Tag: Better Edmonton Party

Is Naheed Nenshi ready to be the next Premier of Alberta?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 18, 2025

Flashy new NDP ad gives a glimpse into what the NDP wants to fight for in the next election

Naheed Nenshi is ready. That’s the main message of a new campaign ad released by the Alberta New Democrats last week. The video reintroduces Nenshi to Albertans and tries to lay out some clear contrasts between his party and Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party.

The new ad is reportedly the result of the Alberta NDP’s new relationship with the US-based Fight Agency, the political consultants behind Zohran Mamdani’s wildly successful campaign to become the next Mayor of New York City. And it’s an impressive ad.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Airdrie-Cochrane, Alberta Election 2027, Alberta Municipalities, Alberta NDP, Alberta Party, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Alex Hryciw, Amarjeet Sohi, Andrew Knack, Andrew MacKendrick, Better Edmonton Party, Calgary-Mountain View, Calgary-Peigan, Canada Election Substack, Dan Nielsen, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Devery Corbin, Dylan Bressey, Edmonton-Ellerslie by-election, Edmonton-Strathcona, Fight Agency, Heather Wilson, Kathleen Ganley, Kyall Glennie, Kyle Kasawski, Lesser Slave Lake, Lethbridge-West by-election, Mark Miller, Mike Burton, Mike Elliott, Mike Vivian, Naheed Nenshi, Omar Mohammad, Peter Guthrie, Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta, Rachel Notley, Reed Clark, Richard Corbin, Scott Sinclair, Sherwood Park, Tanya Fir, Tim Cartmell, UCP AGM 2025, United Conservative Party, Winston Pon, Zohran Mamdani

Alberta Politics

Tim Cartmell’s big money Better Edmonton campaign falls flat

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 23, 2025

Tim Cartmell was the perceived frontrunner who had been posturing for a mayoral run for years and entered the race with a large campaign war chest and a tailor made Better Edmonton Party with a slate of council candidates in each ward.

In theory, the menu of fundraising and organizational advantages available to him should have vaulted Cartmell into the mayor’s office.

The advantages the party structure could give candidates with large bases of corporate donor support was the real political incentive in mind when the province’s United Conservative Party government decided to inject municipal political parties into Edmonton and Calgary elections. Cartmell’s mayoral campaign is expected to have spent more than $1 million on the race, making it the most expensive election campaign in Edmonton’s history.

Andrew Knack as the progressive choice for mayor

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 23, 2025

Andrew Knack spent most of his 12 years on Edmonton city council playing the role of the mild-mannered moderate centrist who was known for going above and beyond to engage with his constituents. But in this election, Knack was cast as the progressive alternative to Tim Cartmell’s corporate donor backed campaign.

Andrew Knack is the next Mayor of Edmonton

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 22, 2025

Andrew Knack speaks to reporters after winning Edmonton’s 2025 mayoral election (source: Andrew Knack / Instagram)

Knack bests former frontrunner Tim Cartmell in race to replace Amarjeet Sohi

Results from Edmonton’s low-key municipal election were very slow to trickle in but by mid-afternoon today we learned that Andrew Knack will be the next Mayor of Edmonton.

The three-term councillor has represented west Edmonton since he was first elected in 2013 and jumped into the mayoral race after initially planning to leave municipal politics and not seek re-election to council.

Knack bucked what felt like a strong wave of anti-incumbent sentiment going into the campaign and defeated south side councillor and Better Edmonton Party leader Tim Cartmell by a margin of around 8 points with an abysmal 30 per cent turnout of voters at the polls (at the time I am writing this only 217 of 236 polls are reporting in the mayoral election). Knack ran as an independent candidate.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Andrew Knack, Ashley Salvador, Better Edmonton Party, Bill Tonita, Calgary Mayoral Election 2025, Calgary Municipal Election 2025, Caroline Matthews, Cindy Jeffries, Communities First Party, Danielle Smith, Darrell Friesen, Don Iveson, Don Scott, Drew Barnes, Edmonton Mayoral Election 2025, Edmonton Municipal Election 2025, Gabrielle Blatz, Jackie Clayton, Jeff Watson, Jennifer Rice, Jeromy Farkas, Jon Morgan, Julianna Charchun, Jyoti Gondek, Karen Principe, Kent Hehr, Linsee Clark, Michael Elliott, Michael Janz, Michael Walters, Mike Allen, Mountain View County, Omar Mohammad, Peggy Johnson, Rahim Jaffer, Reed Clark, Rob Smith, Sandy Bowman, Sonya Sharp, Strathcona County, Terri Beaupre, Thu Parmar, Tim Cartmell, Tyler Gandam, United Conservative Party, Victor Doerksen, Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi, Ward sipiwiyiniwak

