Two Grande Prairie MLAs and one former Edmonton-area MLA are facing nomination challenges as United Conservative Party members choose their candidates ahead of Alberta’s next provincial election.
Tag: Alberta Politics Substack
It appears that at least two UCP MLAs will face challenges for their nominations ahead of the next provincial election:
- Seun Ogunsola is challenging UCP MLA Rajan Sawhney in Calgary-North West.
- Sawhney was elected in this riding in 2023 after switching from Calgary-North East, where she was elected in 2019. She currently serves as Minister of Indigenous Relations.
- Ogunsola a senior partner with Crest Business Advisory and a former regional vice president with RBC Wealth Management. He resigned from the Alberta Law Foundation board after the government introduced legislation that allowed the Minister of Justice to interfere in the foundation’s granting process.
- Former Vegreville town councillor Tina Warawa is challenging UCP MLA Jackie Armstrong Homeniuk in Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville.
- Armstrong Homeniuk has served as the UCP MLA for this riding east of Edmonton since 2019.
- Warawa is a former mayor and councillor of the Village of Andrew and served on Vegreville town council from 2017 to 2025. She is the former president of the Vegreville Minor Hockey Association.
- Warawa works as a constituency assistant for Lakeland Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs and previous worked in a similar role for Progressive Conservative MLA Jacquie Fenske from 2012 to 2015.
Read more on the Daveberta Substack
Albertans need to get out and vote on October 19, 2026
Even after writing about Alberta politics for more than 20 years it’s still sometimes hard to fully understand and explain what is happening in our province.
Albertans are now 87 days away from having to vote on Premier Danielle Smith’s 10 referendum questions, including a convoluted question about holding a future binding referendum on Alberta separating from Canada. It feels like we’re having some kind of weird fever dream and we’re definitely sleepwalking into it.
Despite putting the future of Alberta’s place in Canada on the ballot in less than three months, I am shocked at how many people have told me Smith is barely or not even mentioning the separation referendum in many of the public speeches she is making during her summer travels across the province.
Read more on the Daveberta Substack
Public school trustee Angela Sommers is expected to be nominated as the NDP candidate in Red Deer-North at a July 30 nomination meeting. Sommers was first elected to the board of trustees of the Red Deer Public School Board in 2021.
The riding has been represented by UCP MLA Adriana LaGrange since 2019. LaGrange was re-elected in 2023 with 57.4 per cent of the vote. Her 2023 NDP opponent, Jaelene Tweedle, was elected to Red Deer City Council in 2025.
The NDP will nominate Michelle Baer in the neighbouring Red Deer-South riding on July 25. Baer is a former city lawyer who ran for the NDP the riding in 2023.
Read more on the Daveberta Substack
It was expected and NDP leader Naheed Nenshi has just confirmed it. Nenshi will run in a Calgary riding when the next provincial election is called. The NDP leader and former Calgary mayor won a by-election in Edmonton-Strathcona in June 2025 to replace former MLA and premier Rachel Notley but he had yet to officially announce his plans for the next election.
In a statement published on social media today, Nenshi said:
Today, I’m letting you know of a decision I’ve made. While I’ve been thrilled every day to serve as your MLA, I will be seeking election in a Calgary riding in the next general election.
This will open up Edmonton-Strathcona for a new representative from this beautiful community. I am informing you today so that the incredible constituency association in this riding has time for a healthy and robust nomination process to select a candidate and a future MLA worthy of representing you. Interested candidates can express their interest now and more details on the nomination process and dates will be coming soon.
Former school trustee Trisha Estabrooks is expected to announced her plans to run for the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona at a July 17 press conference at Frank’s Community Pub. The riding has been held by the NDP since 1997 and from 1986 to 1993 before that.
Read more on the Daveberta Substack
Former United Conservative Party president Cynthia Moore has launched her campaign for her party’s nomination in the Calgary-Elbow riding in the next provincial election.
Moore currently serves as chair of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, a role she was appointed to by the UCP government in 2024, and as chair of the Real Estate Council of Alberta. She previously worked as an executive of the Kahanoff Foundation.
Moore was UCP president from 2021 until 2023 — a tumultuous time in the governing party’s history that saw rank and file members revolt against Premier Jason Kenney’s leadership and rocket Danielle Smith into the Premier’s Office.
A list of pro-Canada and Alberta independence supporters in the October 19, 2026 referendum
Albertans are being asked to vote on ten referendum questions on October 19, 2026 and, unsurprisingly, the one question attracting the most attention is about Alberta’s separation from Canada.
I am a proud Canadian and proud Albertan and will be voting for Alberta to remain in Canada in this referendum.
One of my key goals since launching Daveberta more than two decades ago has been to help Albertans better understand the politics of their province. So, in the months ahead, I will be writing a lot about the referendum questions and maintaining a running list of groups, politicians, and individuals who are campaigning or taken positions in the Alberta separation referendum debate.
Similar to my nomination candidate tracking list, I will be updating this page as I receive new names, so please click on the title link and bookmark it to keep up to date.
If there are any names or website links that should be added or removed from this list, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I am striving to do my best to keep this list as accurate as possible during a very noisy political debate.
Follow the list on the Daveberta Substack
Publicly-owned Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission and Trans Mountain Corporation to build pipeline to the Pacific Coast
The path already taken might be the easiest way to get a new oil pipeline built from Alberta through British Columbia to Canada’s Pacific Coast.
