UCP MLA and Minister of Municipal Affairs Dan Williams fended off a challenge from local contractor and separatist-backed candidate Dave Long to win his party’s nomination to run for re-election in Peace River.
Williams was first elected in 2019 and was re-elected in 2023 with 72.8 per cent of the vote.
The Peace Country has turned into a hotspot of UCP MLAs facing challenges in party nominations ahead of the next provincial election. MLA Nolan Dyck is facing a challenge from Robin Coward in Grande Prairie at a nomination meeting on September 1 and MLA Dan Williams is facing a challenge from Dave Long in Peace River at a vote of local members on September 10 and 11.
Grande Prairie-Wapiti MLA Ron Wiebe was spared a nomination challenge when the UCP disqualified challenger Karen Peters, but the party has not officially announced his acclamation.
The speed at which librarians and the community volunteers who sit on local public library boards across Alberta responded to Williams’ bill was swift.
The Town of Mayerthorpe Library Board took on Williams’ principal claims straight on in a statement published by the Mayerthorpe Freelancer:
The Mayerthorpe Public Library does not have pornographic material for children, nor does any other public library in Alberta. Our collection is guided by a board-approved collection development policy and is informed by professional library standards. Materials are catalogued and shelved appropriately by age. The library board has a formal process for patrons to request reconsideration of items – a process that has never been used in our community.
The Town of Olds Library board expressed concern that several aspects of a proposed bill could curtail library board autonomy and intimidate staff.
In the age of Artificial Intelligence, algorithms, easily spread misinformation, and privately owned social media platforms, who better is there to trust in our society than librarians? Like teachers and other educators, professional librarians and library staff are on the frontlines of the fight to preserve and protect credible public information and knowledge.
Public libraries are probably one of the last truly public spaces we have in our communities. They aren’t a private space that you have to pay to access by buying a ticket, membership, or a coffee. Public libraries are for everyone – and they offer much more than books. They provide programming for kids and adults, courses, resources, and a place for community gatherings.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Challenging Danielle Smith at the Legislature to meeting King Charles III in London. It was a big week.
This is the second in a series of Daveberta Podcast episodes I’m calling Daveberta In Session. In these short episodes I’m sharing a few key things that I’m watching in Alberta politics in the week ahead and some other things that have caught my attention.
In this week’s episode, I discuss:
This full episode of this podcast is available to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack, so be sure to sign up for a monthly or annual subscription at Daveberta.substack.com/subscribe.
Thanks for subscribing and listening to this episode of the Daveberta Podcast. Share your feedback in the comments and if you enjoyed the podcast feel free to share it with a friend.
Early March candidate meetings scheduled in Calgary and Edmonton ridings
With rumours of an early provincial election circulating since last year, the Alberta NDP looks like it will be the first political party out of the gate to nominate candidates ahead of the next vote.
The NDP website lists candidate nomination meetings scheduled in Edmonton-Glenora on March 3, Calgary-Elbow on March 4, Calgary-Klein on March 5, Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview on March 6 and Calgary-Edgemont on March 7.
All five of these ridings are represented by NDP MLAs who will be seeking re-election if they secure their party’s nominations.
Longtime Daveberta readers will know that I am keenly interested in tracking candidate nominations ahead of provincial and federal elections in Alberta, so I am pleased to share with you that I am continuing this tradition as we approach the next election.
Alberta is getting a new electoral map and the commissioners tasked with the job of redrawing the province’s political boundaries released their interim report in October.
The Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission is now collecting input about the interim map before the commissioners go back to the drawing board to sketch out their final report, which will be submitted to Speaker Ric McIver by March 28, 2026.
The new map would be used for the next provincial election if it is approved by the Legislature and if a provincial election isn’t called next spring, as some political watchers suspect could happen.
The latest public opinion poll shows current councillors Tim Cartmell and Andrew Knack and former councillor Michael Walters leading the pack in a close three way race. But with nearly 50 percent of voters saying they are undecided, it could be anyone’s to win.
The Cardinal Research poll showed Walters with 15 per cent support and Cartmell and Knack with 13 per cent each, and 48 per cent of voters undecided. I don’t want to focus too much on the horse race, but that poll shows a pretty tight race in a big open field.
Summer is coming to an end. Labour Day is just behind us and students are heading back to school. But it looks like Alberta teachers and the United Conservative Party government are on the brink of a major labour dispute.
It’s been 23 years since the last province-wide teachers strike in Alberta and the impasse at the bargaining table has increased the possibility of another major job action.
But remember, this is not a trade war.
With American President Donald Trump announcing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products imported from Canada into the United States and a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian oil and gas, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing retaliatory 25 per cent tariffs on US imports, the era of free trade between Canada and the United States appears to have come to an end.
But despite all the tariffs, this is not a trade war.
Trump’s tariffs were not imposed as a retaliation to any trade dispute or economic disagreement his country has with Canada. Trump claims the tariffs are a response to illegal fentanyl crossing the US border from Canada and Mexico, but his frequent rants on social media about annexing Canada to make it the 51st State mean it’s unlikely that any action on border security taken by Canadian federal or provincial government’s will actually appease the US President.
The seasons are changing and it’s not just the weather – the political seasons are changing too.
The first snow has fallen and the cold north winds are blowing across Alberta. The seasons are changing and it’s not just limited to the weather – the political seasons are changing too.
Five months after the 2023 provincial election, Alberta’s politicians will be back in the provincial capital on October 30 to start the first substantial sitting of this Legislative Assembly. MLAs met shortly after the election to choose a Speaker for the new Assembly (Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper) but this fall’s session will see Premier Danielle Smith’s re-elected United Conservative Party government introduce its legislative agenda.
Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.
Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras
Marketing company owner Nolan Dyck defeated City Councillor Gladys Blackmore, former chamber of commerce chairman Larry Gibson, and non-profit founder Tayyab Parvez to win the United Conservative Party nomination in Grande Prairie.
Dyck is the Past-President of the UCP constituency association in the neighbouring Grande Prairie-Wapiti riding and serves as the connections manager at the Peace River Bible Institute. Dyck supported Travis Toews’ campaign for the UCP leadership and his nomination was endorsed by Peace River MLA Dan Williams.
Dyck succeeds one-term UCP MLA Tracy Allard, who is not running for re-election. The NDP have not nominated a candidate in the riding.
Samson Cree Nation Band Councillor Katherine Swampy announced her plans to seek the NDP nomination in Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin. Swampy previously ran for the NDP in Drayton Valley-Devon in the 2015 election, and for the federal NDP in Battle River-Crowfoot in 2015 and Edmonton-Centre in 2019.
Ather Quraishi and Tabatha Wallace have also announced their plans to run for the nomination.
The Communist Party of Alberta has named three candidates for the next election. Party leader Naomi Rankin will run in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood, with comrades Jonathan Troutman running in Calgary-East and Corrine Benson running in Edmonton-Meadows.
Rankin has served as leader of the Communist Party of Alberta since 1992 and has been a candidate in every provincial and federal election in Alberta since 1982.
Zak Abdi has withdrawn as the Green Party candidate in Edmonton-City Centre and will be stepping down as the party’s deputy leader, due to personal health reasons. Abdi initially planned to run for the provincial Liberal Party in the downtown Edmonton riding but then switched to the Greens and became deputy soon after. after.
The chaos in the Independence Party is causing some confusion about who is and isn’t running for the party in the next election. Despite supporters of Pastor Artur Pawlowski retaking control of the provincial board last weekend, some of the deposed leader’s staunchest allies have dropped the IPA label and are running as Independent candidates. Independence candidates now running as Independents include Bob Blayone in Camrose and Marie Rittenhouse in Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin.
Total number of candidates nominated by each party to run in the next election as of tonight:
A big thank you to the more than 2,000 people who have subscribed to the Daveberta Substack (and more than 100 who signed up for paid subscriptions!). Check out my latest column about Premier Danielle Smith refusing to answer questions about her 11-minute phone call with Pastor Artur Pawlowski.
I take a few days off and there’s a million new candidate nomination updates.
