Tag: Alberta Politics

In Session: Danielle Smith charms rural leaders as secret Saudi side trip raises questions about loose ethics rules

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 23, 2026

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

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This is the third in a series of Daveberta Podcast episodes I’m calling Daveberta In Session. In these short episodes available to paid subscribers, I’ll sharing a few key things that I’m watching in Alberta politics this week and some other things that have caught my attention.

In today’s Daveberta Podcast episode, I discuss:

Premier Danielle Smith reluctantly admitted last week to taking jet flights and hotel stays from a Saudi Arabian prince that were not previously disclosed during her recent trip to the Middle East. The secret Saudi side trip is raising questions about loose ethics and disclosure rules.
Smith charmed rural municipal leaders at the recent Rural Municipalities of Alberta convention in Edmonton. A new report from a joint government working group acknowledges that unpaid property taxes from oil and gas companies are a sore spot for rural municipal governments and proposes solutions for the future, but not much hope that the already due back-taxes will ever get paid.
A new report from the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters highlights the importance of investing in transportation in rural communities in order to save lives and makes four recommendations.
The ongoing police investigation and expected Auditor General report into serious allegations of corruption and political interference involving hundreds of millions of dollars in medical supply procurement and private surgical contracts by the provincial government. MLAs will soon select a new Auditor General before Doug Wylie retires on April 28.
A few things I’ll be watching in Alberta politics in the week ahead, including the final report of the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission, Smith and energy minister Brian Jean’s trip to CERAWeek in Houston, Texas (federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson will be there too), and the federal NDP leadership vote next weekend.

I decided to test this podcast series during the spring session of the Alberta Legislature. I’m planning to do this for most weeks until the Assembly breaks for the summer — and then we’ll see where we go from there.

Thank you for subscribing and listening to this episode of the Daveberta Podcast. A sincere thank you to new paid subscribers, Selena, Megan, Sandeep, and Nate.

Share your feedback in the comments and if you enjoyed the podcast feel free to share it with a friend.

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Daveberta Podcast

In Session: First Nations Chiefs hit back against Alberta separatism

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 16, 2026

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Challenging Danielle Smith at the Legislature to meeting King Charles III in London. It was a big week.

This is the second in a series of Daveberta Podcast episodes I’m calling Daveberta In Session. In these short episodes I’m sharing a few key things that I’m watching in Alberta politics in the week ahead and some other things that have caught my attention.

In this week’s episode, I discuss:

First Nations Chiefs taking centre stage in demonstrating their willingness to challenge Premier Danielle Smith and confront Alberta separatism.
Minister of Municipal Affairs Dan Williams announcing a probe into Calgary’s water infrastructure problems. The UCP has been spending months trying to pin this on Alberta NDP leader and former mayor Naheed Nenshi. Calgary is the province’s key electoral battleground, so the UCP’s response is undoubtably political.
the 25th anniversary of Ralph Klein’s sweeping win in the Alberta’s 2001 provincial election and the impact of “Welcome to Ralph’s World” on Alberta politics (and my involvement in politics).

This full episode of this podcast is available to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack, so be sure to sign up for a monthly or annual subscription at Daveberta.substack.com/subscribe.

Thanks for subscribing and listening to this episode of the Daveberta Podcast. Share your feedback in the comments and if you enjoyed the podcast feel free to share it with a friend.

Alberta Politics

Alberta’s Separation Referendum — Who’s Going to Stand Up for Canada?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 14, 2026

An Alberta politics deep dive on Craft Politics (originally published on the Daveberta Substack)

I recently joined Joseph Lavoie and Andrew Percy on Craft Politics for a deep dive discussion about Alberta separatism and how it’s shaping Alberta politics in 2026.

We had a broad-ranging discussion about Alberta politics, the current separatist movement’s roots in the COVID-19 pandemic and how its supporters became key players inside the United Conservative Party, and who might lead the pro-Canada campaign in a possible separation referendum later this year.