That’s what Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are betting on as they announced a proposal for a new pipeline to follow the route near the Trans Mountain and Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipelines to BC’s Lower Mainland. So let’s call it TMXL.
The NDP were quick to put United Conservative Party candidate Mike Derry on the spot on the issue of Alberta separatism, which voters will face in a province-wide referendum on October 19.
An NDP press release sent out the night of Derry’s nomination win questioned his support from Darrell Komick, the president of the UCP constituency association in the neighbouring Calgary-Lougheed who ran in the UCP board president election last year on a pro-independence platform, and campaign manager Craig Chandler, a well-known right-wing political organizer in Calgary.
Chandler recently ran City Councillor Mike Jamieson’s successful election campaign in Ward 12 and is believed to be involved in Erin Averbukh’s campaign for the UCP nomination in the Calgary-Acadia riding (Averbukh’s only competitor in that race at the moment is former Wildrose Independence Party leader Jeevan Mangat).
While polls show that a majority of UCP supporters would vote for Alberta’s separation from Canada, the majority of Alberta voters would vote to remain in Canada. The NDP will undoubtably try to use the by-election to put pressure on the UCP’s internal division on Alberta separatism.
Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack
It is very easy to overstate the importance of by-elections, but there is little doubt that the results of the by-election in Calgary-Shaw will be interpreted as a measurement of support for Premier Danielle Smith referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada and her government’s handling of health care and affordability issues.
It will also be an important test for NDP leader Naheed Nenshi, who served as Mayor of Calgary from 2010 to 2021 and won the party’s leadership in 2024 on his ability to increase the party’s support in Calgary.
Read more on the Daveberta Substack
NDP expected to nominate Kyle Campbell on June 26
Talent management company owner Mike Derry defeated City Councillor Dan McLean to win the United Conservative Party nomination in Calgary-Shaw at a candidate selection vote on June 24.
The nomination vote was held to choose a UCP candidate in the upcoming by-election to replace former UCP MLA Rebecca Schulz, who stepped down on May 15, 2026.
Derry owns the LegenDERRY talent management company and was the talent management lead for Canadian Natural Resources Limited from 2013 to 2022 and is a coach with the Bow Valley Hockey Society. He was the Chief Financial Officer of Calgary-South East UCP association and has volunteered with Conservative MP Tom Kmiec‘s campaign in Calgary Shepard.
I wrote last year that NDP MLAs should should start every day by asking themselves the question “how can we make life more affordable for working-class Alberta families?” and then they should spend the rest of their day talking all about it, all the time. I still believe this today.
Nenshi’s NDP have now started talking more about pocketbook issues with the launch of their Alberta Affordability Agenda, which is a good start. The party has been spending a lot of energy focusing on the separation referendum through its For Alberta For Canada campaign, but it can’t afford to ignore other important issues with a provincial election only 15 months away at the latest.
In their new suite of affordability policies, the NDP promises to cut electricity bills by 10 per cent, increase minimum wage to $18, and to reduce grocery prices by increasing competition, ending shrinkflation, and appointing a grocery watchdog.
The NDP also proposed removing the $0.13 per litre provincial gas tax while gas prices remain high — something that will make even Lorne Gunter happy.
Read more on the Daveberta Substack
UCP members in Calgary-Shaw will choose the candidate to raise their party’s banner in the upcoming by-election to fill the Legislature seat vacated by UCP MLA Rebecca Schulz.
Current city councillor Dan McLean is considered the establishment favourite in this race. The second-term councillor was re-elected last October and has maintained close public ties to the UCP since he ran against Schulz for the nomination in this riding in 2018.
McLean’s decision to jump into provincial politics so soon after the October 2025 municipal election has made him a target of criticism from former councillor Jeff Davison.
McLean faces Mike Derry, an oil and gas industry talent company owner who has the support of well-known right-wing political organizer Craig Chandler.
Another candidate, Stewart Jeanes, had planned to run but did not qualify to enter the nomination race. Jeanes had been endorsed by separatist leader and Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP constituency president Mitch Sylvestre.
The nomination vote is being held from 3:00 pm to 8:30 pm at the Cardel Rec South.
Read more on the Daveberta Substack
Danielle Smith’s row with Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas over weeknight music tent hours ended with the Premier getting Stampede stomped over her government’s plans to increase the minimum price of a pint of beer days ahead of the start of the Calgary Stampede. Smith backed down and beer minister Dale Nally ordered the Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis crown corporation to abandon the price increase.
Farkas can now do a victory lap as a hero of both Stampede beer drinkers and local residents worried about the giant Cowboys party tent being erected in their neighbourhood.
Former UCP staffer and constituency president Matthew Bissett has announced his plans to run for the Progressive Tory Party nomination in the Sherwood Park riding just east of Edmonton.
Bissett was president of the UCP constituency association in the riding from 2023 to 2024 and worked as a policy advisory to Deputy Premier and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis and Minister of Infrastructure Nathan Neudorf. He was an active member of the Progressive Conservative Party in the 2000s and early 2010s.
Bissett shared a statement about his candidacy with Daveberta, including why he believes he was dismissed as a staffer by the UCP government.
Read more on the Daveberta Substack