19 and the winners will be announced on December 20, 2018.
You can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you find podcasts online. We would love to hear what you think of this episode, so feel free to leave a positive review where you download, comment on the blog, Facebook or Twitter or send us an email at podcast@daveberta.ca.
Thanks to everyone who sent us questions for this episode. We had so many great questions that we have recorded a special episode dedicated to answering your questions that will be published for your listening pleasure on December 24, 2018.
And a huge thanks to our producer, Adam Rozenhart, who keeps us on track and makes each episode of the Daveberta Podcast sound so great.
This nomination contest was contentious, with questions about the eligibility of Fordand former MLAMark Hlady in the contest. Ford’s candidacy was ultimately accepted and Hlady, who represented his district as a Progressive Conservative MLA from 1993 to 2004 and as the PC Party candidate in 2015, was not approved by the UCP to run.
Defeated UCP nomination contestants in Calgary-East have levelled allegations of fraud, forgery, improper inducement and bribery in the race won by Peter Singh on November 3, 2018. A letter signed by Andre Chabot, Jamie Lall, Issa Moussa and Matthew Dirk sent to UCP Leader Jason Kenney and deputy leader Leela Aheer have asked for the results of the contest to be overturned.
According to Postmedia, one woman in Calgary-East “said she was solicited by Singh at his auto shop while getting her vehicle repaired last July, and soon after discovered her credit card number had been used to purchase a party membership.”
Calgary-Falconridge – Parmeet Singh was nominated as the NDP candidate in this northeast Calgary district.
Edmonton-South West – Kaycee Madu defeated Kevin Greco and former PC MLA Sohail Quadri to secure the UCP nomination on December 6, 2018.
Livingstone-Macleod – Roger Reid defeated Nathan Neudorf and Thomas Schneider to win the UCP nomination on December 8, 2018. Reid is the owner of Tim Hortons franchises in Nanton and Claresholm. He is the second Tim Horton’s franchaise owner to win a UCP nomination, along with Grande Prairie UCP candidate Tracy Allard.
Sherwood Park – Jordan Walker defeated Maureen Gough, Sean Kenny, and Len Thom to secure the UCP nomination in Sherwood Park. Walker is a conservative party activist and an Assessment Consultant in the Alberta Department of Labour.
Upcoming nomination meetings
With the end of the year approaching, Alberta’s political parties have begun winding down nomination meetings scheduled for this year. By the end of 2018, the UCP will have nominated candidates in 77 of Alberta’s 87 districts, the NDP will have nominated candidates in 33 districts, and the Alberta Party in around 50 districts. Here are the remaining nomination meetings being held in 2018:
December 12, 2018 – Richard Dempsey, Karri Flatla, and George Rigaux are seeking the UCP nomination in Lethbridge-West.
December 12, 2018 – Two NDP MLAs are challenging each other for their party’s nomination in the newly redrawn St. Albert district. Current Spruce Grove-St. Albert MLA Trevor Horne and current St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud are seeking the NDP candidacy. Both MLAs were first elected in 2015.
Renaud has been endorsed by eleven of her caucus colleagues, including Stony Plain MLA Erin Babcock, Calgary-Hawkwood MLA Michael Connolly, Calgary-Klein MLA Craig Coolahan, Calgary-Bow MLA Deborah Drever, Lethbridge-East MLA Maria Fitzpatrick, Edmonton-Castle Downs MLA Nicole Goehring, Edmonton-Ellerslie MLA Rod Loyola, Sherwood Park MLA Annie McKitrick, Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater MLA Colin Piquette, Edmonton-Centre MLA David Shepherd, and Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Bob Turner.
December 13, 2018 – NDP MLA Thomas Dang is expected to be nominated as his party’s candidate in Edmonton-South. Dang was first elected in 2015 in Edmonton-South West, where he earned 53 percent of the vote and unseated PC MLA Matt Jeneroux.
