You can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you find podcasts online. We’d 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.
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We are always thankful to our hard working producer, Adam Rozenhart, who helps make each episode of the Daveberta Podcast sound so great.
Photo: Danielle Larivee, Tanya Fir, Lori Sigurdson, and Sonya Savage.
I took a short break from writing about Alberta politics while I was on vacation over the past few weeks, so I am catching up this morning on the latest Alberta nomination candidate news.
Fir defeats former Ontario MP Jeff Watson for UCP nomination in Calgary-Peigan
Jeff Watson
Tanya Fir defeated former Ontario Member of Parliament Jeff Watson and past Wildrose Party candidate Jeevan Mangat to secure the United Conservative Party nomination in Calgary-Peigan. Fir was backed by her campaign chair, Craig Chandler, a controversial conservative activist.
Quebec MP Maxime Bernier became momentarily involved in this nomination race when Fir’s campaign sent an email to their supporters claiming Maxine Bernier had endorsed his candidate. The real Bernier responded with an email disputing the claim and instead appeared to endorse his “good friend” Watson.
Larivee seeks re-election in Lesser Slave Lake
MLA Danielle Larivee is seeking the New Democratic Party nomination in Lesser Slave Lake. Larivee was first elected in 2015 unseating 7-term PC MLA Pearl Calahasen. She currently serves as Minister of Children’s Services and the Status of Women.
Former Liberal MLA runs for Alberta Party nomination
In Edmonton-South West, former Liberal Party MLA Mo Elsalhy is seeking the Alberta Party nomination. Elsalhy was the MLA for Edmonton-McClung from 2004 and 2008 and ran for the party leadership in 2008. He attempted a comeback in 2012 but was unable unseat PC MLA David Xiao. During his time as MLA he served in various critic roles, including as Official Opposition critic for Justice and Public Safety, and Innovation and Science.
Calgary-Beddington – Randy Kerr defeated Josephine Pon to win the UCP nomination. Kerr was recently the focus of media attention when it was discovered he had made several social media postings that cast doubt on the legitimacy of climate change.
Calgary-East – Andre Chabot and Issa Mossa are the latest candidates to enter this UCP nomination contest. Chabot was a Calgary city councillor from 2005 to 2017. He placed a distant third in the October 2017 mayoral election, earning 3.08 percent of the vote. Mossa ran for Calgary city council in Ward 10 in 2017.
Calgary-Falconridge – Christopher Steeves is seeking the UCP nomination. He served as a councillor with the City of Chestermere from 2005 to 2017.
Calgary-Fish Creek – Cyndy Morin has withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest in this south Calgary district and endorsed fellow candidate Cindy Ross over incumbent MLA Richard Gotfried. Morin had already previously withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest in Calgary-North West before the nomination vote was held in that district.
Morin noted on her Facebook page that she intends to “bring a defamation suit against the NDP for blatantly publishing what they refer to as facts.” The NDP issued a press release days ago “asking the Election Commissioner of Alberta to investigate UCP nomination candidate Cyndy Morin, running in Calgary-Fish Creek, for accepting and promoting corporate donations to her campaign.”
Calgary-North – Devin Green is seeking the UCP nomination.
Calgary-North East – Rajan Sawhney is seeking the UCP nomination.
Calgary-North West – Sonya Savage defeated Jennele Giong and Cam Khan to win the UCP nomination. Savage is a pipeline lobbyist and served as the president of the Progressive Conservative Party youth wing in 1992.
Calgary-Peigan – Herjinder Saran is seeking theAlberta Party nomination.
David Shepherd
Edmonton-City Centre – MLA David Shepherd is seeking the NDP nomination, which is scheduled to take place on September 6, 2018. Shepherd was first elected in 2015 and in 2017 was voted “MLA to watch in 2018” in the Best of Alberta Politics survey. Stephen Hammerschmidt is the latest candidate to enter the UCP nomination contest in this district.
Edmonton-Glenora – Marjorie Newman, David Salopek, and former Edmonton-Riverview PC MLA Steve Young are seeking the UCP nomination. A nomination meeting will be held on August 15, 2018.
Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood – Atul Ranade is seeking the UCP nomination. Ranade previously withdrew from UCP nomination contests in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview and Edmonton-South.
Edmonton-Manning – Dakota Drouillard is seeking the UCP nomination. Jitender Sahni has withdrawn from the Alberta Party nomination contest.
Edmonton-Meadows – Amrit Matharu has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.
Edmonton-Mill Woods – James Moore is seeking the Alberta Party nomination.
Edmonton-Riverview – MLA Lori Sigurdson has been nominated as the NDP candidate in this district. She was first elected in 2015 and currently serves as Minister of Seniors and Housing.
Edmonton-South – Inderdeep Sandhu is seeking the UCP nomination.
Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville– Marvin Olsen is seeking the Alberta Party nomination.
Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland: Don McCargar has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. McCargar made headlines in 2016 when he put his $7.5 million Parkland County mansion for sale. The palatial home included a sauna, wet bar, six-vehicle garage, and a car wash, as well as herringbone marble tiles covering the floors and hand-painted dome murals adorning the ceilings.
Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright – Blake Prior is seeking the UCP nomination. Prior was the Progressive Conservative candidate in the Battle River-Wainwright district in the 2015 election.
West Yellowhead– Stuart Taylor is seeking the UCP nomination. Taylor was the Wildrose Party candidate in this district in the 2012 and 2015 elections. He is a former Hinton town councillor and was defeated in his bid for mayor in 2017.
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!
This week on the Daveberta Podcast, guest hosts Erika Barootes, Janis Irwin and Natasha Soles chat with our producer Adam Rozenhart about their experiences in provincial politics and where they see Alberta politics moving in the near future. They also answer some questions you submitted to us.
Erika Barootes is the the president of the United Conservative Party of Alberta, an athlete, and in her day job, a senior advisor of corporate communications at EPCOR.
