Tag: Alberta Politics Substack

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Alberta Politics

Outspoken ER doctor Paul Parks running for NDP nomination in Cypress-Medicine Hat

Dr. Paul Parks speaking at a Friends of Medicine Urgent Town Hall about Health Care in November 2025 (source: Friends of Medicare / Facebook)
Dr. Paul Parks speaking at a Friends of Medicine Urgent Town Hall about Health Care in November 2025 (source: Friends of Medicare / Facebook)

Former Alberta Medical Association president to challenge primary care minister Justin Wright in 2027

Emergency Department physician Dr. Paul Parks is jumping into provincial politics and running for the Alberta NDP nomination in the Cypress-Medicine Hat riding.

Parks works in the Emergency Department at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital and is a former president of the Alberta Medical Association and an outspoken advocate for emergency medicine and public health care. He was also the co-owner and co-founder of Hell’s Basement Brewery in Medicine Hat and is the former president of the Medicine Hat Musical Theatre.

He has lived and worked in the southeast Alberta city since 2009.

If selected as the NDP candidate at a nomination meeting on November 21, Parks will face UCP MLA Justin Wright, who has represented the riding since 2023 and currently serves as Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services. Wright was elected with 61% of the vote in 2023, finishing far ahead of NDP candidate and local school trustee Cathy Hogg, who finished second with 35%.

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Alberta Politics

Six takeaways from Alberta’s Referendum and what’s next in our wild west politics

This photo of a defaced separatist campaign sign was widely circulated on social media following the failure of the Alberta separation referendum (source: Facebook)
This photo of a defaced separatist campaign sign was widely circulated on social media following the failure of the Alberta separation referendum (source: Facebook)

Albertans embrace staying in Canada, reject Danielle Smith’s constitutional reforms, give the UCP weak mandate on immigration questions

With 5,536 of 5,537 polling stations reporting and 20,514,670 total ballots cast, we now have a much better look at the results of Alberta’s 10 referendum questions than we did when the vote counting started late Monday night.

1. Support for Alberta remaining in Canada is strong across the board

Option 1 to support Alberta remaining a province in Canada has earned 1,545,242 votes so far, totalling 75% of the vote on the most high profile of the 10 referendum questions. Separatists appealing to Albertans in the final weeks of the campaign to send a message to Ottawa by voting for Option 2 to hold a future binding referendum on separation, earned 514,043 votes — 25% of the total province-wide vote.

The vote to remain in Canada was strong across Alberta but strongest in the two largest urban centres and in First Nations communities.

More than 80% of voters in every riding in Edmonton voted for Alberta to stay in Canada, and the remain side earned more than 75% of the vote in every Calgary riding. More than 79% of voters in the cities of Airdrie and Lethbridge and the Banff-Kananaskis riding supported remaining in Canada. Turnout reached historic highs in many First Nations communities with support more than 90% in favour of remaining in Canada.

Many ridings outside the big cities voted to remain by more than 60% and only a majority of voters in two ridings voted for Option 2 to hold another referendum to leave. Separatists earned 50.9% in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre and 50.3% in Central Peace-Notley ridings. Results were also close in the Drumheller-Stettler and Taber-Warner ridings.

It is worth noting that the separation option received less votes than the total number of signatures that would have been required to trigger a citizen initiative referendum when the Citizen Initiative Act was initially passed in 2021 (the signature threshold was later significantly lowered by Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government to accommodate the separatist Stay Free Alberta petition).

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Alberta Politics

An Alberta referendum deep dive on Craft Politics

More than 6,000 Albertans rallied for their province to remain in a united Canada at a October 16 rally at the Edmonton Expo Centre (source: Dave Cournoyer)
More than 6,000 Albertans rallied for their province to remain in a united Canada at a October 16 rally at the Edmonton Expo Centre (source: Dave Cournoyer)

Alberta voted to stay. What now?

I joined Joseph Lavoie on Craft Politics for a deep dive discussion about Alberta’s referendum and how the results could impact Alberta politics and Premier Danielle Smith’s future as leader of the United Conservative Party.

We also discussed how the results of the Alberta separation question and the nine immigration and constitutional questions are a sign of a growing urban-rural divide in Alberta politics (and how the recent NDP win in Calgary-Shaw could reflect urban Albertans unhappiness with the UCP government’s referendum agenda).

