Tag: Battle River-Crowfoot by-election

Not even close. Pierre Poilievre wins a landslide victory in Battle River-Crowfoot

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 19, 2025

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre posing with the Reynolds Raiders horse-mounted outlaw gang in Big Valley, which is part of the Alberta Prairie Railway tour (source: Pierre Poilievre / Instagram)

Independent Bonnie Critchley finishes a distant but respectable second

As was widely expected, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre had no problem winning yesterday’s federal by-election in the Conservative stronghold of Battle River—Crowfoot. Poilievre’s commanding lead was clear the moment the first poll was reported shortly after 8:30 p.m., which showed the party leader with 437 votes compared to a combined 49 votes for all the other candidates in the race.

After a long night of counting the write-in ballots, Elections Canada reported that Poilievre was elected with 40,548 votes — 80.4 percent of the total votes cast in the by-election. Poilievre’s landslide win is fell just short of the 82.8 percent earned by former and future MP Damien Kurek just a few months ago, but shows that Conservative Party support remains solid in this sprawling rural Alberta riding.

What’s at stake in the Battle River-Crowfoot by-election?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 15, 2025

Conservative Party candidate Pierre Poilievre in Carbon, Alberta (source: Pierre Poilievre / Facebook)

Pierre Poilievre is going to win. The only real question is: by how much?

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre will return to the House of Commons after he wins the federal by-election happening in the sprawling rural riding of Battle River-Crowfoot on Monday, August 18.

The by-election marking Poilievre’s return to Ottawa also marks a return to Alberta after he left his hometown of Calgary more than 20 years ago to work as a political staffer in Ottawa and run in a riding just outside the capital city. After spending 21 years as an Ottawa-area MP, Poilievre was defeated by Liberal Bruce Fanjoy in Carleton on April 28, which many believe was a result of his strong support of the anti-vaccine trucker convoy that harassed residents of the capital city in January and February 2022.

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

Battle River-Crowfoot by-election should be a Poilievre landslide

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date July 10, 2025

Premier Danielle Smith and Conservative by-election candidate Pierre Poilievre (source: Danielle Smith / Instagram)

A Liberal win in this sprawling rural riding would be one in a trillion

With Stampede season soon winding down in Calgary, attention of the political class will quickly turn from the lobbyist receptions, pancake flips, and oil industry cocktail parties to the land of real cowboys. The federal by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot has been called for August 18 and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre is the favourite to win this vote and reclaim a seat in the House of Commons after his defeat in Ontario on April 28.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

What’s at stake in Alberta’s mid-term by-elections

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 19, 2025

Then-leader of the Wildrose Party Danielle Smith at a press conference during the 2014 Edmonton-Whitemud by-election. (source: Dave Cournoyer)

Deciphering what happens in Edmonton-Ellerslie, Edmonton-Strathcona, and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills could be interesting

The three by-elections happening on June 23 could have a big impact on Alberta politics, but maybe not in the way you might think. The results of the mid-term by-elections in urban Edmonton-Strathcona, suburban Edmonton-Ellerslie, and rural Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills are an important test for Alberta’s political leaders and the results could impact provincial politics in our province in different ways.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Party, Alberta Pension Plan, Alberta Separatism, Battle River-Crowfoot, Battle River-Crowfoot by-election, Bev Toews, Brandon Lunty, Cameron Davies, Caroline Currie, Chris Gallaway, Christy Clark, Corey Hogan, Damien Kurek, Danielle Smith, Darby Crouch, Darby-rae Crouch, Edmonton-Ellerslie, Edmonton-Ellerslie by-election, Edmonton-Strathcona, Edmonton-Strathcona by-election, Enyinnah Okere, Fred Munn, Gordon Kesler, Gurtej Singh Brar, Mike Ellis, Naheed Nenshi, Naresh Bhardwaj, Nathan Cooper, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election, Patrick Lennox, Paul Hinman, Pierre Poilievre, Republican Party of Alberta, Ryan Hastman, Tara Sawyer, United Conservative Party, Western Canada Concept, Wildrose Loyalty Coalition, Yonathan Sumamo

Alberta Politics

Ten big questions about Alberta separatism in 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 16, 2025

The Alberta Prosperity Project’s Jeffrey Rath shows off the separatist group’s proposed referendum question in Calgary (source: Facebook).

Is Premier Danielle Smith a separatist? Is the UCP a separatist party?

The biggest difference between today’s Alberta separatist push and past efforts is that today’s most vocal separatists are operating within the governing UCP. Premier Danielle Smith gave her tacit public support for these groups in an online video address earlier this month and she knows that any direct effort to try to stop it would turn those groups, which included some of the UCP’s most enthusiastic activists, against her.

Many of those enthusiastic separatists inside the UCP helped topple former Premier Jason Kenney in 2022 and propel Smith to victory in the leadership race that followed. Writer Jen Gerson cleverly described Smith’s situation through one rule of politics: you get ate by the dragon you ride in on.

Alberta Speaker Nathan Cooper is going to Washington DC

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 8, 2025

Alberta Legislative Assembly Speaker Nathan Cooper wearing the newly designed western-style tricorn hat designed by Smithbilt Hats Inc. (source: Legislative Assembly of Alberta)

Also: Six thoughts on Danielle Smith’s separatist threats

After ten years as the MLA for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills and nearly six years as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Nathan Cooper is leaving the Legislature to take up a new job as Alberta’s senior representative to the United States.

In a statement released yesterday, Premier Danielle Smith announced that Cooper would replace representative James Rajotte, who recently stepped down after filling the role since 2020.

Punchy Nenshi calls on Danielle Smith to stop playing Alberta separatist games

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 5, 2025

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi (source: Dave Cournoyer)

Also: Pierre Poilievre running in Battle River—Crowfoot by-election, gets unwelcome greetings from UCP VP

Naheed Nenshi’s speech was upbeat and touched on a lot of traditional NDP points about public health care, public education and rights for workers, but he was most animated when ripping into Premier Danielle Smith’s threat that the Liberal Party’s re-election would spark an unprecedented national unity crisis and her flirtation with Alberta separatists.

‘I will be damned if we ever let Danielle Smith tear the country down,’ Nenshi said. “Alberta’s New Democrats will always, always, always stand with the millions and millions of Canadians who believe in a stronger, more unified country,” Nenshi said.

“No more playing stupid separatist games with the future of our province! No more disrespecting Indigenous communities! No more disrespecting Albertans!”