It sure feels like election season in Alberta. Or maybe it’s just Leadership Review season.
Ok. Let’s get on with the updates.
Tim Hoven and Jodie Gateman have been disqualified from the United Conservative Party nomination races in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre and Cardston-Siksika.
The right-wing municipal politicians were challenging two high-profile Jason Kenney loyalists – Government House Leader and Environment & Parks Minister Jason Nixon and Deputy Government House Leader Joseph Schow.
The party says they were disqualified because of controversial posts they shared and liked on social media.
People close to Gateman’s campaign say it was because she was accused of reposting conspiracy theories on her social media accounts.
They tell me that party staff even asked her if she was in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021. (The person I spoke with said she was visiting family in Las Vegas).
Disqualifying them avoids negative media attention from unwanted bozo-eruptions and has the added bonus of protecting two Kenney loyalists who were by most accounts considered vulnerable in the nomination.
They also both happened to be endorsed by Kenney rivals Brian Jean and Drew Barnes.
Without nomination races to keep them busy, there’s more time to focus on the April 9 leadership review in Red Deer.
Gateman is now shifting her attention to getting as many of her supporters to vote against Kenney at the April 9 leadership review in Red Deer.
They are renting buses.
Maybe someone will call in and ask Kenney about it on his debut radio show this weekend?
A new poll from ThinkHQ shows that 64 per cent of Albertans and 59 per cent of UCP voters want Kenney gone.
More on that later. Now back to the nomination updates.
MLA Irfan Sabir has been nominated to run for re-election in the recently renamed Calgary-Bhullar-McCall. Sabir was first elected in 2015.
Here are the upcoming nomination meetings that have been scheduled:
Government House Leader and Environment & Parks Minister Jason Nixon is running to reclaim the United Conservative Party nomination in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre. Nominations in this and three other ridings held by Jason Kenney loyalists were quietly opened earlier this week.
Nixon appears to be facing a challenge from former Clearwater County Reeve and Councillor Tim Hoven. Elections Alberta lists March 21, 2022 as the nomination meeting date.
Nixon’s younger brother, Jeremy Nixon, will face a nomination vote on March 24, 2022 in Calgary-Klein. It is unclear whether he will face any challengers.
UCP MLA Matt Jones is also seeking his party’s nomination to run for re-election in Calgary-South East. A nomination meeting has been scheduled for March 21, 2022, according to Elections Alberta’s website.
Nominations were opened tonight in five other ridings currently held by Kenney loyalists – Calgary-Edgemont (represented by Minister of Infrastructure Prasad Panda), Drumheller-Stettler (represented by Minister of Agriculture Nate Horner), Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville (represented by MLA Jackie Armstrong Homeniuk), Morinville-St. Albert (represented by Associate Minister of Natural Gas Dale Nally), and Peace River (represented by MLA Dan Williams). The deadline for candidates to enter these nomination contests is March 3.
Suncor employee Michelle Landsiedel is the Alberta Party candidate in the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by-election.
Landsiedel is the vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Fort McMurray and is an Emergency Response Team Supervisor and National Member of the Canadian Red Cross. She was a candidate for Wood Buffalo municipal council in 2021 in Ward 1.
Election Alberta also listed Abdulhakim Hussein as the Liberal Party candidate.
Registered Nurse Diana Batten announced she plans to run for the NDP nomination in Calgary-Acadia.
“Like many, I have struggled with feelings of hopelessness and frustration throughout the pandemic,” Batten writes on her campaign website. “The lack of transparency, communication, and planning demonstrated by the UCP government, while strengthening my resolve, has also reinforced that my values do not align with this government.”
Batten is a Nursing Instructor at Bow Valley College and a nurse at the Rotary Flames House, a residential community-based hospice at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.
Calgary-Acadia is currently represented by UCP MLA Tyler Shandro, who was first elected in 2019, and until recently served as Minister of Health. He is now Minister of Labour.
Educational Assistant Wyatt Tanton is the second candidate to enter the NDP nomination contest in the Camrose riding.