December 15, 2018 – Manwar Khan and Keli Tamaklo are seeking the Alberta Party nomination in Edmonton-Manning. Tamaklo is a former member of Edmonton Police Commission, Vice-Chair of the Africa Centre, and former Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of High Prairie. Khan is a Business Coordinator in the provincial Department of Community and Social Services and founded Do Not Be a Bystander, after witnessing and attempting to intervene to prevent a murder on Edmonton’s LRT.
December 15, 2018 – “Mulligan!” Shane Getson and Leah Wood are facing off in the second UCP nomination contest in Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland. A previous nomination contest held in August 2018 resulted in a win for Onoway business owner Dale Johnson, who was later disqualified after the UCP discovered he was alleged to have paid $5,584.60 to an employee he fired with whom he was in a romantic relationship. A former member of the UCP interim board of directors, Wood was widely seen as the establishment favourite in the first contest and is in a similar position in this second nomination contest.
December 16, 2018 – Gurbachan Brar and Roop Rai are seeking the NDP nomination in Calgary-North East. Brar is the former President of the Punjabi Likhari Sabha and is a former Broadcaster at RED FM 106.7. Rai is a constituency assistant to Calgary-McCall NDP MLA Irfan Sabir and was her party’s candidate in the 2016 by-election in Calgary-Greenway. In that contest she earned 20.17 percent of the vote in a competitive four-way race that saw PC candidate Prab Gill win with 27.7 percent.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Premier Rachel Notley rallies her NDP Caucus MLAs before the start of the fall legislative sitting on Oct. 30, 2017. (photo by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta Flickr)
What we know:
The last provincial General Election was held 3 years, 7 months, 2 days ago on May 5, 2015.
According to Section 38.1(2) of the Elections Act, a general election should be held between March 1 and May 31, and in the same three-month period in the fourth calendar year thereafter. This means that the next general election will likely be held between March 1 and May 31, 2019. This fixed election period was introduced in the Election Amendment Act passed on December 6, 2011.
Election campaign periods in Alberta last 28 days. Section 39 (d) of the Election Act states: “the 28th day after the date of the writ is the day on which voting is to take place, or if the 28th day is a holiday, the next following day not being a holiday.” There are a number of statutory and religious holidays that fall in this fixed election period when an election day would not be held: Good Friday is April 19, Easter Monday is April 22, and Victoria Day is May 20.
In accordance with our parliamentary system of government, the Elections Act also states that nothing in the law “affects the powers of the Lieutenant Governor, including the power to dissolve the Legislature, in Her Majesty’s name, when the Lieutenant Governor sees fit.” This means that Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell could issue a writ of election and dissolve the Legislative Assembly whenever she is asked to do so by Premier Rachel Notley. It would be highly irregular for a Lieutenant Governor to deny a Premier’s wish to issue a writ of election.
Speculation:
There are a number of factors that could impact when exactly the election is called.
One major indicator of a party’s readiness for an election is the number of candidates they have nominated. As of today, the New Democratic Party has nominated 31 candidates in 87 districts, meaning that party will need to nominate a majority of its candidates in the first few months of 2019 in order to be prepared for a spring election. The United Conservative Party currently has nominated 74 candidates in 87 districts and will have almost an entire slate of candidates nominated by the end of 2018.
Whether the NDP will recall the Legislative Assembly in the spring of 2019 to present a Throne Speech and introduce a budget before calling an election is unknown at this point. The recent session of the Assembly, which ended on Thursday, December 6, 2018, is widely considered to be the last session in which a serious legislative agenda would be implemented. But it is not uncommon for governments to call an election immediately after tabling or passing a budget, and then using that budget as a de-facto campaign platform.
In 2015, Premier Jim Prentice called an election twelve days after a 16 days session which ended with the tabling of a provincial budget. And Premier Alison Redford called the election five days after the MLAs voted to approve that year’s provincial budget.
Tabling a provincial budget before calling an election could be a double-edge sword for the NDP in 2019.