Janis Irwin the Director of Stakeholder Relations in the Office of the Premier, and she’s also declared that she’ll be running for the Alberta NDP nomination in Edmonton’s Highlands-Norwood electoral district, which has been held by Brian Mason since the year 2000.
Natasha Soles is the former Director of Communications and Legislative affairs for the Alberta Party Caucus. She’s also a Senior Executive Associate at an outstanding Edmonton not-for-profit called Homeward Trust.
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and wherever you find podcasts online. We’d love to hear what you think of this episode, so feel free to leave a comment on this blog, Facebook or Twitter or send us an email at podcast@daveberta.ca.
Also, it would be a big help if you could leave a review where you download this podcast and share this episode with a friend.
More than 200 people packed into the Bellevue Community Hall tonight to support Janis Irwin’s bid for the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood.
Photo: More than 200 people packed into the Bellevue Community Hall tonight to support Janis Irwin’s bid for the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood.
Janis Irwin launched her campaign for the New Democratic Party nomination in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood this evening at the Bellevue Community Hall. Irwin is a community advocate and educator, and she was the federal NDP candidate in Edmonton-Griesbach in the 2015 election, where she placed a strong-second behind Conservative candidate Kerry Diotte.
Janis Irwin (source: Facebook)
Her campaign launched was attended by more than 200 supporters, including Edmonton-Ellerslie MLA Rod Loyola, and public school trustees Bridget Stirling and Michael Janz.
Irwin currently works as a Director of Stakeholder Relations in the Office of the Premier.
The area has been represented by outgoing NDP MLABrian Mason since 2000 and and is considered to be one of the strongest NDP-voting districts in Alberta. Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood makes up the Orange Core of the federal Edmonton-Griesbach district. (Note: I live in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood, so I have a particularly keen interest in this nomination contest).
A nomination meeting has been scheduled for October 23, 2018 at the Alberta Avenue Community Hall.
Former Kenney staffer nominated in Peace River
Daniel Williams
Daniel Williams defeated Mackenzie County deputy reeve Lisa Wardley to secure the UCP nomination in this sprawling northern Alberta district. Williams worked as a political staffer for Jason Kenney in Ottawa before returning to Alberta to seek the UCP nomination in Peace River.
Three candidates dropped out of what had been a 5-candidate race in June and July, and Wardley raised concerns that the locations and hours of nomination votes in this large rural district would make it difficult for UCP members not living in the main urban centres to participate in the vote.
Eleventh MLA announces retirement in 2019
NDP MLA Jamie Kleinsteuberannounced on social media that he will not seeking re-election in 2019. Kleinsteuber was first elected in 2015 in Calgary-Northern Hills and in 2019 the district is being redistribtued between the Calgary-Beddington, Calgary-North and Calgary-North East districts.
Kleinsteuber becomes the eleventh MLA to announce plans not to seek re-election in 2019. The list of retiring MLAs now include five UCP MLAs, four NDP MLAs, one Liberal MLA and one Independent MLA.
Calgary-Mountain View – Liberal Party leader David Khan has been nominated as his party’s candidate in this north central Calgary district. This area has been represented by Liberal MLA David Swann since 2004. Swann is not seeking re-election.
Calgary-North East – Mandeep Shergill is seeking the UCP nomination. Shergill works as a Constituency Assistant to Calgary-Greenway MLA Prab Gill, who was seeking the UCP nomination in this district before he resigned from the UCP caucus following allegations of ballot-stuffing at the local UCP association’s annual general meeting.
Edmonton-Castle Downs – Ed Ammar defeated Arthur Hagen and Gennadi Boitchenko to win the UCP nomination. Ammar is a real estate agent and served as the first chairman of the UCP interim board following the formation of the party in 2017. Ammar was the Liberal Party candidate in Edmonton-Decore in the 2012 election and president of the Wildrose Party association in Edmonton-Castle Downs in 2016.
Edmonton-City Centre – Lily Le is the third candidate seeking the UCP nomination in this downtown Edmonton district.
Edmonton-Mill Woods – Abdi Bakal is seeking the Liberal Party nomination in this southeast Edmonton district. This area was represented by Liberal MLAs Don Massey from 1993 to 2004 and Weslyn Mather from 2004 to 2008. Tariq Chaudhry is seeking the UCP nomination. Chaudhry is the owner of the Maharaja Banquet Hall.
Edmonton-South – Pramod Kumar defeated Enayat Aminzadah to win the Alberta Party nomination. William Farrell becomes the fifth candidate to join the UCP nomination contest.
Edmonton-South West – Former PC MLA Sohail Quadri is seeking the UCP nomination. Quadri previously represented Edmonton-Mill Woods from 2012 to 2015. From 2014 to 2015, he served as Legislative Secretary to Premier Jim Prentice. He was unseated in 2015 by NDP candidate Christina Gray.
Grande Prairie – Tracy Allard was acclaimed as the UCP canddiate. School trustee John Lehners withdrew from the contest after serious car accident. According to the Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune, Lehners’s brush with death made politics seem less important. “When I was hanging upside down I wasn’t thinking about running for MLA. I’m thinking about my dog, I’m thinking about my family, I’m thinking about my friends and what I’m going to do next and ‘Thank God I’m alive,’” Lehners told the Daily Herald Tribune.
Lacombe-Ponoka -Lacombe City Councillor Thalia Hibbs is seeking the UCP nomination in this central Alberta district. The district is currently represented by UCP MLA Ron Orr, who was elected as a Wildrose MLA in 2015.
Lesser Slave Lake– Darryl Boisson is seeking the UCP nomination in this sprawling northern Alberta district. This will be Boisson’s third attempt at provincial office in this district. He was the Wildrose Party candidate in Lesser Slave Lake in the 2012 and 2015 elections.
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!