Thank you to Joseph for inviting me on the podcast. Be sure to subscribe to Craft Politics on your podcast listening app of choice or watch their interviews on YouTube.

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Alberta Politics

Alberta separatists say they are just getting started

Alberta separation supporters at the Alberta Legislature on August 29, 2026 (photo: Dave Cournoyer)
Alberta separation supporters at the Alberta Legislature on August 29, 2026 (photo: Dave Cournoyer)

Albertans clearly rejected leaving Canada in yesterday’s vote, but the leaders of Alberta’s various separatist factions made it clear on Monday that even in defeat this referendum represents a victory for their movement.

“The percentage vote is irrelevant because we have already won,” wrote the Alberta Prosperity Project’s Jeffrey Rath on X. “Regardless of the outcome tomorrow we have already won the first series of battles in the war for Alberta Independence.”

The controversial lawyer and co-leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project who spread conspiracy theories online about the CFB Wainwright disaster last weekend, also wrote that “[o]n Tuesday we move on to the next phase of our project. We dedicate ourselves and all of our volunteers to the replacement of the Federalist Smith as leader of the Alberta UCP. We will confirm that the UCP is Alberta’s leading Independence Party.”

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Alberta Politics

Albertans overwhelmingly vote to stay in Canada, separatists say they are just getting started

A large crowd of pro-Canada supporters gathered at the Alberta Legislature on October 18 (source: Dave Cournoyer)
A large crowd of pro-Canada supporters gathered at the Alberta Legislature on October 18 (source: Dave Cournoyer)

Support for remaining in Canada is everywhere in Alberta

Here we are. After five months of Alberta politics feeling like a weird fever dream, Albertans have cast their ballots and we have the results of Alberta’s non-binding separation referendum. Well, some results.

As of this morning, with 4,250 of 5,586 polling stations reporting, 75.9% of Albertans voted to remain in Canada, and 24.1% voted to commence the legal process to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada.

Results for the nine other referendum questions are much more sparse at this point in the count. Though the results are closer, it looks like eight of the nine are set to pass. The question about allowing the provincial government to opt out of federal programs but still receive the federal funding is heading for defeat at this point in the count.

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Alberta Politics

Referendum has been a mismanaged mess, says UCP constituency president

Premier Danielle Smith and separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre at a UCP fundraising dinner in Bonnyville in May 2025 (source: Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP / Facebook)
Premier Danielle Smith and separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre at a UCP fundraising dinner in Bonnyville in May 2025 (source: Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP / Facebook)

Alberta Prosperity Project CEO Mitch Sylvestre is encouraging voters to “decline the nine” by not bother voting for Smith’s nine referendum questions and only voting in the separation question.

“We promised long ago that this movement would not lend its name to bogus referendum questions. We are keeping that promise,” Sylvestre wrote in a message to APP supporters.

“Let’s be honest. From start to finish, this referendum has been a mismanaged mess, brought to you by a government that chose to pander rather than keep its promises on a fair democratic process,” wrote Sylvestre, who is President of the UCP constituency association in Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul riding and was the winner of the UCP’s 2025 Best Fundraiser Award and 2024 Best Constituency President Award.

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Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith deflects, encourages Albertans to vote “yes to the rest”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks to the Canada Strong and Free Conference in Ottawa on May 8, 2026 (source: Canada Strong and Free Network / Facebook)
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks to the Canada Strong and Free Conference in Ottawa on May 8, 2026 (source: Canada Strong and Free Network / Facebook)

Ahead of what could be an awkward meeting with Mark Carney today in Red Deer, Premier Danielle Smith attempted to downplay the Prime Minister’s comments in her own response posted on social media.

Despite Smith’s attempts to position herself as a pro-Canadian force in the upcoming referendums, she has found herself in a very uncomfortable position after deciding to appease the separatist activists entrenched in the UCP by calling the referendum in the first place.

Polling shows that her vague positioning has led large numbers of separatists to believe she is federalist and large numbers of federalists to believe she is a separatist.

