Amit Batra – daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics and Elections

Former Calgary Catholic School District Trustee Pamela Rath has been nominated United Conservative Party candidate in Calgary-Mountain View. Rath served as a trustee from 2017 until her resignation in December 2022 for “personal and family matters.”

Rath’s resignation came a few months after she was censured by her trustee colleagues after being found to be in violation of the board’s code of conduct, though the nature of her alleged misconduct was never made public.

The riding has been represented by Alberta NDP MLA Kathleen Ganley since 2019 and was previously represented by Liberal MLA David Swann from 2004 to 2019.

School trustee Cathy Hogg won the most unusual of contests: a contested NDP nomination race in Cypress-Medicine Hat.

Hogg defeated retired teacher Tim Gruber and private college founder David Martin. She has served as a trustee with the Prairie Rose Public School since 2013 and previously served as President of the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta.

And way up north, Scott Sinclair defeated three other candidates to win the UCP nomination in Lesser Slave Lake. I’m told that Sinclair beat second place finisher Martine Carifelle by three votes. Sinclair will face Registered Nurse and former NDP MLA Danielle Larivee in the election.

Grande Prairie UCP race draws a crowd

Three more candidates – Larry Gibson, Don Golden and Tayyab Parvez – have joined the UCP nomination contest to replace retiring MLA Tracy Allard..

Gibson is an energy and utilities consultant and former chair of the Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce. Golden is a realtor and former Catholic school board trustee. And Parvez is an engineer and the nephew of Calgary-North MLA Muhammad Yaseen. Nolan Dyck announced his candidacy last week.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Travis Toews is expected to announce soon whether or not he will run for re-election in the neighbouring Grande Prairie-Wapiti. Toews was first elected as MLA in 2019 and placed second to Danielle Smith in the 2022 UCP leadership race.

More nomination updates

Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock: Pastor-turned-horizontal directional driller Landen Tischer was nominated as the NDP candidate in this sprawling riding north of Edmonton.

Calgary-Bow: Paul Godard has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Godard ran for the Alberta Party in the riding in 2019.

Calgary-Edgemont: Allen Schultz has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.

Calgary-Foothills: Shaoli Wang has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Wang previously ran for mayor in 2021 and as an Independent candidate in Calgary-Rocky Ridge in the 2019 federal election.

Camrose: Bob Blayone has announced he will run for the Independence Party of Alberta nomination in this central Alberta riding. Baylone acts as a spokesperson for the Independence Party and previously ran for town council in Peace River in 2021.

Central Peace-Notley: Lynn Lekisch is the Alberta Party candidate in this northwest Alberta riding. Lekisch ran for the NDP nomination in the riding in July 2022 but was defeated by Megan Ciurysek.

Edmonton-Castle Downs: Patrick Stewart has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.

Edmonton-Decore: Lawyer Brent Tyson has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.

Edmonton-Glenora: Shannon Berry has withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest, leaving Amit Batra as the only declared candidate at the moment. UPDATE: Amit Batra has been disqualified by the UCP.

Edmonton-Meadows: Amritpal Matharu defeated Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu to win the UCP nomination. Matharu is a shop manager at TJs Auto and Brakes & Tires and General Secretary of Gurdwara Millwoods.

Edmonton-West Henday: Joseph Angeles and Slava Cravcenco are on the ballot at the UCP nomination meeting on March 2.

Leduc-Beaumont: Al Luthra is no longer seeking the nomination. Heather Feldbusch, Nam Kular, Brandon Lunty, Dawn Miller, Dave Quest, and Karen Richert will be on the ballot when UCP members in the riding vote to choose a candidate on March 18.

Livingston-Macleod – Nanton town councillor Kevin Todd has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Todd had previously been seeking the UCP nomination but had a change of heart before the candidate entry deadline and choose to run for the Alberta Party instead.

Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills- Past Independence Party leadership candidate Katherine Kowalchuk is running for that party’s nomination in this central Alberta riding. Kowalchuk is connected to the COVID-skeptical Lawyers 4 Truth group and was briefly nominated as a Liberal Party candidate in Calgary-Signal Hill ahead of the 2015 federal election.

Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre: Fred Schwieger is running for the Independence Party of Alberta. A nomination vote is scheduled for March 18, 19 and 20.

Upcoming nomination votes

With just 88 days left until Election Day, the Alberta NDP have nominated candidates in 75 of Alberta’s 87 ridings. The United Conservative Party has candidates named in 68 ridings and the Green Party has 26 candidates. The Alberta Party has nominated 13 candidates and the Liberal Party has one.

Candidate nomination votes are currently scheduled for the following dates:

March 2 – Edmonton-West Henday UCP
March 4 – Red Deer-South UCP
March 5 – Calgary-Bhullar-McCall UCP
March 9, 10, 11 – Livingstone-Macleod UCP
March 11 – Edmonton-Strathcona NDP
March 13 – Calgary-Lougheed UCP
March 14 – Calgary-Lougheed NDP
March 14 – Lethbridge-West UCP
March 16 – Cypress-Medicine Hat UCP
March 18 – Leduc-Beaumont UCP
March 18, 19, 20 – Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre IP

The Daveberta Substack

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to check out the Daveberta Substack and listen to the latest episode of the Daveberta Podcast with former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi. And don’t miss Rick Bell’s column about the Nenshi interview in the Calgary Sun.

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Big rematch set in Calgary-Falconridge, home of the closest race of the 2019 election

The closest race in Alberta’s 2019 election is set to be a rematch in 2023.

United Conservative Party MLA Devinder Toor was nominated as his party’s candidate in Calgary-Falconridge last week, pitting him against second-time Alberta NDP challenger Parmeet Singh Boparai.