Alberta Politics

Brooks Arcand-Paul voted the MLA to Watch in 2026

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 31, 2025

Edmonton-West Henday MLA Brooks Arcand-Paul (source: Brooks Arcand-Paul / Facebook)

Edmonton-West Henday MLA Brooks Arcand-Paul was voted the MLA to Watch in 2026.

The first-term NDP MLA, who was voted as the Candidate to Watch in the 2022 Best of Alberta Politics Survey, has excelled as a strong voice for First Nations in the Legislature and a fierce critic of the government’s use of the notwithstanding clause to limit access to health care for transgender people in Alberta.

Arcand-Paul studied law at the University of Ottawa and was the in-house legal counsel for the Alexander First Nation before he was first elected to represent his west Edmonton riding in 2023. He currently serves as the NDP shadow minister for Indigenous Relations and in November 2024 introduced Bill 209: Reconciliation Implementation Act into the Legislature.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Alberta Politics Substack, Best of Alberta Politics 2025, Bill 209: Reconciliation Implementation Act, Brooks Arcand-Paul, Daveberta Substack, Edmonton-West Henday

Alberta Politics

Marlin Schmidt voted the MLA with the Best Sense of Humour of 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 31, 2025

Edmonton-Gold Bar MLA Marlin Schmidt (source: Marlin Schmidt / Facebook)

In 2016, Edmonton-Gold Bar MLA Marlin Schmidt became Alberta’s first accordion-playing hydrogeologist cabinet minister and, in 2025, he became the first winner of the Best of Alberta Politics Survey’s MLA with the Best Sense of Humour.

Comedy and politics can sometimes be a dangerous mix, and Schmidt’s self-deprecating sense of humour is not everyone’s cup of tea, but his quips in the Legislature and series of unique politics videos on social media have caught the eye (and hit the funny bones) of some Alberta politics watchers.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Alberta Politics Substack, Daveberta Substack, Edmonton-Gold Bar, Marlin Schmidt, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Naheed Nenshi voted the Best Public Speaker of 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 31, 2025

NDP leader Naheed Nenshi (source: Alberta NDP / Facebook)

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi thrives in front of a crowd or TV camera, which is why he’s the winner in this year’s Best Public Speaker category.

Nenshi’s energy in front of a crowd propelled him to win a landslide victory in the NDP leadership race last year and is why his party sent him out on round of town hall meetings across the province almost immediately after he was finally elected to the Legislature in June 2025.

Now as the MLA for Edmonton-Strathcona, the former Calgary mayor has a seat in the Legislature and appears to be enjoying the daily cut and thrust of Question Period and legislative debate.

It’s fitting that Nenshi faced Premier Danielle Smith in this category, as both party leaders with their different styles of public speaking — Nenshi being more professorial and Smith as a former talk-show host — have proven they are most comfortable in front of an audience.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Alberta Politics Substack, Best of Alberta Politics 2025, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Edmonton-Strathcona, Naheed Nenshi, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Rakhi Pancholi voted the Most Effective Opposition MLA and Best Question Period Performer of 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 31, 2025

Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi (source: Rakhi Pancholi / Facebook)

Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi was voted Most Effective Opposition MLA for a second year in a row and this year took the Best Question Period Performer category.

Pancholi has been a rising star in the opposition benches since she was first elected in 2019 and now as deputy leader of the NDP official opposition she has been given an opportunity to shine by demonstrating her political skills and talents.

Pancholi’s diligent prosecutorial-style of asking questions and quick-on-her-feet responses to the government has made her one of the most effective critics in the opposition benches in the Alberta Legislature.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Best of Alberta Politics 2025, Daveberta Substack, Edmonton-Whitemud, Naheed Nenshi, Rakhi Pancholi, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Peter Guthrie voted the Best Alberta Cabinet Minister and Most Effective Government Backbencher of 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 31, 2025

Airdire-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie (source: Peter Guthrie / Facebook)

It has been a roller coaster year in politics for Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie, who is the winner of this year’s Best Alberta Cabinet Minister and Most Effective Government Backbencher of 2025.