This perception has probably been made stronger by the UCP government’s $4 million advertising campaign that promotes confused and unfocused messaging about Alberta being strong and sovereign within Canada but not actually taking a strong position either way.

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Alberta Politics

Mark Carney is No to the Nine

A Public Interest Alberta volunteer campaigning in Calgary ahead of the October 19 referendum (source: Brad Lafortune)
A Public Interest Alberta volunteer campaigning in Calgary ahead of the October 19 referendum (source: Brad Lafortune)

Danielle Smith deflects with yes to the rest and Mitch Sylvestre tells separatists to decline the nine

Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Alberta campaigning for the province to remain in Canada ahead of the October 19 referendum — and he is No to the Nine.

The importance of Alberta remaining in Canada was Carney’s main focus when he spoke to a crowd of more than 7,000 in Calgary last night, but he made his first foray into the nine other referendum questions restricting services for immigrants and pushing constitutional changes at an event organized by Public Interest Alberta’s Together — No! campaign in Calgary yesterday.

“…we make ourselves stronger as a country, stronger as Albertans. Why? So we can live our lives as we want,” Carney said in a video shared by Politico Canada reporter Mickey Djuric, before he encouraged the crowd to vote “no to the nine.”

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Alberta Politics

UCP President Rob Smith rebukes calls to purge party’s separatist wing

Premier Danielle Smith and separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre at a UCP fundraising dinner in Bonnyville in May 2025 (source: Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP / Facebook)
Premier Danielle Smith and separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre at a UCP fundraising dinner in Bonnyville in May 2025 (source: Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP / Facebook)

United Conservative Party president Rob Smith took to Facebook to rebuke calls to purge the governing party of its separatist wing if Albertans overwhelmingly vote to remain in Canada on October 19.

Smith’s comments were aimed at former party leader Jason Kenney, who said earlier this week that the UCP should reaffirm its federalist position and separatists should leave to form their own party.

“There’s no doubt that those folks have infiltrated (the party),” Kenney said at an Edmonton Chamber of Commerce luncheon. “They’re welcome to participate in democracy, but if their primary goal is separation, then they have to do it in a separatist party,” he said.

“You’re either for Canada, national unity, or you’re not, and if you’re still a citizen, you’re welcome to be involved in democracy. Go and do that in a separatist party,” Kenney said.

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Alberta Politics

Nenshi’s NDP delivers final pre-referendum pitch, turns to GOTV ahead of October 19

Former premier Rachel Notley spoke to a crowd at the Alberta NDP’s final Vote to Save Canada rally in Edmonton (screenshot: Alberta NDP / YouTube)
Former premier Rachel Notley spoke to a crowd at the Alberta NDP’s final Vote to Save Canada rally in Edmonton (screenshot: Alberta NDP / YouTube)
4-days until Referendum Day in Alberta

Edmonton has been an Alberta NDP stronghold for the last decade as city voters have shown up in droves to vote orange, so it was appropriate that the party ended its province-wide Vote to Save Canada rally tour last night in the provincial capital.

With four days left until the Referendum Day on October 19, NDP leader Naheed Nenshi was joined by former premier Rachel Notley at the rally at the Polish Hall in the centre of the city.

Notley led the NDP from 2014 to 2024 and served as Premier of Alberta from 2015 to 2019 and she remains a popular figure among NDP supporters. After stepping down as the MLA for Edmonton-Strathcona in 2024, she has reemerged into the spotlight to oppose separatism and the immigration questions on the referendum ballot.

“We have a job to do and that is to get people out to vote,” Notley said to a large crowd at the Polish Hall in Edmonton as she turned her criticism to Premier Danielle Smith.

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Alberta Politics

Mark Carney, Naheed Nenshi, and Rachel Notley headline pro-Canada rallies days before Alberta referendum

Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Albertans at a Forever Canadian event in Banff in September 2026 (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)
Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Albertans at a Forever Canadian event in Banff in September 2026 (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)

We are in the final stretch of one of the strangest periods in Alberta’s political history, and a gauntlet of rallies are being held this week across the province.

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi and former premier Rachel Notley are sharing a stage at a Vote to Save Canada rally at the Polish Hall in Edmonton on October 14 and Prime Minister Mark Carney will be appearing with former Progressive Conservative politician Thomas Lukaszuk at Forever Canadian rallies at the BMO Centre in Calgary on October 15 and at the Expo Centre in Edmonton on October 16.