“Classroom sizes are ballooning, staff are burning out, and students are the ones paying the price when the government implements unjustifiable sweeping cuts, fires tens of thousands of essential support staff, and continues pushing forward a curriculum so outdated and out-of-touch that it would’ve made Ernest Manning pause in the 60’s,” Tanton said. “We need a strong voice for our constituency in Edmonton, and a government that’s willing to listen to them – and I want to be that strong voice for Camrose when we elect Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP to a strong mandate in 2023.”
Tanton was a candidate for Camrose City Council in 2021 and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce through Athabasca University. He joins Registered Psychiatric Nurse Tonya Ratushniak in the contested nomination race.
The riding is currently represented by UCP MLA Jackie Lovely, who is being challenged for her party’s nomination by Beaver County Reeve Kevin Smook.
Dave Klepacki is the fourth candidate to join the NDP nomination contest in Banff-Kananaskis.
Klepacki is the co-founder of Experience Journeys and the former Vice President of Wilcox Energy Corporation. He earned a PhD in Geological Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mapping rock structures along the Kootenay Arc of British Columbia.
Klepacki joined the other candidates in the nomination race – Sarah Elmeligi, Gavin McCaffrey, and Mark Tkacz – at the second candidate’s forum on Zoom organized by the local NDP association on Feb. 17. More than 50 NDP members in the riding attended the forum, which focused on climate and the environment.
I am tracking candidates and building a list of people running for nominations to run in Alberta’s next provincial election. If you know of someone running, please post a comment below or email me at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. Thank you
Premier Jason Kenney appeared to walk away mostly unscathed from last weekend’s United Conservative Party Annual General Meeting in Calgary.
Kenney delivered a much-watched keynote speech to more than a thousand UCP delegates that appears to have been generally well-received, though sounded like it might have been more appropriately aimed at a Chamber of Commerce or business crowd luncheon than a room of partisans hungry for more partisanship.
Kenney’s speech and it’s focus on the economy, and not his government’s fumbling response to the COVID-19 pandemic and failed “Open for Summer” plan, gives an indication of the direction the Premier and his inner circle believe they need to shift their message in order to salvage his embattled leadership and the party’s chances of winning re-election in 2023.
Regardless, Kenney tried hard to present an upbeat appearance, but as anyone who follows politics will know – party conventions are all production and all a show.
Kenney commanded the support of the convention, though he lost a critical vote on a special resolution that would have increased the number of constituency associations able to trigger a leadership vote from 1/4 of 87 to 1/3 of 87.
The motion received support from 57 per cent of delegates but fell short of the 75 per cent required to make the constitutional change.
This small defeat came less than a week after 22 UCP constituency associations announced they had passed an identical motion calling for an already scheduled April review of Kenney’s leadership to be moved to before March 1, 2022.
The new UCP President, Cynthia Moore, has said the newly elected party board will review the motions, though conservatives I’ve spoken with suggest that Kenney’s supporters are energetically searching for a technicality to disqualify the motions for an earlier vote.
Recent public opinion polls have shown Kenney with a 22 per cent approval rating among Albertans and his party has trailed Rachel Notley‘s Alberta NDP in the polls since November 2020, which has led to a growing number of UCP MLAs, including former UCP deputy leader Leela Aheer, willing to publicly criticize his leadership or call for his resignation.
Even MLAs who are reluctant to publicly criticize Kenney are reluctant to publicly defend him.
Maclean’s columnist Jason Markusoff tweeted from the convention that reporters “asked Fort McMurray MLA Tany Yao how many members here want Kenney as leader. Half, he said. Does he want Kenney as leader? Sighed, said “you’ve put me in a tough spot,” then a minister’s press secretary whisked him away.”
But perhaps the most interesting part of the convention was the vote by UCP delegates to pass a motion in support of conscience rights for health care professionals, which critics say could lead to the denial of access to women’s health and abortion services. A private members bill supporting conscience rights introduced into the Legislature by Peace River MLA and Kenney acolyte Dan Williams (now a parliamentary secretary – see below) failed at committee last year.
