Tag: Danielle Smith

Canada is under attack, from within and from without. Saving an organ at the University of Alberta is one way to fight back.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date September 16, 2026

The Memorial Organ at Convocation Hall at the University of Alberta (photo provided by Andy Grabia)

From time to time I open up the Daveberta newsletter to guest writers who have perspectives and thoughts they would like to share that might interest readers of this Substack. My friend Andy Grabia wrote today’s guest column about the decision by the University of Alberta administration to remove the historic Memorial Organ located in Convocation Hall and why the Alberta government should intervene to preserve this important war monument.

I have signed the open letter to Minister Andrew Boitchenko and Minister Myles McDougall calling on the government to use its legal authority under the Alberta Historical Resource Act to protect the Memorial Organ. Daveberta subscribers can sign the online petition here.

Visit the Daveberta Substack to read Andy Grabia’s column.

Tags Alberta Historical Resource Act, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Alberta War Memorials, Andrew Boitchenko, Andy Grabia, Bill Flanagan, Convocation Hall, Danielle Smith, Memorial Organ, Myles McDougall, Tanya Fir, United Conservative Party, University of Alberta

Alberta Politics

Wow! Just wow. NDP’s Kyle Campbell wins Calgary-Shaw by-election.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date September 14, 2026

Calgary-Shaw NDP MLA-elect Kyle Campbell and NDP leader Naheed Nenshi on September 14, 2026 (source: Naheed Nenshi / Facebook)

The Calgary-Shaw by-election was supposed to be a sleepy race and an easy win for the United Conservative Party but it ended up being a nail-biter with a surprise NDP win.

The Alberta NDP’s Kyle Campbell did what many political watchers believed would never happen by beating UCP candidate Mike Derry to win the by-election in the south Calgary riding that was a UCP stronghold under former cabinet minister Rebecca Schulz.

Tags Alberta Liberal Party, Alberta NDP, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Calgary-Shaw, Calgary-Shaw by-election, Danielle Smith, John Roggeveen, Kyle Campbell, Kyle Joseph, Mike Derry, Naheed Nenshi, Peter Guthrie, Progressive Tory Party of Alberta, Rebecca Schulz, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

UCP’s Mike Derry the favourite to win the Calgary-Shaw by-election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date September 12, 2026

Premier Danielle Smith and Calgary-Shaw UCP by-election candidate Mike Derry (screenshot: Mike Derry / Facebook)

Provincial cabinet ministers have poured into Calgary-Shaw to support UCP candidate Mike Derry and Danielle Smith has campaigned with him numerous times since the by-election campaign started last month.

Derry is the favourite to win the by-election but the vote is also a test for Smith, who has led a government mired in controversy and a party deeply divided on whether Alberta should separate from Canada.

Smith’s absence from any visible pro-Canada campaigns ahead of her October 19 separation referendum has raised a lot of eyebrows, especially after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s full-throated support of Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian campaign in Banff this week.

Naheed Nenshi delivers NDP health care pitch days before Calgary-Shaw by-election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date September 12, 2026

Calgary-Shaw NDP by-election candidate Kyle Campbell (centre) with NDP leader Naheed Nenshi (left) and Dr. Luanne Metz (right) announcing the party’s “Future of Health Care” policy (screenshot: Alberta NDP / YouTube)

NDP pitches stability and investment over the UCP’s restructuring and privatization

With only days left before the September 14th by-election in Calgary-Shaw, Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi joined candidate Kyle Campbell to deliver his party’s health care pitch to voters with a pledge of stability and investment in a public system that has undergone massive bureaucratic restructuring and increased privatization since 2023.

Nenshi pledged that within three years of forming government after the 2027 election, the NDP would shorten emergency department wait times, cut surgical, diagnostic, and specialist wait times by 30 per cent, make sure every Albertan has access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner, and, a big one, re-form one single Ministry of Health.

Nenshi said the NDP would also launch a judiciary-led public inquiry into CorruptCare, a wide-ranging government corruption scandal that largely faded into the background over the summer.

Nolan Dyck defeats Robin Coward to win UCP nomination in Grande Prairie

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date September 8, 2026

UCP MLA Nolan Dyck (source: Nolan Dyck / Facebook)

First-term United Conservative Party MLA Nolan Dyck defeated local business owner and separation supporter Robin Coward in the party’s candidate nomination vote in the Grande Prairie riding. Dyck won with 524 votes to Coward’s 162 votes at the September 1, 2026 nomination meeting.

