Tag: Conservative Party of Canada

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

🇨🇦 Alberta ridings I’m watching on federal election night in Canada

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 28, 2025

It’s Election Day so don’t forget to vote!

It’s Election Day in Canada and the polls are open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Alberta. If you aren’t one of the 815,131 Albertans who voted in the Advance Polls, then be sure to find your voting station and cast a ballot today.

Alberta Politics

Vote-splitting in Edmonton Griesbach

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 22, 2025

A campaign mailer from NDP candidate Blake Desjarlais in Edmonton Griesbach (source: Dave Cournoyer)

The Liberal surge in the national polls, which shows the Liberals jumping up to around 30 percent support in Alberta in some polls (the party’s highest levels of support in this province in almost sixty years), has led to a lot of discussion in this campaign about vote-splitting.

“Stop the Split!” was the key message of a recent pamphlet that Blake Desjarlais’ campaign mailed to voters in the riding. The NDP campaign’s message is “Only Blake Desjarlais can defeat Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in Edmonton Griesbach.” The pamphlet doesn’t mention Kerry Diotte, which is interesting, and points out that in the last election the NDP earned 40 percent of the vote, the Conservatives won 37 percent and the Liberals finished third with 13 percent in the riding.

Discussions about vote-splitting in Edmonton, which usually revolve around defeating Conservative candidates, almost always devolve into cringeworthy arguments between Liberal and NDP partisans – which is why I try to avoid them.

Daveberta readers are smart people and it’s not my place to tell you how to vote. The furthest I’ll wade into the vote-splitting debate in my riding today is to say that it’s true that the Liberals are doing very well in the national polls and it’s also true that Desjarlais’ campaign is the better organized of the two main non-Conservative candidates in Edmonton Griesbach.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta Politics Substack, Blake Desjarlais, Canada Election 2025, Conservative Party of Canada, Daveberta Substack, Edmonton-Griesbach, Jagmeet Singh, Kerry Diotte, Liberal Party of Canada, Mark Carney, New Democratic Party of Canada, Patrick Lennox, Pierre Poilievre, Vote-splitting in Edmonton

Alberta Politics

Who’s going to win in Edmonton Griesbach?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 21, 2025

Edmonton Griesbach NDP candidate Blake Desjarlais snaps a selfie with former Alberta premier Rachel Notley, and NDP MLAs Janis Irwin and Brooks Arcand-Paul (source: Blake Desjarlais / Instagram)

NDP MP Blake Desjarlais faces former Conservative MP Kerry Diotte and Mark Carney’s red wave

As Canada’s federal election enters its final week, I am taking a closer look at the race in the Edmonton Griesbach riding. It’s one of a surprisingly large handful of Alberta ridings that are considered competitive in this election and it also happens to be the riding I live and vote in.

The east central/north side Edmonton riding was where the NDP picked up their second seat in Alberta in the 2021 federal election when New Democrat Blake Desjarlais defeated two-term Conservative MP Kerry Diotte. This year’s election is a rematch between the two candidates but, despite traditionally being a blue-orange race, the Liberal Party’s surge could put that party’s candidate in the mix.

Liberals tap Corey Hogan to run against Jeremy Nixon in Calgary Confederation

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 4, 2025

Liberals drop former NDP MLA Rod Loyola in Edmonton Gateway

Canada’s federal election is in full-swing and today’s Daveberta newsletter includes a quick update about candidate nominations in Alberta. I will be back early next week with a regular column and more analysis from Alberta in the federal election.

As of this morning, the Conservative Party, the New Democratic Party, and the Green Party are the only parties with candidates in all 37 ridings in Alberta. The Liberal Party briefly had a full slate but are down one after their candidate in Edmonton Gateway was removed yesterday (more about that below).

The deadline for parties to nominate candidates or for Independent candidates to put their names forward is Monday, April 7 at 2:00 p.m.

Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith threatens a national unity crisis if Canadians re-elect Mark Carney’s Liberals

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 31, 2025

Liberal Party leader Mark Carney on the campaign trail (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)

UCP MLA writes that Canada is broken and Team Canada is a “fake team”

Mark Carney has only been Prime Minister of Canada for 17 days but last week he may have made one of the most consequential statements by a Canadian political leader in recent memory.

“The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” Carney said in response to American President Donald Trump’s almost daily threats against Canada.

Trump backed down on his threats last week to level 25 percent tariffs against the Canadian automobile manufacturing industry, probably temporarily, after Carney announced retaliatory tariffs, but this week could feature Trump’s next big intervention in a federal election campaign where he has become the biggest villain. April 2 is what the Trump is calling “Liberation Day.” It’s the day he says he plans to level more huge tariffs on products being imported into the US.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Adriana LaGrange, Alberta Federal Candidate Nomination Update, Alberta NDP, Alberta Separatism, Alberta Sovereignty Act, Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act, Ben Shapiro, Calgary-Confederation, Calgary-East, Canada Election 2025, Chris Brown, Chris Spearman, Conservative Party of Canada, Danielle Smith, Derek Chauvin, Devin Dreeshen, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Tariff, Edmonton Centre, Edmonton Manning, Eleanor Olszewski, Fair Deal Panel, Free Alberta Strategy, George Floyd, Gina Rinehart, Jagmeet Singh, Jared Wesley, Jason Stephan, Lesley Thompson, Liberal Party of Canada, Liberation Day, Mark Carney, Naheed Nenshi, Nathan Svoboda, PragerU, Priti Obhrai-Martin, Rachael Thomas, Red Deer-South, Rob Anderson, Sayid Ahmed, Searle Turton, Shannon Phillips, Thomas Keeper, Trisha Estabrooks, United Conservative Party, Western Alienation

Alberta Politics

NDP MLA Rod Loyola challenging Conservative MP Tim Uppal in Edmonton Gateway

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 27, 2025

Rod Loyola was the NDP MLA for Edmonton-Ellerslie until stepping down this week (photo source: Rod Loyola / Facebook)

Rod Loyola has resigned as the Alberta NDP MLA for Edmonton-Ellerslie and is running as the Liberal Party candidate in the new Edmonton Gateway riding in the federal election. Loyola represented his south Edmonton provincial riding from 2015 until he stepped down earlier this week to pursue the federal Liberal nomination.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta Federal Candidate Nomination Update, Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Prosperity Project, Ashley Fearnall, Ben Shapiro, Bharat Agnihotri, Blair-Marie Coles, Calgary-Centre, Calgary-Midnapore, Camrose, Canada Election 2025, Commonwealth of Alberta Delegation to Washington, Conservative Party of Canada, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Debbie Carlson, Dennis Modry, Donald Trump, Edmonton Centre, Edmonton Gateway, Edmonton Manning, Edmonton Northwest, Edmonton-Ellerslie, Edmonton-Ellerslie by-election, Edmonton-Strathcona, Edmonton-Strathcona by-election, Eleanor Olszewski, Jackie Lovely, Jason Markusoff, Jeffrey Rath, Kathleen Petty, LaVar Payne, Liberal Party of Canada, Lindsay Luhnau, Lindsey Machona, Logan Hooley, Lori Williams, Mark Carney, Miles Berry, Mitch Sylvestre, Naheed Nenshi, Naresh Bhardwaj, Parkland, Pierre Poilievre, Ponoka-Didsbury, PragerU, Rachel Notley, Rahim Jaffer, Randy Boissonnault, Ranjit Bath, Rob Anders, Rod Loyola, Ron Thiering, Sunjiv Raval, Tim Uppal, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Two Alberta boys go to Ottawa

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 17, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)

Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre grew up in Alberta. That’s a big deal for our province.

The political landscape in Canada has totally shifted under the weight of American President Donald Trump’s threats to impose harsh tariffs on Canadian goods and annex Canada as the 51st State.