Alberta Politics

Tim Cartmell’s big money mayoral campaign in Edmonton

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 16, 2025

Edmonton mayoral candidate Tim Cartmell (source: Tim Cartmell / Facebook)

Tim Cartmell’s mayoral campaign stalling in the polls became even more surprising last week when Elections Edmonton financial disclosures showed that his campaign raised more than $800,000 by the end of July, largely because of corporate and wealthy individual donors. That means Cartmell’s campaign will have raised almost more money than all the other mayoral candidates combined and the most money of any mayoral candidate in Edmonton’s history.

Cartmell’s early start and Better Edmonton Party slate of council candidates should, in theory, give him a voter identification advantage on October 20. But Cartmell’s series of missteps, including his recently fumbling and bumbling when asked a simple question about whether his corporate donors put him in a conflict of interest, is not an inspiring performance of a future mayor.

Andrew Knack, Jeromy Farkas in the lead in mayoral election polls

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 16, 2025

Edmonton mayoral candidate Andrew Knack (source: Andrew Knack / Facebook)

It’s the gift every election candidate in Alberta dreams of in the final stretch of the campaign: a Janet Brown poll showing you’re in the lead.

That’s what big city mayoral candidates Andrew Knack and Jeromy Farkas got on October 10. Two polls commissioned by CBC and conducted by well-respected pollster Janet Brown showed Knack in the lead in Edmonton’s mayoral race and Farkas leading in the race to become Calgary’s next mayor.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta Politics Substack, Andrew Knack, Better Edmonton Party, Brian Thiessen, Calgary Mayoral Election 2025, Canada Election Substack, Daveberta Substack, Edmonton Mayoral Election 2025, Edmonton Municipal Election 2025, Janet Brown, Jeff Davison, Jeromy Farkas, Jyoti Gondek, Michael Walters, Omar Mohammad, Rahim Jaffer, Sonya Sharp, Tim Cartmell, Tony Caterina

Alberta Politics

UCP and NDP Presidents Rob Smith and Bill Tonita running in municipal elections

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 15, 2025

Bill Tonita (centre) with fellow NDP candidates Chantal Saramaga-McKenzie (left) and Karen Shaw (right) during the 2023 provincial election. (source: Bill Tonita / Facebook)

The introduction of municipal political parties in Calgary and Edmonton has generated a lot of confusion and consternation in this election but lost in the noise of the big city debate is that the presidents of Alberta’s two main provincial political parties are on ballots in county elections outside urban centres.

United Conservative Party President Rob Smith is running as a candidate in Mountain View County council’s Division 6 and Alberta NDP President Bill Tonita is running for re-election in Strathcona County’s Ward 4.

Also, big city mayoral candidates Andrew Knack and Jeromy Farkas got the gift every election candidate in Alberta dreams of in the final stretch of the campaign: a Janet Brown poll showing you’re in the lead.

Edmonton’s mayoral frontrunner Tim Cartmell skips crucial vote to go on vacation

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date July 10, 2025

With municipal elections happening in October, Edmonton mayoral race is taking shape and taking unexpected turns.

A heated few weeks at Edmonton City Council culminated with retiring councillor Sarah Hamilton launching a profanity-laden attack against her colleague Jo-Anne Wright, and perceived mayoral race frontrunner and Better Edmonton Party leader Tim Cartmell leaving on vacation just before the end of public hearings and missing a crucial vote to amend the city’s controversial zoning bylaw.

A motion from Mayor Amarjeet Sohi to reaffirm some of the most controversial parts of the current bylaw passed in a 6-5 vote, meaning that Cartmell’s vote would have made the difference had he shown up in-person or joined the meeting over Zoom.

The week before Cartmell left for vacation, he proposed halting infill development in the city with a dramatic motion that he was told ahead of time was likely illegal. Cartmell then posted a video on social media tut tutting his council colleagues before leaving for an undisclosed vacation spot that his campaign says has no internet connectivity.

Polling plunge a five-alarm fire for Nenshi’s NDP

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 6, 2025

Opposition shouldn’t panic – it should make smart changes

The three provincial by-elections are in full swing and the NDP are eager to have leader Naheed Nenshi join their MLAs in the Legislature. Two new polls will add extra urgency to the NDP’s efforts to hold on to two of those seats and have Nenshi hit the ground running when he is elected in Edmonton-Strathcona on June 23.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack