With six months left until the next election, the Alberta NDP have nominated candidates in 67 of Alberta’s 87 ridings. The United Conservative Party have candidates named in 45 ridings and the Green Party has 23 candidates. The Alberta Party has nominated 3 candidates and the Liberal Party has one.
Here are the latest candidate nomination updates:
United Conservative Party
- The United Conservative Party announced the nominations of incumbent MLAs Peter Guthrie in Airdrie-Cochrane, Angela Pitt in Airdrie-East, Jason Copping in Calgary-Varsity, and Todd Loewen in Central Peace-Notley.
- Calgary-Elbow: Lawyer Chris Davis defeated past city council candidate Cornelia Weibe and lawyer Andrea James to win the UCP nomination. Recent UCP leadership candidate Jon Horsman had announced his candidacy in the race but did not appear on the ballot. The riding not been represented in the Legislature since former UCP MLA Doug Schweitzer resigned on August 31, 2022.
- Calgary-Lougheed: Former premier Jason Kenney has resigned as MLA for the southwest Calgary riding. Kenney was first elected as MLA in a 2017 by-election and was re-elected in 2019.
- Drayton Valley-Devon: Real estate agent Andrew Boitchenko defeated former constituency president Carol Vowk and Brazeau County Councillor Kara Westerlund to secure the UCP nomination. Boitchenko ran for the UCP nomination in 2018 but was defeated by UCP MLA Mark Smith. Smith is not running for re-election in 2023.
- Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview: Felix Amenaghawon, Lana Palmer and Luke Suvanto are seeking the UCP nomination. A nomination vote is scheduled for December 20.
- Edmonton-Mill Woods: Raman Athwal has been nominated as the UCP candidate.
- Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo: MLA Tany Yao is facing Zulkifl Mujahid and construction association CEO Keith Plowman in the UCP nomination in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo. Voting for the nomination closes at 9:00 p.m. tonight. UPDATE: Mujahid defeated Yao and Plowman to win the UCP nomination.
- St. Albert: Past mayoral candidate Angela Wood defeated ministerial press secretary Melissa Crane to win the UCP nomination.
And as noted in the Alberta Today newsletter, Ontario political staffer Pierçon Knezic has been hired as the UCP’s Director of Election Readiness.
Alberta NDP
- Cypress-Medicine Hat: Cathy Hogg is the second candidate to join the NDP nomination contest. Hogg has served on the Prairie Rose Public School since 2013, including recently as board chair, and as President of the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta. Tim Gruber announced his plans to run for the nomination in September.
- Livingstone-Macleod: Conservationist and author Kevin Van Tighem was nominated as the Alberta NDP candidate in Livingstone-Macleod. Van Tighem is the former Superintendent of Banff National Park and he has been an outspoken critic of the UCP government’s plans to allow open-pit coal mining in the Rocky Mountains.
Green Party
The Green Party has nominated Catriona Wright in Calgary-South East and Ernestina Malheiro in Edmonton-Gold Bar, Kristina Howard in Edmonton-West Henday, Taylor Lower in Lacombe-Ponoka, and Tegra-Lee Campbell in Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright.
Upcoming nomination meetings
Here are the scheduled upcoming nominations:
- December 4 – Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo UCP
- December 8 – West Yellowhead NDP
- December 9 & 10 – Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock UCP
- December 10, 11, 12 – Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP
- December 11 – Edmonton-South UCP
- December 17 – Calgary-North NDP
- December 17 – Chestermere-Strathmore UCP
- December 20 – Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview UCP
I am building a list of candidates running for party nominations, so if you are seeking a nomination and would like you name added to the list please let me know. Thanks!
Subscribe to the Daveberta Substack and get my bi-weekly Alberta politics column, like this week’s column about the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act, delivered straight into your email inbox.