Sandra Jansen (left) and Premier Rachel Notley (right) at the press conference announcing the PC MLA had crossed the floor to join the NDP. (Photo from Premier Rachel Notley's Facebook Page)
It was supposed to be an event highlighting an effort to recruit more conservative women into politics in Alberta, but it was overshadowed by the news that former Prime Minister Stephen Harperplans to personally campaign against New Democratic Party MLA Sandra Jansen in the next provincial election.
For UCP activists, and Jason Kenney in particular, the fight in Calgary-North West likely feels personal. Jansen was elected as a Progressive Conservative in 2012 and re-elected in 2015 before crossing the floor to the NDP in 2016. But Conservative anger was directed at Jansen before her floor-crossing.
Jansen’s support for her friend Nirmala Naidoo, who ran as a Liberal candidate in the 2015 federal election, drew the ire of the legions of federal Conservatives who were moving to take over the PC Party following its defeat in the 2015 election (Naidoo’s Conservative competitor, now Member of Parliament Pat Kelly, is endorsing UCP nomination candidate and pipeline lobbyist Sonya Savage).
Sonya Savage
Jansen attempted a mount a campaign for the leadership after her party’s disastrous results in the last election but was all but drummed out of the party by social conservatives allied with Kenney.
Her moderate views on social issues like abortion and rights for sexual minorities, as well as her role as a former communications manager and key supporter of former premier Alison Redford contributed to the mounting tension from more hard-line conservatives.
Jansen accused Kenney of wanting to destroy the PC Party in his plans to merge with the Wildrose Party. And when push came to shove at the PC Party’s annual convention in 2016, Jansen was shoved hard by social conservative activists and soon after decided to leave the party.
For Conservative partisans, this was the biggest betrayal.
Pat Kelly
As Minister of Infrastructure, Jansen has a powerful spot at the cabinet table, allowing her to champion the construction of big capital projects like the new Calgary Cancer Centre and the completion of the city’s ring road and the Green Line C-Train route.
Jansen plays a big role in Premier Rachel Notley’s charm offensive in Calgary, but her tendency to get involved in petty arguments with Conservative partisans on social media distracts from the NDP government’s narrative. As I have written in the past, she could probably spend less time arguing on Twitter and more time trying to boost her government’s fortunes in Calgary.
Uniting the Right meant CPC-UCP unity too
Regardless of whether Jansen wins or loses the next election, she should take it as a complement that a Conservative heavy hitter like Harper would personally campaign against her. She should wear it as a badge of honour.
Harper likely remains popular among Conservatives in particular and Calgarians in general, and his support for Kenney’s UCP is not surprising. Harper endorsed Kenney’s leadership bid last year and was rumoured to be one of the driving forces behind the scenes in the PC-Wildrose unity referendum last year.
Harper is now the chairman of the International Democratic Union, an international club of right-wing political parties from 63 countries. His congratulatory tweet to extreme right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in April 2018 raised eyebrows among political watchers. Orbán was re-elected after campaigning on a platform that included hostile anti-immigrant rhetoric.
But the federal Conservative connections to the UCP go deeper than Harper. Organizationally, the UCP has become an extension of the Conservative Party of Canada in Alberta, with most Conservative MPs actively involved or endorsing candidates in UCP nomination races. This is a significant change since the 1990s, when the provincial PC Party and the federal Reform Party were at each other throats.
Despite forming the opposition, the UCP are not the underdogs going into the next election. The next election campaign will represent the first time in more than 25-years that the dominant federal and provincial conservative parties in Alberta will be marching in lock-step.
While this may give Conservatives a big boost in an election campaign, it is yet to be seen whether a UCP government would stand up for the interests of Albertans over partisan gain if faced by a Conservative government in Ottawa.
Not first time a Calgary-North West MLA targeted
Frank Bruseker
It is reminiscent of another election in Calgary-North West more than two decades ago. Liberal MLA Frank Bruseker had represented the district since 1989 and had become a major thorn in the side of Premier Ralph Klein going into the 1997 election.
Bruseker was described at the time as being a relentless and ferocious critic of Klein during the Multi-Corp Inc. share affair, in which the premier was accused of promoting a company his wife had shares in.
It was reported during that campaign that PC Party campaign manager Rod Love had a poster hanging in his office of Bruseker framed by the crosshairs of a rifle scope.
The PCs poured significant resources into Calgary-North West and, when the dust settled in March 1997, Bruseker was unseated by Tory Greg Melchin by a margin of 1,964 votes.
Photo: Tom Olsen and Ric McIver (source: Facebook)
Lobbyist Tom Olsen surprised many political watchers last weekend when he defeated Megan McCaffery in the United Conservative Party nomination contest in Calgary-Buffalo. McCaffery, who has strong ties with the Manning Centre and had the endorsement of 9 UCP MLAs, was believed to be the favourite to win the contest in Calgary’s downtown district.
Attentive readers of this blog will remember Olsen as the former spokesperson for Premier Ed Stelmach and later as Vice-President of Communications for the Progressive Conservative Party during Jim Prentice‘s brief reign. Olsen currently works as a lobbyist and his clients include the Calgary Residential Rental Association and Greyhound. Until recently, his client list included the Canadian Consumer Finance Association, the national group representing Pay Day Loan companies.
Tom Olsen crossing the picket-line during the strike by unionized staff, including reporters, at the Calgary Herald. The strike lasted from November 1999 to July 2000.
Before taking a job in the Premier’s Office, Olsen worked as a reporter and politics columnist for the Calgary Herald. He crossed the picket-line and continued to work at the Herald while many of his colleagues and co-workers went on strike from November 1999 to July 2000.
Olsen will face New Democratic Party candidate and provincial Finance Minister Joe Ceci in the next election. This district has not been fertile ground for conservative parties in the past, as it elected NDP or Liberal candidates in 8 of the past 10 elections.