Using a budget as its re-election platform would allow the Notley government to highlight its continued investments in health care, education, and public transportation like Calgary’s Green Line and Edmonton’s west LRT expansion, and contrast its plan with the expected slash and burn budgets that would be introduced under a UCP government led by Jason Kenney. But unless there is a big change in Alberta’s economic situation (and the international price of oil), any budget presented by the NDP in 2019 would likely have a significant deficit. While both the NDP and UCP have said they would plan to run budget deficits for the next few years, it would draw unwanted attention to an issue that is not seen as the NDP’s strength.
But whether or not a budget is tabled before the election, Finance Minister Joe Ceci is still required by the Fiscal Planning and Transparency Act to publicly release a Fiscal Update and Economic Statement on or before February 28, 2019.
Elections Alberta will release the first quarter financial disclosures of fundraising by Alberta’s political parties in mid-April 2019. And if the UCP continues dominating in the fundraising field, the NDP may want to avoid a round of news coverage about how they have been out-fundraised by its main conservative opponent.
A shrewd calculation related to when the election is held could be related to when voters of certain demographics are likely to be in Alberta and have easy access of voting stations. Calling an early election could limit the ability of vacationing snowbirds to cast their ballots in the election. Polls have suggested that the UCP has a considerable lead over the NDP among voters over the age of 65.
On the other end of the demographic spectrum, calling an early election in 2019 would ensure that university and college campuses are in session when the election is held. Polls suggest that the NDP have stronger support among younger and university educated voters. Mobilizing the student vote could make a difference in a number of electoral districts currently represented by the NDP, including Calgary-Currie, Calgary-Mountain View, Calgary-Varsity, Edmonton-Centre, Edmonton-Riverview, and Lethbridge-West.
Delay the election to late 2019 or early 2020?
Notley said publicly in 2017 that she intends to follow both the spirit and letter of Alberta’s fixed-election-date legislation. But as we all know, circumstances sometimes change in politics.
There might be a backlash of public opinion, like the Progressive Conservative government faced when it called an election one year early in 2015, but the NDP do have the ability to wait until Spring 2020 to call the next provincial election. Alberta’s Election Act fixes the period to every four years, but the Charter of Rights and Freedoms says otherwise.
According to Section 4. (1) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, “No House of Commons and no legislative assembly shall continue for longer than five years from the date fixed for the return of the writs at a general election of its members.”
The decision to delay the next general election beyond Spring 2019 could have drastic electoral consequences for the NDP, but if the party already sees its chances of re-election as slim, as most polls suggest, it might be convinced to take the gamble. Waiting until late 2019 or early 2020 could mean the election could be held after the start of construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion and as the economy continues to recover from the drop in the international price of oil in 2014.
Delaying until 2020 would also give Notley an opportunity to campaign against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the expected October 2019 federal election. This would give Notley an opportunity to create some distance between herself and Trudeau, who had allies on the climate change file before their political relationship broke down over the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion delays.
Delaying the election would have unclear consequences for Third Party Election Advertisers.
The Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act currently states these groups, commonly known as Political Action Committees, are limited to spending $150,000 province-wide on election-related advertising between December 1 in the year before an election and election day. This legislation was passed under the assumption that the fixed-election period would be honoured. If the election is delayed until past spring 2019 and the post-December 1 limits continue to be implemented, the ability of PACs to advertise during the election would be severely limited.
Ryan Hastman, Rachel Notley and Dave Cournoyer (photography by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta)
Photo: Ryan Hastman, Rachel Notley and Dave Cournoyer. With more than 1,200 votes cast, Premier Rachel Notley was chosen as the Best Alberta MLA of 2017 in the Best of Alberta Politics 2017 survey. (photography by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta)
Back by popular demand, the Daveberta Podcast is pleased to launch the Best of Alberta Politics 2018 survey. We want to hear from you about the big political players and issues of 2018. Submit your choices for the seven categories below.
Who was the best Alberta cabinet minister of 2018?
Who was the best opposition critic of 2018?
Who is the up and coming MLA to watch in 2019?
Who is the new candidate to watch in the 2019 election?