This marks the second big win by an incumbent UCP MLA over an openly separatist supporting candidate in a UCP nomination since the party opened the candidate selection process this summer. Former MLA Jordan Walker defeated separatist organizer and former Wexit Alberta interim leader Kathy Flett by 253 to 136 votes in Sherwood Park last month.

Tags Alberta Election 2027, Alberta Election Candidate Nominations, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Danielle Smith, Grande Prairie, Grande Prairie-Wapiti, Jordan Walker, Karen Peters, Kathy Flett, Nolan Dyck, Robin Coward, Ron Wiebe, Sherwood Park, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith heading to Music City USA

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 31, 2026

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Immigration and Multiculturalism Muhammad Yaseen at the province’s Alberta Day event in Calgary on August 30, 2026 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Premier going to Tennessee as Alberta separation referendum only 49 days away

Premier Danielle Smith is soon flying to Nashville, Tennessee to meet with the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, Head of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, and the CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation.

These meetings with local officials in Nashville are somewhat comical because of how low-level they are for a provincial premier’s international trip. Imagine the Governor of Tennessee travelling to Alberta to meet with the CEO of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce but not arranging a meeting with the Premier.

It would be strange, right?

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Prosperity Project, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Danielle Smith, Donald Trump, Doug Ford, Jeff Rath, Jeffrey Rath, Madison Holmes, MayCee Holmes, Mitch Sylvestre, Naheed Nenshi, Nashville Chamber of Commerce, Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation, Nathan Cooper, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Alberta’s separation referendum and the law of unintended consequences

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 29, 2026

Jason Kenney accepting the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party in March 2017

Politics makes strange bedfellows. It’s amazing how much can change in 10 years.

I was recently reminded that it was only 10 years ago that Jason Kenney was campaigning for the leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party. With everything that has happened in Alberta politics since then, it feels like it might as well have been 20 years ago.

The longtime Calgary MP and former federal cabinet minister set his sights on “uniting the right” after the PC Party’s 43-year long streak as govermment was ended in spectacular fashion by Rachel Notley’s Alberta NDP in the 2015 election.

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Alberta Separatists Rally, Brian Jean, Canada Election Substack, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Jason Kenney, Jim Prentice, Rachel Notley, Substack, United Conservative Party, Western Separation

Alberta Politics

Read Before You Vote in Alberta’s referendum on October 19

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 23, 2026

A new group calling itself Before You Vote has launched with the goal of informing Albertans about the risks of the separation, immigration and constitutional changes questions on the ballot on October 19.

Supporters of the group include Judith Dyck, Linda Hughes, Peggy Garritty, Marie Gordon, Sheila Grekol, Anne McLellan, Joanne Pawluk, and Doug Stollery.

**This group has been added to the “Who’s who in the Alberta separation referendum debate” list.**

Tags Alberta Anti-Immigration Referendum, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Anne McLellan, Before You Vote, Canada Election Substack, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Doug Stollery, Joanne Pawluk, Judith Dyck, Linda Hughes, Marie Gordon, Peggy Garritty, Sheila Grekol, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Nate Glubish faces rural Alberta backlash against AI Data Centres

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 22, 2026

Minister of Technology and Innovation Nate Glubish was met with jeers from the crowd at the government’s AI Data Centre town hall in Lacombe. The Canadian Press reports:

“Albertans do not want data centres,” said one man who came from the neighbouring town of Ponoka.

Another woman told Glubish to “get your boxing gloves on” if another AI data centre was being planned for the region.

“Your words are nice, you explain things well, but I don’t trust you, and I think that the people in this room agree with me,” she said to big applause.

Glubish encountered a similar response from local residents at a Redwater town hall with Morinville-St. Albert MLA Dale Nally:

Sturgeon County resident, Connie Shields, said she doesn’t trust the government to properly regulate projects like these.

“You are the people we elected. You should be saying what we’re telling you to say,” Shields said.

“You shouldn’t be making up your own rules, you shouldn’t be dictating what goes where.”