Toor beat Boparai in 2019 by narrow 91 votes.

Parmeet Singh NDP Calgary Falconridge — Parmeet Singh Boparai

Toor’s first term as a UCP backbencher was not short of controversy.

In June 2020, CBC reported that the owners of two popular food trucks claimed they were being bullied and harassed by residents who didn’t want them there, including Toor.

He was hit with a $15,000 fine from Elections Alberta in July 2021 for violating five sections of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act. And in September 2021, Alberta Health Services issued a closure order for a Gleichen hotel owned by Toor.

Toor was one of only a handful of UCP MLAs to support Danielle Smith in her bid to win the party’s leadership and he was rewarded in October 2022 with an appointment as Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism.

This is a riding the NDP believe they can flip. It is on my list to watch.

Four in Livingstone-Macleod UCP race, former candidate now running for Alberta Party

It looked like there might be six or seven candidates in the race but when the nomination papers were handed in, there were only four candidates contesting the ‘do-over‘ UCP nomination Livingstone-Macleod.

Tanya Clemens, Shauna Oseen, Chelsae Petrovic, and Don Whalen will be on the ballot when UCP members vote on March 9, 10 and 11.

Two candidates who previously announced their candidacies dropped out of the race. Christina Lee and Nanton town councillor Kevin Todd did not submit their nomination forms.

Todd posted about his withdrawing from the contest on his Facebook page:

This was an extremely difficult decision to make, and I didn’t make it lightly. However, after being involved more closely with the party, I found that some of my values, morals and ethics were just not aligning as much as they used to.

And tonight, Todd announced that he will instead be seeking the nomination to run as the Alberta Party candidate in Livingstone-Macleod.

Tejada wins NDP ‘do-over’ vote in Calgary-Klein

Constituency office manager Lizette Tejada defeated four other candidates to win the NDP nomination in this hotly contested Calgary riding. This was the party’s second time holding a nomination contest in the riding. Brady Adkins, Angela McIntyre, Mattie McMillan and Laurie O’Neil were the other candidates in the race.

All quiet in Grande Prairie-Wapiti

Former finance minister Travis Toews launched his United Conservative Party leadership bid this week with a social media video. — Travis Toews (Travis Toews/Facebook)

What’s one of the big questions being asked in Alberta political circles this week?

Will Finance Minister Travis Toews run for re-election?

The rancher-accountant and UCP leadership race runner-up has been silent on his plans for the next election and the party has not released any news about nominating a candidate in his Grande Prairie-Wapiti riding.

Will Toews bow out of provincial politics after tabling the spring budget? We’ll find out soon.

More nomination updates

With just more than 100 days left until Election Day, the Alberta NDP have nominated candidates in 73 of Alberta’s 87 ridings. The United Conservative Party has candidates named in 58 ridings and the Green Party has 27 candidates. The Alberta Party has nominated 5 candidates and the Liberal Party has one.

United Conservative Party

Calgary-Bhullar-McCall: Sonya Virk joins Amanpreet Singh Gill in the UCP nomination race in this north east Calgary riding. Virk is a former member of the Alberta Party provincial board. A vote is scheduled for March 5.

Edmonton-Glenora: Shannon Berry and Amit Batra are seeking the UCP nomination. Batra previously ran as a Liberal candidate in Edmonton-Calder in 2015, was active in Wexit Alberta and, until recently, served as a director of the Wildrose Independence Party.

Edmonton-McClung: Daniel Heikkinen defeated Terry Vankka to win the UCP nomination. Heikkinen was a candidate for Edmonton City Council in October 2021.

Edmonton-Manning: Alberto Mazzocca and Jaspreet Saggu are seeking the UCP nomination. A nomination vote is scheduled for February 22, 2023.

Lethbridge-West: Rick Dempsey and Torry Tanner are seeking the UCP nomination. Dempsey ran for the nomination in 2018. Tanner was named in an unsuccessful lawsuit against former Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw challenging Alberta’s COVID-19 public health restrictions. A nomination vote is scheduled for March 14.

Lesser Slave Lake: Martine Carifelle, Jerrad Cunningham, Scott Sinclair, and Silas Yellowknee are seeking the UCP nomination. A vote is being held on February 25 and 26.

Alberta NDP

Calgary-Lougheed: Venkat Ravulaparthi and Kim Wagner are seeking the NDP nomination. A nomination vote is scheduled for March 14.

Drumheller-Stettler: Pharmacist Juliet Franklin was nominated as the NDP candidate. This was the only riding where the NDP candidate placed 4th in the 2019 election.

Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre: Fisheries biologist Vance Buchwald was nominated as the NDP candidate.

Green Party

Julian Schulz has been nominated as the Green Party candidate in Edmonton-Glenora. Two of the party’s nominated candidates have withdrawn their candidacies: Brandy Kinkead in Calgary-Edgemont and Lucas Bevan in Sherwood Park.

Upcoming nomination meetings

Candidate nomination votes are currently scheduled for the following dates:

February 17 – Lacombe-Ponoka UCP
February 22 – Edmonton-Manning UCP
February 23 – Calgary-Fish Creek UCP
February 23 – Edmonton-Whitemud UCP
February 25 – Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock NDP
February 25 & 26 – Lesser Slave Lake UCP
February 28 – Cypress-Medicine Hat NDP
March 1 – Edmonton-Meadows UCP
March 2 – Edmonton-West Henday UCP
March 4 – Red Deer-South UCP
March 5 – Calgary-Bhullar-McCall UCP
March 14 – Calgary-Lougheed NDP
March 14 – Lethbridge-West UCP

The Daveberta Substack

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