Submissions will close on December 12, 2018 at 12:00pm and the top three choices in each category will be included in a round of voting starting on December 13, 2018. Voting will be open until December 19 and the winners will be announced on December 20, 2018.
Calgary-Falconridge – Devinder Toor defeated Pete de Jong and Jesse Minhas to secure the United Conservative Party nomination in this district. Toor was the Wildrose Party candidate in the 2016 by-election and 2015 general election in Calgary-Greenway. He was defeated by then-Progressive Conservative candidate Prab Gill in the 2016 by-election to choose a successor to Manmeet Bhullar, who Toor was defeated by in 2015.
Happy Mann’s candidacy in this contest was rejected by the UCP after he was alleged to have been involved in a incident where a local reporter was assaulted. Mann was the Wildrose Party candidate in Calgary-McCall in the 2015 election and Calgary-Cross in the 2012 election.
Camrose – Kevin Smook defeated Steven Hansen to secure the Alberta Party nomination in this district. Smook is councillor for Division 1 on Beaver County council, where he was first elected in 2013. He served as Reeve of Beaver County from 2014 to 2017.
Edmonton-Manning – Harjinder Grewal defeated Dakota Drouillard, Gurcharan Garcha, and Kulshan Gill to secure the UCP nomination in this northeast Edmonton district. Grewal is a former Edmonton Police Service officer and was the recipient of the Kiwanis 2013 ‘Top Cop’ award.
Edmonton-West Henday – Leah McRorie is seeking the Liberal Party nomination in this Edmonton district. McRorie is a certified facilitator with the Alberta Caregivers Associationand prolific tweeter. According to her LinkedIn profile, she provided social media support for Jeanne Lehman in her campaign for the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Manning ahead of the 2015 federal election.
Innisfail-Sylvan Lake – Devin Dreeshen has been acclaimed as the UCP candidate in this district. There had been speculation that Dreeshen would be appointed by the UCP board and there does not appear to be any evidence that an open nomination contest was held before he was acclaimed.
Leduc-Beaumont – Robb Connelly is seeking the Alberta Party nomination. His application to run for the Alberta Party nomination in the neighbouring Strathcona-Sherwood Park district was denied by the Party.
Lesser Slave Lake – Judy Kim-Meneen is no longer the nominated Alberta Party candidate in this sprawling northern Alberta district. Kim-Meneen instead now appears to have been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in Edmonton-North West. It also appears that former PC Party candidate Emerson Mayers withdrew from the contest in Edmonton-North West and that former Liberal Party candidate Todd Ross is now seeking the Alberta Party nomination in Edmonton-Ellerslie.
Spruce Grove-Stony Plain – Spruce Grove City Councillor Searle Turton defeated Mathew Clarke and Jerry W. Semen to secure the UCP nomination in this urban district west of Edmonton. Turton was first elected to Spruce Grove City Council in 2010.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Here is a preview of the nomination contests being held in the coming days:
Polak is the former Vice-President of Communications for the Wildrose Party and served as a member of the UCP interim board from 2017 to 2018. Ford is an international affairs specialist with a background in China and human rights. She has worked as a senior policy advisor with Global Affairs Canada. Wong is a pastor with the Calgary Chinese Alliance Church and recently completed a Master of Public Administration at the University of Calgary.
Polak has been endorsed by former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean. Ford has been endorsed by Edmonton-area MP Garnett Genuis, former PC MLA Kyle Fawcett, UCP candidates Doug Schweitzer and Tyler Shandro, and past mayoral candidate Bill Smith. Wong has been endorsed by UCP candidate Jeremy Nixon, former PC MLAs Wayne Cao and Gordon Dirks, and University of Calgary economist Jack Mintz.
Former Progressive Conservative MLA Mark Hlady was seeking the nomination but was disqualified last month.
Greco is a certified home inspector, Madu is a lawyer with Tisel Law Office, and Quadri previously served as the PC MLA for Edmonton-Mill Woods from 2008 to 2015. Quadri served as Legislative Secretary to premier Jim Prentice from 2014 to 2015.