The passage of the policy at the UCP convention might provide an idea of how strong the different parts of the conservative coalition dominate the UCP right now, in this case – social conservatives.
Support for conscience rights for health care professionals stirred up quite a bit of controversy and backlash against the Wildrose Party during the 2012 provincial election.
“It is unclear in what ways health professionals are being denied freedom of conscience at the moment,” penned the Globe & Mail editorial board on April 9, 2012.
“Are doctors being required to perform abortions against their will? If so, no public complaint has been made that we are aware of. Would doctors have the right to swear off treating patients of the opposite sex? Would family physicians be entitled to refuse to prescribe birth control pills, or could they insist, when faced with a teenage girl, on counselling abstinence only?”
And speaking of the Wildrose Party, former party leader Danielle Smith was at the AGM and publicly mused to a reporter from Derek Fildebrandt‘s Western Standard website that she would run for the leadership of the UCP if Kenney’s stepped down.
Smith was quick to clarify to subscribers to her weekly email newsletter that she was merely musing and that she is not planning to run because the job is already filled. But that Smith could so casually make a comment like that to a reporter while standing in the same convention ball room as the current leader is embarrassing for Kenney.
After leading the party from obscurity to the brink of forming government, Smith famously crossed the floor along with a dozen other Wildrose MLAs to join Jim Prentice’s Progressive Conservative Party in 2014 – a move that ended up gutting both parties and helping pave the way for Notley’s NDP to win the 2015 election.
And, continuing the blast from the past theme is another former Wildrose leader, Brian Jean, who is weeks away from potentially being selected as the UCP candidate in the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by-election – that is, if he is not stopped by Joshua Gogo, a Fort McMurray economist.
Jean is probably Kenney’s main target now.
Trying to defeat him in the nomination vote, which is set for December 11 according to the Elections Alberta website, is likely one of the first steps the Premier will take in trying to reconsolidate his support in the UCP ahead of the next year’s leadership review – whether it be held in April or February.
Kenney has recently criticized Jean and questioned his political record after resigning before finishing his elected terms as a Member of Parliament and MLA for Fort McMurray, criticisms that were echoed by the Premier’s political staff on social media.
Also hanging out there is the Kamikaze campaign that Kenney’s closest advisors helped manufacture as part of the effort to defeat Jean in the 2017 UCP leadership race and the ongoing RCMP investigation into alleged voter fraud.
If he is not able to stop Jean from winning the nomination, Kenney will probably a harder time pretending he’s in an upbeat mood.
Premier Kenney announced that five UCP MLAs have been appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries, roles that do not bring any additional salary but are a sign of which backbenchers could be on track for promotions to cabinet in the future – and which backbenchers a party leader in trouble is trying to solidify support from.
Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf is Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Parks for Water Stewardship. He also serves as UCP Caucus Chair.
Peace River MLA Dan Williams is Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Culture and for la Francophonie. Before returning to Alberta to seek the UCP nomination, Williams worked in Ottawa for Kenney while he served as a federal cabinet minister.
Both Neudorf and Williams also sit as the MLA representatives on the UCP Board of Directors.
Camrose MLA Jackie Lovely is Parliamentary Secretary to the Associate Minister of Status of Women. Lovely was first elected as MLA for Camrose in 2019 and previously ran for the Wildrose Party in Edmonton-Ellerslie in 2012 and 2015.
Calgary-Klein MLA Jeremy Nixon is Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Community and Social Services for Civil Society. Nixon was first elected as MLA in 2019 and previously ran as a Wildrose Party candidate in Calgary-Klein in 2012 and 2015. Nixon was removed from his previous role as parliamentary secretary for civil society after disregarding COVID-19 restrictions and traveling to Hawaii for a hot holiday in December 2020. He is the brother of Environment & Parks Minister and Government House Leader Jason Nixon.
Spruce Grove-Stony Plain MLA Searle Turton is Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy. A former Spruce Grove City Councillor, Turton was widely rumoured to have been a potential pick for Minister of Municipal Affairs following Tracy Allard’s demotion in Jan. 2021. Turton also serves as the private sector union liaison for the Ministry of Labour and Immigration.