Khan to run in Mountain View
David Khan
Liberal Party leader David Khan will run in the Calgary-Mountain View district in the next election. Khan will run to succeed his party’s only current MLA, David Swann, who is planning to retire from politics after serving four-terms in the Legislature.
Khan will face NDP Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley, who currently represents Calgary-Buffalo but is seeking re-election in Mountain View, and Green candidate Thana Boonlert. Caylan Ford and Jeremy Wong are seeking the UCP nomination.
This will be Khan’s fourth attempt to win a seat in the Legislative Assembly. He previously ran in the 2014 by-election in Calgary-West, the 2015 general election in Calgary-Buffalo, and the 2017 by-election in Calgary-Lougheed.
Calgary-Currie – Dan Morrison is the sixth candidate to join the UCP nomination contest in this district. Morrison was previously a candidate for the federal Conservative nomination in Calgary-Signal HIll, where he cried foul after being disqualified by the party.
Calgary-Varsity – Jason Copping is seeking the UCP nomination. Copping is co-chair of the UCP policy committee. He is a labour relations consultant, teaches at the University of Calgary, and is a member of the Alberta Labour Relations Board.
Camrose – Jackie Lovely is seeking the UCP nomination. Lovely now lives in Camrose, but she previously was the Wildrose Party candidate in Edmonton-Ellerslie in the 2012 and 2015 elections. She is a former Wildrose Caucus staffer and past president of the Summerside Community League.
Edmonton-Castle Downs – UCP members in this north Edmonton district will select their candidate on July 26, 2018. The three candidates contesting this nomination are Ed Ammar, Gennadi Boitchenko, and Arthur Hagen. Ammar is a former Liberal candidate who played a large role in the formation of the UCP as the chair of the new party’s interim board. He is being endorsed by such conservative luminaries as Craig Chandler.
Edmonton-Glenora – David Salopek is seeking the UCP nomination.
Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood – George Lam is seeking the UCP nomination. Many Edmontonians may remember Lam as a frequent municipal election candidate who played a role as spokesperson for the mysterious Henry Mak during the 2017 mayoral election. Lam earned 760 votes in his 2017 bid for Edmonton Public School Board trustee in Ward A.
Edmonton-Riverview – NDP MLA Lori Sigurdson will seek her party’s candidacy for re-election at a nomination meeting scheduled for August 14, 2018. Sigurdson is Minister of Seniors and Housing.
Lethbridge-West – Real Estate Agent Karri Flatla is seeking the UCP nomination.
Livingstone-Macleod – Dylin Hauser is seeking the Liberal Party nomination. A nomination meeting has been scheduled for August 23, 2018.
West Yellowhead – Ray Hilts is seeking the UCP nomination. Hilts has served on Whitecourt Town Council since October 2017. He is a director with the Alberta Forest Alliance.
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!
Glasgo is a Constituency Assistant for Cypress-Medicine Hat UCP MLA Drew Barnes and is a contributor to the Story of a Tory blog. Her nomination campaign featured two events with Donna Trimble, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education, a group that campaigned against the NDP government’s Gay-Straight Alliance legislation.
Calgary-Buffalo – UCP members in this downtown Calgary district will select their candidate for the next election on July 21, 2018. The two candidates vying for the nomination are Megan McCaffrey and Tom Olsen.
McCaffrey is the former executive director of Common Sense Calgary, a conservative municipal political group with strong ties to Preston Manning’s Manning Centre. She ran as the Wildrose Party candidate in Calgary-Elbow in the 2015 election. McCaffery has been endorsed by 9 UCP MLAs,MP Stephanie Kusie, former PC cabinet minister Ted Morton, and Quebecois libertarian icon Maxime Bernier.
Olsen is a former Calgary Herald reporter and columnist, a former Press Secretary for premier Ed Stelmach, and lead singer of Tom Olsen and the Wreckage.
Calgary-Falconridge – Deepak Sharma has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate in this northeast Calgary district, becoming his party’s second candidate nominated to run in the next election.
Calgary-Foothills – Jennifer Wyness is seeking the Alberta Party nomination. She placed second in the Ward 2 contest in Calgary’s 2017 municipal election, finishing with 36 percent to incumbent councillor Joe Magliocca‘s 49 percent.
Calgary-Mountain View – Dean Brawn has withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest. Brawn was a candidate for Calgary City Council in Ward 7 in the 2017 municipal election.
Calgary-North – Melanie Wen is seeking the Alberta Party nomination.
Calgary-Shaw – Bronson Ha has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.
Edmonton-CastleDowns – Mohamad Rahall has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.
Edmonton-City Centre – Taras Zakordonski is seeking the UCP nomination.
Edmonton-Decore – Karen Principe is seeking the UCP nomination. Principe placed a very close third in Ward 3 in Edmonton’s 2017 municipal election.
Edmonton-Glenora – Carla Stolte has withdrawn her nomination as the Alberta Party candidate in this district. She had been nominated as the party’s candidate on June 25, 2018.
Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood – Janis Irwin is seeking the New Democratic Party nomination in this long-time NDP-held district. Irwin was the federal NDP candidate in Edmonton-Griesbach in the 2015 election, where she placed a strong-second behind Conservative candidate Kerry Diotte.
Another frequently named potential candidate, Bill Moore-Kilgannon, announced in a note on Facebook that he will not be seeking the nomination. He will continue his role as president of the local NDP association instead.
NDP MLA Brian Mason, who has represented the area since he was first elected in a 2000 by-election, announced earlier this month that he would retire from politics when the next election is called.
Edmonton-North West – Ali Eltayeb was acclaimed as the UCP candidate in this new northwest Edmonton district.He is the owner and manager of Liberty Tax franchises in Edmonton.
Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland – Don McCargar is seeking the Alberta Party nomination. McCargar made headlines in 2016 when he put his $7.5 million Parkland County mansion for sale. The palatial home included a sauna, wet bar, six-vehicle garage, and a car wash, as well as herringbone marble tiles covering the floors and hand-painted dome murals adorning the ceilings.