The NDP has been hosting their own town halls in response to the data centre backlash. Leader Naheed Nenshi was joined by Edmonton-South West NDP MLA Nathan Ip at a town hall meeting in Red Deer earlier in August

An Independent Alberta is an American Alberta

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 22, 2026

A supporter of Alberta Statehood at Alberta Beach on July 4, 2021 (source: Dave Cournoyer)

Voting for separation weakens Canada and Alberta against Trump’s economic attacks

We are now 58 days away from the province-wide referendum that will ask Albertans whether they want to hold a future referendum on Alberta’s independence from Canada.

Leaked voters lists, billboards, lawn signs, political assemblies (from which just last week very candid and horribly racist remarks were delivered from a prominent separatist movement leader), and Premier Danielle Smith musing about holding a binding referendum next spring have grabbed the headlines in the separatism discussion. But there’s one big question that hasn’t been asked in this debate: Would Alberta be allowed to be an independent country?

I believe the answer to this question is no.

I wear my Canada and Alberta flags on my sleeve and am proud to call this place my home. My family settled here around 130 years ago and has deep roots in this part of the country. I have lived in Alberta my entire life and have spent more than two decades writing about its politics and history, so I would never punch down on Alberta — but I’m also realistic.

Alberta Politics

UCP disqualifies Karen Peters from Grande Prairie-Wapiti nomination race, MLA Ron Wiebe expected to be acclaimed

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 19, 2026

Former UCP nomination candidate Karen Peters was disuqlified from the party’s candidate selection race in Grande Prairie-Wapiti (source: Vote Karen Peters / Facebook)

Karen Peters has been disqualifed from the United Conservative Party nomination contest in Grande Prairie-Wapiti, making first-term MLA Ron Wiebe widely expected to be acclaimed to run for re-election in the 2027 provincial election.

Peters was the UCP constituency president in the northwest Alberta riding and has posted on her personal Facebook page about chemtrails and vaccination conspiracy theories. These posts raised eyebrows among political watchers but neither issue is grounds for disqualification in the current UCP.

Alberta Politics

Calgary-Shaw by-election called for September 14, ahead of Alberta’s separation referendum

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 18, 2026

Sherwood Park NDP MLA Kyle Kasawski and Calgary-Shaw NDP candidate Kyle Campbell (source: Kyle Kasawski / Facebook)

Premier Danielle Smith has set Monday, September 14 as the date of the by-election vote in the Calgary-Shaw riding vacated by former UCP MLA Rebecca Schulz earlier this year.

The by-election will see UCP candidate Mike Derry face New Democrat Kyle Campbell, with Progressive Tory candidate Kyle Joseph trying to break into what has been a two-party race in Alberta politics, and Liberal Party leader John Roggeveen trying to get his party back on the radar.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Separatist organizer Kathy Flett running for UCP nomination in Sherwood Park

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 13, 2026

Just east of Edmonton, former MLA Jordan Walker, who served one term from 2019 to 2023, is facing a challenge from separatist organizer and former UCP constituency president Kathy Flett. Walker was unseated by NDP candidate Kyle Kasawski in 2023.

Flett is a spokeperson for the Alberta Women for Independence Network third party advertiser and has been a featured speaker at numerous pro-separation events across Alberta ahead of the October 19 referendum.

Alberta separatists duking it out for UCP candidate nominations in Grande Prairie and Sherwood Park

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 12, 2026

Premier Danielle Smith and MLAs Nolan Dyck and Ron Wiebe at the United Conservative Party’s 2024 leaders dinner fundraiser in Grande Prairie (source: Nolan Dyck / Facebook)

Two Grande Prairie MLAs and one former Edmonton-area MLA are facing nomination challenges as United Conservative Party members choose their candidates ahead of Alberta’s next provincial election.

Alberta Politics

Weird fever dream? Sleepwalking? What is even happening in Alberta right now?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date July 24, 2026

A screenshot from the Alberta separatist telethon. Mister Alberta is pictured in the Alberta-themed shirt and belaclava (second from the right)

Albertans need to get out and vote on October 19, 2026

Even after writing about Alberta politics for more than 20 years it’s still sometimes hard to fully understand and explain what is happening in our province.

Albertans are now 87 days away from having to vote on Premier Danielle Smith’s 10 referendum questions, including a convoluted question about holding a future binding referendum on Alberta separating from Canada. It feels like we’re having some kind of weird fever dream and we’re definitely sleepwalking into it.

Despite putting the future of Alberta’s place in Canada on the ballot in less than three months, I am shocked at how many people have told me Smith is barely or not even mentioning the separation referendum in many of the public speeches she is making during her summer travels across the province.