Guthrie started the year as a Minister of Infrastructure in the United Conservative Party government and is ending it as an Independent MLA affiliated with the Alberta Party who is trying to restart the Progressive Conservative Party.

Guthrie resigned from cabinet in February 2025 after he raised concerns at the cabinet table about the alleged corruption and political interference in health care procurement practices and government contracts with private surgical companies.

“I’m not going to stand by and see potential corruption exist within government and be a part of that,” Guthrie told the Globe & Mail after he resigned from cabinet. “I felt profound disappointment in their ability to be able to ignore these clear conflicts,” he said.

After two months in the backbenches, the second-term UCP MLA was kicked out of the government caucus after voting in favour of an NDP motion calling for an independent public inquiry into the dodgy contracts scandal that convinced him to resign from cabinet.

“If we have nothing to hide, we should take that path,” Guthrie said of an independent public inquiry. “I would like to see people feel free to be able to share their thoughts with the auditor general without feeling that there may be retribution for them,” he said in response to allegations the government was using external lawyers to slow down an ongoing investigation by the Auditor General.

Now in the opposition benches, Guthrie has remained a steadfast conservative critic of the UCP government’s involvement in the alleged corruption scandal.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Adriana LaGrange, Airdrie-Cochrane, Alberta Party, Alberta Politics, Alberta Politics Substack, Best of Alberta Politics 2025, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Peter Guthrie, Progressive Tory Party of Alberta, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

It’s your choice: Best of Alberta Politics 2025 Survey

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 20, 2025

24 of Alberta’s 87 MLAs (source: assembly.ab.ca)

Nominate your picks for this year’s best MLA, best cabinet minister, most effective opposition MLA, and more

It’s that time of year again. I am thrilled to launch the ninth annual Daveberta’s Best of Alberta Politics Survey. There is never a dull moment in Alberta politics so I am excited to hear from you about the big political players of 2025.

I have changed up the categories this year to recognize not just the best MLAs but the work they do in the Legislature and in their constituencies.

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Alberta Politics Substack, Best of Alberta Politics 2025, Canada Election Substack, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Janis Irwin, Naheed Nenshi, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Top 10 closest Alberta races in Canada’s 2025 election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 7, 2025

It’s been just over three months since Election Day in Canada and, as the dust has settled, I’ve taken a closer look at the results in ridings across Alberta.

The Conservative Party continued its decades-long streak of electoral dominance in federal elections in Alberta as it saw its support jump to 63.5 percent from 55.4 percent in 2021 (though it is still lower than the 69 percent the Conservatives earned in Alberta in 2019). The Conservatives had strong showings in every part of the province, but especially in rural Alberta where the party’s candidates were elected with huge margins of victory.

Alberta’s two largest cities, Calgary and Edmonton, were home to the most interesting and most competitive races of the federal election in our province. The races with the narrowest margins of victory were in the cities, and the three closest races were in Calgary, which not long ago was considered a Conservative stronghold.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Preston Manning enters the chat

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 7, 2025

Manning Centre founder and former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning (Photo credit: David J. Climenhaga).

Conservative movement grandfather emerges from political retirement with grumpy separatist threats

Preston Manning emerged from political retirement to insert himself into the federal election mix by writing an op-ed in the Globe & Mail claiming that Liberal Party leader Mark Carney poses a threat to national unity. Manning’s argument triangulates with Premier Danielle Smith’s threats that a re-elected Liberal government would lead to an “unprecedented national unity crisis” – claims that are likely not very helpful for Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.

Manning is undoubtably frustrated by the Liberal Party’s resurgence in public support but threatening that the country will be torn apart if the Conservatives don’t win the election is a shameful bookend to his long and fascinating career in Albertan and Canadian politics.