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Alberta Politics

Chris Henderson: How to Talk to the Temporary Strategic Alberta Separatist in Your Life

A long highway somewhere in southern Alberta, probably near Foremost. (photo credit: Dave Cournoyer)
ScreenshotA long highway somewhere in southern Alberta, probably near Foremost. (photo credit: Dave Cournoyer)

Five practical messages to explain this isn’t a game worth the risk of playing.

From time to time I open up the Daveberta newsletter to guest writers who have perspectives and thoughts they would like to share that might interest readers of this Substack. My friend Chris Henderson wrote today’s guest article about how to talk about Alberta’s October 19 referendum with the temporary separatist and separation curious people in your life.

Here’s Chris Henderson.

With Alberta’s weird-as-hell 10-question referendum only weeks away, most people seem to have made up their minds about separation.

But one group sits in a paradoxical spot: people who don’t want Alberta to leave Canada, but are considering a strategic Option 2 vote to “send Ottawa a message,” believing it strengthens our hand down the road. Most of us know at least one—in the family, at work, or in the group chat. These are the only moveable voters in this debate, and if you’re voting against separation (which, spoiler alert: I already did, and I voted “No” on the other nine questions), they’re worth having a conversation with.

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Alberta Politics

Republican Party connections to Alberta’s separation referendum

Alberta separation supporters at the Alberta Legislature on August 29, 2026 (photo: Dave Cournoyer)
Alberta separation supporters at the Alberta Legislature on August 29, 2026 (photo: Dave Cournoyer)

Another bombshell story dropped by Carrie Tait and the Globe & Mail

Globe and Mail Alberta correspondent Carrie Tait has been on a roll, with her name sharing the bylines of some of the biggest breaking stories in Alberta politics in the last few years.

Along with her Globe and Mail colleagues Grant Robertson and Nathan Vanderklippe, Tait dropped a bombshell story this past weekend about Alberta separatists going to Washington D.C. to offer fresh water and oil in exchange for American financial support for an independent Alberta Republic and Republican operatives providing tactical assistance to separatist organizers in Alberta.

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Alberta Politics

Rewind: Danielle Smith’s Alberta Sovereignty Act is all about creating a political crisis

Danielle Smith and Rob Anderson in 2010 (source: Dave Cournoyer)
Danielle Smith and Rob Anderson in 2010 (source: Dave Cournoyer)

So much about what is happening in Alberta right now can be traced back to the Free Alberta Strategy

I’m working on a few new columns and a book review that I am hoping to publish soon, so I thought I’d share a piece I wrote that I keep coming back to as I write about what’s happening in Alberta politics today. In fact, it’s the very first column I published on Substack when I shifted Daveberta to this platform in September 2022.

So much about what is happening in Alberta right now, days ahead of the October 19 separation referendum, can be traced back to the Free Alberta Strategy that Danielle Smith promoted before and during her campaign for the United Conservative Party leadership in 2022.

Here’s my column from September 29, 2022.

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Alberta Politics

Mark Carney’s broad approval dwarfs Danielle Smith and Naheed Nenshi

Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Albertans at a Forever Canadian event in Banff in September 2026 (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)
Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Albertans at a Forever Canadian event in Banff in September 2026 (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)

There’s nothing like a Janet Brown poll to shake up Alberta politics

There’s a lot to unpack in the new Alberta politics poll by Janet Brown Opinion Research commissioned by CBC, but before I dive into what one of the province’s most well-respected pollsters has to say about support for Alberta’s political parties, separatism, and AI data centres it’s worth spending a moment reflecting on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s popularity in Alberta.

Carney’s popularity continues to dwarf Premier Danielle Smith and NDP leader Naheed Nenshi and he might be the most popular Liberal Prime Minister in Alberta since Sir Wilfrid Laurier more than 100 years ago.

According to Brown’s poll, 52 percent of Albertans surveyed said they were very impressed with Carney and only 26 percent said they were not at all impressed. Only 30 percent of Albertans surveyed said they were very impressed with Danielle Smith and 51 percent said they were not at all impressed with her job as Premier.

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