Greco is endorsed by former MP and MLA Ian McClelland.
Reid is the owner of Tim Hortons franchises in Nanton and Clareshold and is chair of the Claresholm and District Health Foundation. Schnieder previously worked as an Area Sales Representative with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Gough was a researcher with the Wildrose and UCP caucuses. Thom is the former president of the PC Party and was the federal Conservative candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona in the 2015 election. And Walker is an Assessment Consultant in the Department of Labour.
Gough is endorsed by UCP MLAs Leela Aheer, Scott Cyr, Grant Hunter, Mark Smith, Rick Strankman, and Wes Taylor. Thom has been endorsed by Brian Jean. Walker has been endorsed by MP Garnett Genuis, former MP Ken Epp, and former UCP constituency president Stephen Burry (who is now Acting Chief of Staff with the Freedom Conservative Party Caucus).
December 9, 2018 – Parmeet Singh Boparai and Paramjit Singh Mann are seeking the New Democratic Party nomination in Calgary-Falconridge. Boparai is the former president of the Dashmesh Culture Centre. Update: Paramjit Singh Mann’s candidacy has not been accepted by the NDP.
Rowswell is a Lloydminster-based financial advisor with Edward Jones. He previously served as the secretary of the local UCP association and as campaign manager for Vermilion-LloydminsterWildrose Party candidate Danny Hozack in the 2015 election.
Two-time Wildrose candidate Hozack was seeking the UCP nomination in this new district, but was deemed ineligible to run by the UCP. A letter to Hozack from UCP executive director Janice Harrington stated “a background review of your social media accounts and other online statements has been completed and upon review of this research, the Nominations Committee has deemed you ineligible.”
“…there was a significant number of posts and statements that you have made or shared that would harm the reputation of the UCP and cause great offence to a large number of Albertans if they were made public by our opponents,” wrote Harrington, who then listed examples of the offending material, which she states included a post that shares a request to “Save Europe, the West, the World from Islam” and the republishing of statements and writings of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
UCP members in Spruce Grove-Stony Plain will select a candidate on November 30, 2018. CLAC representative Mathew Clark, Jerry Semen, and Spruce Grove City Councillor Searle Turton are seeking the UCP nomination in this district. Semen has been endorsed by UCP MLA Tany Yao, Conservative Member of Parliament Garnett Genuis and former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean.
Airdrie-Cochrane – Steven Durrell is seeking the NDP nomination in this district north of Calgary. Durrell is a Telus dispatcher and trustee for the Telus Corporation pension plan. He has been a shop steward for the United Steel Workers. “My priorities lie in ensuring that our social services, like healthcare, education, or programs for people with disabilities, continue to receive the funding they require to be effective,” Durrell said in a press release from his campaign.
Airdrie-East – Alex Luterbach has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Luterbach has worked as a Retail Development Regional Analyst with Nestlé.
Calgary-Glenmore: Scott Appleby has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in this district. He is the owner of Appleby Painting and co-founder of GrayApple Inc.
Calgary-Peigan – Herjinder Seran is no longer seeking the Alberta Party candidate in this district.
Camrose – Former Edmonton-Ellerslie Wildrose candidate Jackie Lovely defeated former Strathcona-Sherwood Park Wildrose candidate Rob Johnson, former Calgary-South East Wildrose candidate Brandon Lunty, and former Wetaskiwin-Camrose Wildrose candidate Trevor Miller will face casino manager Dawn Anderson to secure the UCP nomination.
Edmonton-Ellerslie – Sherry Adams is seeking the UCP nomination. Adams is currently serving her second term representing Ward I on the Edmonton Public School Board.
Edmonton-Riverview – Kara Barker was acclaimed as the UCP candidate after her challenger, Shawn McLeod, withdrew from the contest. Barker is a crown prosecutor with Alberta’s Department of Justice.
Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland – Leah Wood is once again is seeking the UCP nomination in this district. Wood ran in the UCP nomination contest held in August 2018 before Dale Johnson was removed as a candidate. Wood was a member of the UCP interim board and was widely considered to be the favourite of the party establishment in the first nomination contest.Shane Getson is also seeking the UCP nomination in this district.
Lesser Slave Lake:Pat Rehn defeated Brenda Derkoch, John Middelkoop, and Juliette Noskey to secure the UCP nomination in this rural northern Alberta district. Jim Sparks candidacy was not accepted by the UCP and Garrett Tomlinson withdrawn and endorsed Rehn. Rehn is the owner of AAA Precision Industries and Precision Crane and Rentals.
Lesser Slave Lake is one of two electoral districts that have been given special status under Section 15(2) of Electoral Boundaries Commission Act, which permits a geographic size that yields a population between 25% and 50% below the average electoral division.
Livingstone-Macleod – Allen Maclennan and Justin Murphy have withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest.
St. Albert – Cameron Jefferies has been nominated as the Green Party candidate. Jefferies is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law and the University of Alberta where he researches environmental law, natural resource law, ocean law and animal law and sustainability law.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Paige Gorsak is running for the federal NDP nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona.
For the past ten years, Edmonton-Strathcona has been an orange island in a sea of blue. Now with three-term Member of Parliament Linda Duncan choosing to retire when the next federal election is called, members of the New Democratic Party in Edmonton-Strathcona will be gathering on November 26, 2018 to select a new candidate to carry their party’s banner in the only district held by the federal NDP in Alberta.
Two candidates have stepped forward to seek the party’s nomination.
Heather McPherson has progressive credentials as the executive director of the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation and volunteer team leader with Médecins Sans Frontières. She is the former president of the local NDP association and has the endorsement of big names in the NDP establishment, including Duncan and former MLA and provincial party leader Raj Pannu.
Paige Gorsak, a 26-year old community organizer, University of Alberta graduate student and library assistant with Edmonton’s Public Library, is McPherson’s only challenger. Gorsak is running a unabashedly democratic socialist campaign that focuses on social justice issues that push beyond the centre-leftish territory many NDP politicians have staked out in recent years.
Gorsak has been featured in a series of powerful videos on social media and is advocating for change on a wide-range of issues including transition to a 100% renewable energy economy, the elimination of post-secondary tuition and student debt, the creation of free universal childcare and a universal single-payer pharmacare program, and full Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination for First Nations, including a guarantee of treaty rights to education, the full implementation of UNDRIP and the full implementation of Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action. The list goes on.
Despite the federal district overlapping an area represented by five NDP MLAs, including Premier Rachel Notley, Transportation Minister Brian Mason, Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt, and Housing Minister Lori Sigurdson, Duncan’s provincial counterparts have been publicly quiet about the selection of her successor. But their silence should not be taken as an indication they do not have strong feelings about who should win.
The tension between the federal and provincial NDP in Alberta, especially over the issue of oil development and pipeline construction, has been palpable. Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has taken a position against the expansion of the federal government-owned Trans Mountain Pipeline, a project Notley had spent an incredible amount of political capital trying to get done.
Gorsak’s call for a transition away from non-renewable energy economy has also made her a target of United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney on social media. But her campaign has responded to Kenney’s attacks with ease and humour, demonstrating that when it comes to issues like climate change, she is not afraid to stake ground outside the provincial NDP’s comfort zone.
Holding on to Edmonton-Strathcona in 2019 will be a tough battle for the NDP, but if the 2015 federal election is any indication, the federal NDP will not find success by tacking to the political centre and mirroring the path traditionally taken by the Liberal Party. The federal NDP should push the limits and provide an exciting and compelling argument for progressive social change. If there is anywhere in Alberta where that kind of message will resonate, it will be in Edmonton-Strathcona.
And Paige Gorsak looks like she could be up to that challenge.
Other parties yet to nominate in Edmonton-Strathcona
The other parties are also in the process of nominating their candidates in this district.Julia Bareman and Sam Lilly are seeking the Conservative Party nomination and Eleanor Olszewski is seeking the Liberal Party nomination. Olszewski earned 20.7 percent of the vote as the Liberal Party candidate in the 2015 federal election.