Leduc-Beaumont – MLA Shaye Anderson was acclaimed as the NDP candidate in his district. Anderson was first elected in 2015 and currently serves as Minister of Municipal Affairs. Taurus Pawluk is seeking the Alberta Party nomination in this district.
Lethbridge-East – Angela Zuba is seeking the UCP nomination. Zuba is a development manager with Lethbridge College and the former CEO of the Canadian Home Builders Association in the Lethbridge region.
Lesser Slave Lake -Judy Kim-Meneen has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.
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 United Conservative Party quashed a giant bozo-eruption in the making this week when the party asked S. Todd Beasley to withdraw his candidacy for the nomination in the new Brooks-Medicine Hat district. Beasley, who was an organizer for the anti-NDP Alberta Wide Rallies held in 2016 and is the organizer behind the pro-coal ‘Stop the Shock‘ group, was dropped from the nomination race after anti-Muslim comments were discovered on Facebook.
Beasley defended his comments, in which he called Muslims “fools who are really worshipping Satan” and “those who think a rational God would anoint a dark-age pedophile warlord as his prophet.”
Beasley defended his comments today when speaking with radio host Danielle Smith (who dealt with her share of bozo-eruptions in the past). “I absolutely reject Islam, and all it stands for, and for any religion and their holy man that stand up and call for the murder of innocents,” Beasley said.
A UCP spokesperson said his Facebook comments were the reason for Beasley’s disqualification, but these were not the first political controversial statements he has made in public. He openly questioned the existence of climate change when testifying to the House of Commons Environment and Sustainable Development Committee in June 2016.
Asking, or telling, Beasley to withdraw was the right choice. But it remains pretty darn concerning that a candidate with these kind of views was running for a UCP nomination in the first place and only asked to leave the race onthe day before the nomination vote began.
I am told by one well-placed UCP supporter in Medicine Hat that Beasley had enough support among the party membership in Brooks-Medicine Hat to win the nomination had he not been disqualified at the 11th hour.
Voting in the nomination contest in Brooks-Medicine Hat began today in Brooks and will conclude tomorrow in Medicine Hat. Michaela Glasgo and Dinah Hiebert are the two remaining candidates in the race.
Anderson to be nominated in Leduc-Beaumont
Shaye Anderson
MLA Shaye Anderson is expected to be nominated as the New Democratic Party candidate in Leduc-Beaumont at a meeting on July 18, 2018. Anderson was first elected in 2015 and currently serves as Minister of Municipal Affairs.
NDP call on UCP to “Release the report.”
The NDP distributed a three-word media release today calling on the UCP to “Release the report” written by former PC Party president Ted Carruthers into allegations of ballot-stuffing that led to Calgary-Greenway MLA Prab Gillleaving the UCP caucus. The UCP is unlikely to release the report.
The NDP also revealed that Gill had submitted $7,245 in expenses to the Legislative Assembly to cover the cost of a banquet for UCP supporters that featured leader Jason Kenney as the speaker. MLAs are prohibited from using those funds for partisan purposes.
Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock – MLA Glenn van Dijken fended off a challenge from Monty Bauer to win the UCP nomination contest in this new district. van Dijken was elected as the MLA for Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock in 2015.
Calgary-Foothills – Former Progressive Conservative MLA Jason Luan defeated political staffer Connor Staus to secure the UCP nomination in a newly redrawn Calgary-Foothills district. Luan was MLA for Calgary-Hawkwood from 2012 to 2015.
Calgary-McCall – Usman Hahmood is seeking the UCP nomination.
Calgary-Mountain View – Caylan Ford is seeking the UCP nomination. 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. Ford was a panelist at a 2018 Manning Centre conference discussion about conservative culture in Canada.
Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview – Atul Ranade has withdrawn from the UCP nomination in this district. Ranade had previously announced his candidacy and later withdrew from the UCP nomination contest in Edmonton-South.
Edmonton-City Centre – Martina Crory is seeking the UCP nomination. She is a political science student at MacEwan University and her website biography describes her as having “done major research projects highlighting the fragility of leftist academia in the context of Canadian issues such as state-led Indigenous resurgence policies, child welfare and identity politics.” She was previously seeking the federal Conservative nomination in Edmonton-Centre but withdrew from that race after past candidate James Cumming announced his candidacy.
Edmonton-Glenora – Former PC MLA Steve Young is seeking the UCP nomination. Young represented the Edmonton-Riverview district from 2012 to 2015, before he was defeated by New Democrat Lori Sigurdson. Glenora is the neighbouring district to Riverview.
Edmonton-Manning – MLA Heather Sweet was nominated as the NDP candidate in this northeast Edmonton district. Sweet was first elected in 2015 with 71 percent of the vote.
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!
I had fun talking about Alberta politics, Prab Gill’s departure from the UCP and other election candidate nomination news with Ryan Jespersen and Tom Vernon this morning on 630 CHED.
The number of candidates in the United Conservative Party nomination contest in the sprawling northwest district of Peace River has dropped from five to two.
Daniel Williams
Lisa Wardley, deputy reeve of Mackenzie County, and Dan Williams, who worked as a political staffer for Jason Kenney, are the two remaining candidates in the contest after three other candidates, Kelly Bunn, Donald Lee, and Shelly Shannon, dropped out over the past few weeks.
Bunn announced his withdrawal in a Facebook post citing disillusionment with Kenney’s “Grassroots Guarantee” and what he describes as a top heavy approach to candidate nominations. Lee withdrew citing a lack of support. And Shannon announced her departure from the contest by endorsing Williams.
In a post on Facebook, Wardley criticized the locations of the voting stations chosen by the UCP nomination committee for the July 31 and August 1, 2018 vote as “not representative of the largest Riding in the Province.”