But who’s Preston?

Manning is probably a familiar name to a lot of Daveberta readers but, now that he’s been out of elected office for more than two decades, there’s a good chance that even a few keen politician watchers in 2025 aren’t too familiar with him.

Nate Horner’s deficit spending, tax cutting confused conservative budget

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 28, 2025

Minister of Finance Nate Horner in the government’s pre-budget release video posted on social media (source: Nate Horner / Instagram)

Alberta goes for another ride on the royalty roller coaster

After twenty years of writing about Alberta politics and about same number of provincial budgets, it’s sometimes hard not to write the same thing year after year: Alberta relies too heavily on revenues from oil and gas royalties to fund the daily operations of government.

That’s the baked-in analysis of Alberta politics. Our provincial government’s over-dependence on oil revenues is both a blessing and a curse. When the price of oil is high, things are really good. When the price of oil is low, it’s really bad. It is the central component of what we used to call the “Alberta Advantage.”

Alberta has been able to afford to have the lowest taxes in Canada and high spending on public services because the government could use oil and gas royalties to offset what every other province would normally collect through taxes.

Can Danielle Smith dodge and weave her way through the AHS scandal allegations?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 8, 2025

Premier Danielle Smith in an ad announcing the UCP’s “Public Health Guarantee” during the 2023 election (source: United Conservative Party / YouTube)

Carrie Tait’s bombshell exposé rocked Alberta politics this week

When I first sat down to start writing today’s column I was planning to write a follow up to my piece about Premier Danielle Smith’s reaction to American President Donald Trump’s tariff threat, but a week in politics can be an eternity and to say this has been a busy week in Alberta politics is an understatement.

If you read one news article this weekend, I strongly recommend it be intrepid Globe & Mail reporter Carrie Tait’s bombshell exposé about the United Conservative Party government firing Alberta Health Services CEO Athena Mentzelopoulos “two days before she was scheduled to meet with the province’s Auditor General to discuss her investigation into procurement contracts and deals for private surgical facilities.”

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith does a victory lap on Trump’s oil and gas tariffs

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 3, 2025

The Canadian flag waving in the wind in Jasper National Park in January 2025 (source: Dave Cournoyer)

But remember, this is not a trade war.

With American President Donald Trump announcing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products imported from Canada into the United States and a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian oil and gas, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing retaliatory 25 per cent tariffs on US imports, the era of free trade between Canada and the United States appears to have come to an end.

But despite all the tariffs, this is not a trade war.

Trump’s tariffs were not imposed as a retaliation to any trade dispute or economic disagreement his country has with Canada. Trump claims the tariffs are a response to illegal fentanyl crossing the US border from Canada and Mexico, but his frequent rants on social media about annexing Canada to make it the 51st State mean it’s unlikely that any action on border security taken by Canadian federal or provincial government’s will actually appease the US President.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Being in Donald Trump’s orbit a double-edged sword for Danielle Smith

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date January 14, 2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, US President-elect Donald Trump, and celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Smith wants tariff exemptions for oil and gas but Trump might want those jobs for American workers

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith continued her diplomatic charm offensive in the United States with a surprise visit to Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort owned by incoming American President Donald Trump. Trump’s Sunshine State refuge has operated as his White House-in-Waiting until next week’s Presidential Inauguration festivities.

Smith has been a regular guest over the past few weeks on a long list of Fox News shows where she has argued that Trump should to exempt Canadian oil and gas from his threat of tariffs. She also plans to join a crowd of Trump supporters to watch him be sworn-in to office next week in Washington D.C.

Tags 2025 Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Race, Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Chrystia Freeland, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Tariff, Jordan Peterson, Justin Trudeau, Kevin O'Leary, Mar-a-Lago, Mark Carney, Naheed Nenshi, Rachel Notley, United Conservative Party

Alberta Belongs in Canada

But who’s Preston?