Photo: Jason Kenney and Tunde Obasan (source: Facebook)
Government audit manager Tunde Obasan defeated three-term City Councillor Mike Nickel and chiropractor William Farrell to secure the United Conservative Party nomination in the new Edmonton-South district. Three other candidates, Atul Ranade, Inderdeep Sandhu, and Payman Paresan, withdrew from the contest before the vote.
He initially announced his intentions to seek the UCP candidacy in Edmonton-Whitemud but withdrew from that race in January 2018 to contest the nomination in Edmonton-South.
Current Edmonton-South West MLA Thomas Dang is seeking the New Democratic Party candidacy in this new district at a December 13, 2018 nomination meeting.
Nickel, who said in June 2018 that “I’ve done as much as I can do from a council seat,” will now presumably remain on city council until the 2021 municipal election.
Former MLA disqualified in Calgary UCP contest
Former Progressive Conservative MLA Mark Hlady has been disqualified from the UCP nomination contest in Calgary-Mountain View.
Mark Hlady
The former MLA wrote in a message to supporters that he was disqualified over a dispute over the date of purchased of his UCP membership. Hlady claims that the UCP made an exception in a similar situation with another candidate, who he does not name but is almost certainly a reference to nomination candidate Caylan Ford.
Members of the UCP Board of Directors in the district, including Hlady’s CFO, Dean Brawn, filed a complaint last month with the party over Ford’s membership status.
Hlady also claimed in his email that while the UCP disqualified him from the race, the party asked Elections Alberta to list him as having withdrawn on their website.
He has now endorsed Becca Polak and Jeremy Wong for the UCP nomination in this district.
He represented Calgary-Mountain View in the Alberta Legislature from 1993 to 2004 and was the PC candidate in the 2015 election.
Schreiner seeking re-election in Red Deer
NDP MLA Kim Schreiner is seeking her party’s nomination for re-election in Red Deer-North. Schreiner was elected in 2015 in a 4-way race with 29.4 percent of the vote (Wildrose candidate Buck Buchanan earned 24.6 percent and PC Christine Moore earned 22.7 percent and Liberal Michael Dawe earned 19.3 percent).
And in Calgary-Falconridge, Parmeet Singh Boparai is challenging Paramjit Singh Mann for the NDP nomination. Boparai is the former president of the Dashmesh Culture Centre.
November 21, 2018 – Jim Black is expected to be nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in Brooks-Medicine Hat. Black was the Alberta Party candidate in Medicine Hat in the 2015 provincial election, where he earned 5.7 percent of the vote.
November 21, 2018 – MLA Richard Feehan is expected to be nominated as the NDP candidate in Edmonton-Rutherford. Feehan was first elected in 2015, earning 63.9 percent of the vote. He now serves as Minister of Indigenous Relations and Deputy Government House Leader.
November 23, 2018 – MLA David Eggen is expected to be nominated as the NDP candidate in the new district of Edmonton-North West. Eggen has represented the Edmonton-Calder district from 2004 to 2008 and 2012 to the now. He currently serves as Minister of Education.
November 21 & 24, 2018 – There is a Wildrose Stomp in Camrose with four of the five candidates seeking the UCP nomination having run under the Wildrose Party banner in a past election. Former Edmonton-Ellerslie Wildrose candidate Jackie Lovely, former Strathcona-Sherwood Park Wildrose candidate Rob Johnson, former Calgary-South East Wildrose candidate Brandon Lunty, and former Wetaskiwin-Camrose Wildrose candidate Trevor Miller will face casino manager Dawn Anderson.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
We would love to hear what you think of this episode, so feel free to leave a review where you download, comment on the blog, Facebook or Twitter or send us an email at podcast@daveberta.ca.
And a huge thanks to our producer, Adam Rozenhart, who keeps us on track and makes each episode of the Daveberta Podcast sound so great.