Wardley wrote that the voting stations “do not lend to fairness, accessibility or the importance and value of all of our communities and citizens. Does not take into account the working communities that we host (with the early day hours in High Level), the lack of public transportation to and from communities, the addition of three new communities to the riding… or really anything else that is specific to this region other than hitting the three largest urban centers.”
When contacted by this writer, Wardley said she was shocked when she learned that the nomination committee chose only three voting stations in the largest urban centres of the large rural district – Peace River, High Level and La Crete.
The new Peace River district. UCP voting stations circled in blue. (Click to enlarge)
“All our communities and members are important and distance, accessibility to polling stations, travel time, workforce demographics, fairness are just some of the criteria that needed to be added to the mix when deciding,” Wardley wrote, saying that she would like to see voting stations in more communities and the voting period extended by one day.
For readers not familiar with this district, it would take more than 5 hours to drive from the northern most community of Indian Cabins to the southern more community of Reno.
UCP members in this district will vote to choose their candidate on July 31, 2018 in Peace River from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and August 1, 2018 in High Level from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and La Crete from 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
The Peace River district is currently represented by New Democratic Party MLA Debbie Jabbour. Jabbour was first elected in 2015, earning 39 percent of the vote. She currently serves as Deputy Speaker and Chair of Committees in the Legislative Assembly.
Showdown in Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock
Incumbent UCP MLA Glenn van Dijken will face a challenge from farmer Monty Bauer in a nomination meeting on July 14 in the new district of Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock. van Dijken was first elected as a Wildrose Party candidate in 2015 in the Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock district. His opponent is being supported by former area Member of Parliament Brian Storseth. Bauer ran againstJeff Johnson for the Progressive Conservative nomination in Athabasca-Redwater in 2007.
A Sweet nomination in Edmonton-Manning
MLA Heather Sweet is expected to be nominated as the NDP candidate in this northeast Edmonton district on July 14, 2018. Sweet was first elected in 2015, earning 71 percent of the vote in a district that had swung between the PCs and Liberals in previous elections. She currently serves as Deputy Chair of Committees in the Legislative Assembly.
Citizenship judge appointed by Kenney seeks UCP nomination
Laurie Mozeson is seeking the UCP nomination in the southwest district of Edmonton-McClung. Mozeson is a long-time prosecutor with the federal and provincial governments and was appointed as a citizenship judge in 2012 by then federal immigration minister Jason Kenney.
A November 2012 report by the Hill Times noted Mozeson’s daughter, Marlee, had worked in Kenney’s office as an intern and special assistant, and later worked as assistant to Chungsen Leung, Kenney’s parliamentary secretary for multiculturalism. Her son, Jonah, had previously worked as communications director for Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose.
Gill resigns as deputy whip over ballot-snatching allegations
Current Calgary-Greenway MLA Prab Gill has resigned as UCP caucus deputy whip following allegations of ballot-snatching at the founding meeting of the Calgary-North UCP association. Gill has announced he is seeking the UCP nomination in the Calgary-North East district.
Calgary-Beddington – Daniel Kostak has announced his withdrawal from the UCP nomination contest and he has endorsed Randy Kerr.
Calgary-Bow – Eldon Siemens is seeking the UCP nomination.
Calgary-Currie – Terry Devries is seeking the UCP nomination. Devries was the Wildorse Party candidate in this district in the 2015 election, where he placed third with 20 percent of the vote behind New Democrat Brian Malkinson and PC MLA Christine Cusanelli.
Calgary-Falconridge – Devinder Toor is seeking the UCP nomination. Toor was the Wildrose Party candidate in the 2016 by-election and 2015 general election in Calgary-Greenway.
Calgary-Foothills: UCP members in this district will vote to choose their candidate on July 14, 2018. Former Calgary-Hawkwood PC MLA Jason Luan and federal Conservative political staffer Connor Staus are seeking the nomination.
Calgary-McCall – Jangbahadur Sidhu is seeking the UCP nomination.
Calgary-North – Tanis Fiss, Manpreet Sidhu and Muhammed Yassen are seeking the UCP nomination.
Calgary-Peigan – Andrew Griffin has withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest. Griffin has previously worked as a constituency assistant for Kenney.
Calgary-Varsity – Beth Barberree has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Barberree was the Alberta Party candidate in Calgary-Hawkwood in the 2015 election. Grace Lane is seeking the UCP nomination.
Edmonton-Rutherford – Arnold D’Souza is seeking the Alberta Party nomination.
Edmonton-Strathcona – Jovita Mendita is seeking the UCP nomination. Mendita is a real estate agent with the Melnychuk Group. This district has been represented by Premier Rachel Notley since 2008.
Leduc-Beaumont – Scott Wickland is seeking the UCP nomination.
Lesser Slave Lake – Brenda Derkoch is seeking the UCP nomination.
Red Deer-South – Ryan McDougall has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.
St Albert – Rodney Laliberte is seeking the UCP nomination. Laine Matoga was withdrawn his name from the UCP nomination contest.t
Sherwood Park – Sue Timanson has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Timanson ran for the PC nomination in Sherwood Park in 2012 and 2015, and she is a former regional director of the PC Party.
Strathcona-SherwoodPark – Robb Connelly will challenge former PC MLA Dave Quest for the Alberta Party nomination in this district east 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!
It is Calgary Stampede season, which means politicians from across Canada are flocking to Alberta’s largest city to show off their recently purchased plaid shirts and cowboy hats.
You can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you find podcasts online. We’d love to hear what you think of this episode, so feel free to leave a comment on the blog, Facebook or Twitter or send us an email at podcast@daveberta.ca.
We are always thankful to our hard working producer, Adam Rozenhart, who helps make each episode of the Daveberta Podcast sound so great.
NDP MLA Brian Mason announces his retirement from Alberta politics on July 4, 2018. (photo credit: David Climenhaga)
Photo: NDP MLA Brian Mason announces his retirement from Alberta politics on July 4, 2018. (photo credit: David Climenhaga)
After 30 years in elected office, Brian Mason will call it quits when the next provincial election is called. The New Democratic Party MLA for Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood announced at a press conference this morning that he will not seek re-election in 2019.