Trump’s daily rambling threats against his country’s northern neighbours, mixed with the departure of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from Canadian politics, has erased the huge lead in the polls that Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre had been riding for the past year.

The swearing-in of former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney as Canada’s new Prime Minister appears to have brought the Liberal Party back into the electoral game, for now, but such huge swings in public opinion in such a short time mean it could be impossible to predict what will happen next.

Tags Alberta Federal Candidate Nomination Update, Ben Shapiro, Calgary McKnight, Conservative Party of Canada, Danielle Smith, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Tariff, Edmonton-Centre, George Chahal, Justin Trudeau, Liberal Party of Canada, Mark Carney, Peter Guthrie, Pierre Poilievre, Randy Boissonnault, Scott Sinclair, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Alberta responds to Trump’s trade war still obsessed with border security

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 6, 2025

Danielle Smith joins Team Canada reluctant to use oil & gas trump card

One full day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial premiers Doug Ford in Ontario and Wab Kinew in Manitoba announced retaliatory measures in response to American President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs on Canadian products, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith entered the fray.

“This economic attack on our country, combined with Mr. Trump’s continued talk of using economic force to facilitate the annexation of our country, has broken trust between our two countries in a profound way,” Smith said at a press conference where she was flanked by Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Justice Mickey Amery, Deputy Premier Mike Ellis, and two law enforcement officers (one wearing a bullet proof vest and carrying an assault rifle).

“It is a betrayal of a deep and abiding friendship,” she said.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Quick note: Thank you for reading today’s Daveberta Newsletter! Paid subscribers can keep scrolling to read about the upcoming Edmonton-Strathcona provincial by-election and the federal Conservative Party candidate nomination votes being held in Bow River on March 6 & 7, Red Deer on March 8, and Edmonton Griesbach on March 9.

Alberta Politics

Changing the channel on the Dodgy Contracts Scandal

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 13, 2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks to reporters in Washington DC on February 12, 2025. Standing behind her are Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford (screenshot CPAC)

When scandal threatens to envelop a government, the politicians spin hard

“Changing the channel” might be an outdated metaphor in a world where online streaming is how a lot of people now watch “television,” but it is a term that remains in use by politicians and political communicators to describe a strategy to draw attention away from something you don’t want to be on the top of people’s minds or the front pages of the news websites.

That’s exactly what Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government has been trying to do since Globe & Mail reporter Carrie Tait broke the Dodgy Contract Scandal last week.

The bombshell story revolves around allegations that senior political staff in the government were involved in a $600 million procurement scandal and that AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos was fired by the government two days before she was scheduled to meet with the Auditor General “to discuss her investigation into procurement contracts and deals for private surgical facilities.”

UCP launches attacks ads at Nenshi. Nenshi laughs it off and shoots back.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 28, 2024

Politics in Alberta doesn’t skip a beat.

Less than a week after former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi won a landslide victory in the Alberta NDP leadership race, the United Conservative Party has launched a series of attack ads against him, framing the new NDP leader as “Justin Trudeau’s choice for Alberta” and “just another tax and spend Liberal.”

Nenshi’s team tossed out the old NDP playbook.

Instead of stumbling over fancy words and getting overly defensive (or even worse, ignoring the charge), Nenshi laughed off the attack and shot back with his own stinging criticism of Smith’s UCP.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

NDP to announce new leader and Conservatives vote in Calgary Signal Hill

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 20, 2024

The view from the inside of the Wonderland Sculpture outside The Bow tower in downtown Calgary (source: Dave Cournoyer)

Calgary is in the headlines a lot these days, but today’s Daveberta newsletter doesn’t have anything to do with the busted water main that is threatening the city’s water supply (but I do hope to write more about that later).

Today’s newsletter focuses on two big political events happening in Alberta’s largest city this weekend: the announcement of the NDP leadership vote and the federal Conservative nomination vote in Calgary Signal Hill.