Brian Mason as a city transit driver in the 1980s. (source: Facebook)
He started his political career as a student activist, including a term as Vice-President External of the University of Alberta Students’ Union and as director of the Alberta Federation of Students. Mason jumped into municipal politics in 1983, running for city council as past of the left-leaning Edmonton Voters Association slate. His first run was unsuccessful but he ran again six years later.
Then employed by the City of Edmonton as a bus driver, Mason challenged a law prohibiting city employees from running for council and was elected to city council in 1989. He was re-elected in north east Edmonton in 1992, 1995, and 1998. He jumped into provincial politics in 2000, running in a by-election in Edmonton-Highlands to succeed former NDP leader Pam Barrett, who had represented the district from 1986 to 1993 and 1997 until her retirement from politics in 2000.
Mason cruised to victory in the by-election against former Leduc Liberal MLA Terry Kirkland and was re-elected by significant margins in the five elections since. He became leader of the Alberta NDP ahead of the 2004 election, succeeding Edmonton-Strathcona MLA Raj Pannu.
Brian Mason at the opening ceremony marking the completion of the north-east leg of the Anthony Henday ring road in Edmonton. (photograph by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta)
As leader of the sometimes 2 or 4 MLA caucus, Mason led a feisty opposition that frequently ran circles around the actual Official Opposition Liberals (to the frustration of Liberal Party staffers like me).
He stepped down as leader in 2014, perhaps sensing a change in the times. And the timing of the NDP leadership race that chose Rachel Notley was perfect. While no one could have predicted on that day that Notley would lead the NDP to form government in 2015, Mason handed over a party that was in much better shape than it was on the day he started the job in 2004.
He was re-elected in 2015 in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood with the widest margin of his political career, earning a landslide 78 percent of the vote.
Despite rumours that Notley might pick him for Minister of Finance or back a bid for him to become Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, she appointed Mason as Minister of Transportation, Minister of Infrastructure and Government House Leader when the NDP were sworn-in to office in 2015.
The Dean of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly, Mason will end his political career as the longest-serving current MLA in our province.
NDP nomination battle in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood
Janis Irwin (source: Facebook)
With Mason stepping aside, we could now see a spirited nomination contest in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood, a largely blue-collar district that is considered strong territory for the NDP.
(I live in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood, so I have a particularly keen interest in this nomination contest).
A history of Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood
The Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood district was created in 2004 and included areas from the former Edmonton-Highlands and Edmonton-Norwood districts.
Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood (click to enlarge)
Edmonton-Highlands had been represented by the NDP from 1986 until 1993, when Liberal Alice Hanson was elected, and again by the NDP from 1997 until 2004.
Edmonton-Norwood was represented by NDP leader Ray Martin from 1982 until 1993, when he was unseated by Liberal Andrew Beniuk. Beniuk later crossed the floor to the Progressive Conservatives and was defeated in 1997 by Liberal Sue Olsen. Olsen did not seek re-election in 2001 and the seat was won by PC candidate Gary Masyk, who would later cross the floor to the Alberta Alliance. Masyk chose not to challenge Mason in the new district in 2004 and was defeated in his bid for re-election in the neighbouring Edmonton-Decore district.
But Aheer is not in the clear. Current Strathmore-Brooks MLA Derek Fildebrandt, who now sits as an Independent Conservative and was barred from challenging Aheer in the nomination, is expected to challenge Aheer in the general election.
The drama continues in north east Calgary as the UCP says it is now investigating allegations of ballot-stuffing at the founding meeting of the Calgary-North East constituency association. The allegations were made public through a video posted by a UCP member on YouTube following the meeting. Current MLA Prab Gill, who was elected as a Progressive Conservative in the 2016 Calgary-Greenway by-election, is challenging Anand Chetty and Tariq Khan for the UCP nomination in this district.
He was elected to Edmonton City Council in 1989 and as the MLA for Edmonton-Highlands in a 2000 by-election. He is the longest serving MLA currently in the Alberta Legislature.
Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul – Former St. Paul mayor Glenn Anderson has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.
Calgary-Edgemont – Joanne Gui has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.
Calgary-Elbow – Janet Eremenko is seeking the New Democratic Party nomination. Eremenko was a candidate for Calgary City Council in Ward 11 in the October 2017 election where she finished third with 20 percent of the vote. Past Ward 8 city council candidate Chris Davis is seeking the UCP nomination in this district.
Edmonton-North West – Todd Ross is seeking the Alberta Party nomination. Ross was the Liberal Party candidate in Edmonton-Castle Downs in 2015, earning 4.9 percent of the vote.
Edmonton-Whitemud –Elisabeth Hughes is seeking the UCP nomination. Hughes works as a constituency assistant in the office of Edmonton-Riverbend Member of Parliament Matt Jeneroux.
Leduc-Beaumont – MLA Shaye Anderson will seek the NDP nomination, which has been scheduled for July 18, 2018. Anderson was first elected in 2015 with 38 percent of the vote. Corinne Hubert is seeking the Alberta Party nomination.
Lesser Slave Lake – Judy Kim-Meneen is seeking the Alberta Party nomination.
Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin – LGBTQ activist Chevi Rabbitt is seeking the Alberta Party nomination in this newly redrawn central Alberta district.
Morinville-St. Albert – Shawna Gawreluck is seeking the NDP nomination in this new district north of Edmonton. Gawreluck is a lab technologist and a resident of Sturgeon County. She was the federal NDP candidate in the 2017 by-election in the Sturgeon River-Parkland district.
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: Julia Hayter, Joseph Schow, Kara Levis, and Marg McCuaig-Boyd
The New Democratic Party has its first contested nomination race of this election season, and it is taking place in the newly redrawn Calgary-Varsity district. With current NDP MLA Stephanie Mclean not seeking re-election, MLA Michael Connolly announced he would run for re-election in the new district, which including a significant portion of the current Calgary-Hawkwood district he now represents. Julia Hayter is challenging Connolly for the NDP nomination. Hayter is a Constituency Assistant in Mclean’s office and has received the endorsement of the University of Calgary New Democratic Party Club.
More than 3,000 party members voted in this week’s United Conservative Party nomination contest in the new hour-glass shaped Cardston-Siksika district. The new district includes most of the current Little Bow and part of the current Cardston-Taber-Warner districts and is located in one of the strongest conservative voting areas of Alberta, referred to by many as Alberta’s ‘bible belt.’
Grande Prairie-Smoky MLA Todd Loewen has been nominated as the UCP candidate in the new Central Peace-Notley district. Dunvegan-Central Peace-Notley MLA Marg McCuaig-Boyd was chosen as the NDP candidate in Central Peace-Notley at a nomination meeting tonight. This will mark the first time since 1993 that two incumbent MLAs will run against each other in a general election in Alberta.
Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul – Town of Cold Lake mayor Craig Copeland is running for the UCP nomination in this new district. Copeland was the Progressive Conservative candidate in Bonnyville-Cold Lake in the 2015 election. Glenn Anderson is seeking the Alberta Party nomination. Anderson is a former mayor of the town of St. Paul. In 2015, he ran for the PC Party nomination in Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills.
Calgary-Bow – Paul Godard is seeking the Alberta Party nomination.
Calgary-Klein – Kara Levis has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Levis ran for the leadership of the Alberta Party in early 2018 and is the former President of the National Women’s Liberal Commission of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Calgary-North East – Gul Khan has become the first Liberal Party candidate nominated for the 2019 election.
Calgary-South East – Lawyer Eva Kiryakos is seeking the UCP nomination.
Drumheller-Stettler – Former Hanna mayor Mark Nikota has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.
Edmonton-Castle Downs – Gennadi Boitchenko is seeking the UCP nomination. He served as Chair of United Way’s Engineering Challenge from 2011 to 2015.
Edmonton-Ellerslie – Yash Sharma has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Sharma is the Publisher of the Asia Tribune and producer of Harmony TV and in 2016 he was one of 32 candidates to run in the Ward 12 by-election.
Edmonton-Manning – Kulshan Gill is seeking the UCP nomination.
Edmonton-Whitemud – Jonathan Dai has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Dai was the PC Party candidate in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood in the 2015 election and the Liberal candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona in the 2000 federal election.
Grande Prairie-Wapiti – Travis Toews is seeking the UCP nomination. toes is the former president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
Sherwood Park – Jason Lafond is seeking the UCP nomination.
West Yellowhead – Paul Chauvet is seeking the UCP nomination. Chauvet is a real estate broker in Whitecourt and was first elected to Whitecourt Town Council in 2013. He was re-elected to a second-term on council in October 2017.
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!
What does the renewal of the national Equalization formula mean for Alberta? What should Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney be doing this summer? What do we think about the New Democratic Party’s latest attack ad? And how should election candidates be using social media in 2019? These are a few of the topics that Dave Cournoyer and Ryan Hastman discuss in this episode of the Daveberta Podcast.
You can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you find podcasts online. We’d love to hear what you think of this episode, so feel free to leave a comment on the blog, Facebook or Twitter or send us an email at podcast@daveberta.ca.
We are always thankful to our hard working producer, Adam Rozenhart, who helps make each episode of the Daveberta Podcast sound so great.
Photo: Chestermere-Rockyview MLA Leela Aheer and former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean, who she endorsed in the 2017 UCP leadership contest (source: Facebook)
The contest for the United Conservative Party nomination in the new Chestermere-Strathmore district turned nasty this week when it was revealed that MLA and UCP Deputy Leader Leela Aheer attempted to seek a restraining order against one of her opponents.
David Campbell (source: Facebook)
The Calgary Herald reported that Aheer discontinued the action against David Campbell the day before the application was to be heard in court. The dispute was apparently the result of a confrontation between Aheer and Campbell at a June 14 meeting of the local UCP association. The application had asked for a court order keeping Campbell 200 metres away from her and her home.
The Calgary Sun later reported that Campbell was in Court of Queen’s Bench seeking legal costs in the case he described as an effort to shut him out of the nomination process.
In a Facebook post published on June 18, 2018, Campbell wrote that “the amalgamation of the legacy parties has failed to get rid of the internal rot, stench and elitism that plagued them both.”
“In actual fact, “win at all cost” cronyism may be worse today than in the past, led disappointingly by former Wildrosers who are close to smelling the sweet scent of leadership, influence, and authority,” Campbell wrote.
Fildebrandt went even further by posting allegations on his Facebook page that Aheer’s husband had “threatened to murder” him a year and a half ago (see screenshot below).
Derek Fildebrandt’s Facebook comment on June 26, 2018.
Fildebrandt’s serious allegation is unproven, but this entire embarrassing political mess demonstrates the level of nastiness the UCP nomination contest has reached in Chestermere-Strathmore.
The UCP has set June 28 as the deadline for candidates to enter the nomination contest in Chestermere-Strathmore. A nomination meeting has been scheduled for July 19, 2018. Declared candidates include Aheer, Campbell, Mark Giesbrecht, and Pamela Hilton.
Amid political gong-show, Postmedia shuts down local newspaper
And as real political news worth reporting is happening in their community, it was announced today that the Strathmore Standard is one of the latest victims of Postmedia’s budget axe. The Standard was founded in 1909 and its departure will leave a big gap in news coverage in the community of more than 13,000 residents east of Calgary.
Also being shuttered by Postmedia is the Camrose Canadian, which first started publishing in 1908. The High River Times will now publish one edition per week, down from twice weekly.
