Tag: Daveberta Substack

Total Recall: Nine UCP MLAs now facing recall petitions in their ridings

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 25, 2025

UCP MLA Dale Nally faces a recall campaign in Morinville-St. Albert (source: CTV)

MLA Dale Nally lashed out at constituent organizing recall effort in Morinville-St. Albert

And then there were nine.

Elections Alberta approved the start of six additional MLA recall campaigns yesterday, adding to the list of three already ongoing recall efforts against United Conservative Party MLAs Demetrios Nicolaides in Calgary-Bow, Angela Pitt in Airdrie-East, and Nolan Dyck in Grande Prairie.

The local organizers now have until February 22, 2026 to collect in-person signatures to recall UCP MLAs Myles McDougall in Calgary-Fish Creek, Ric McIver in Calgary-Hays, Muhammad Yaseen in Calgary-North, Rajan Sawhney in Calgary-North West, RJ Sigurdson in Highwood, and Dale Nally in Morinville-St. Albert.

It’s your choice: Best of Alberta Politics 2025 Survey

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 20, 2025

24 of Alberta’s 87 MLAs (source: assembly.ab.ca)

Nominate your picks for this year’s best MLA, best cabinet minister, most effective opposition MLA, and more

It’s that time of year again. I am thrilled to launch the ninth annual Daveberta’s Best of Alberta Politics Survey. There is never a dull moment in Alberta politics so I am excited to hear from you about the big political players of 2025.

I have changed up the categories this year to recognize not just the best MLAs but the work they do in the Legislature and in their constituencies.

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Alberta Politics Substack, Best of Alberta Politics 2025, Canada Election Substack, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Janis Irwin, Naheed Nenshi, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

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

Alberta Liberals rode the Reform Party MLA recall wave

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 16, 2025

Liberal Party leader Laurence Decore at a press conference with University of Calgary Students’ Union President Naheed Nenshi in 1993 (source: Alberta Views Magazine)

It would be more than 50 years after William Aberhart repealled the recall law before more attempts were made to bring back recall in Alberta.

Riding the same wave of populism that Ernest’s son Preston Manning rode into Ottawa in the early 1990s, the Alberta Liberal Party led by Laurence Decore adopted recall as an official party policy in the 1993 election.

“Recall is vital for Albertans because it gives people an element of control over their politicians between elections,” Decore argued in the Edmonton Journal in June 1993. “It also gives MLAs the power to tell their leader they can’t vote for a bill because their constituents wouldn’t stand for it. This power will encourage more free votes in the house and loosen party discipline.”

Premier Aberhart targeted with MLA recall in Okotoks-High River

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 15, 2025

It wasn’t until September 1937 that a formal application to start a recall petition against Premier William Aberhart in his Okotoks-High River riding was filed and submitted with the required $200 deposit (which is around $4,000 in current dollars).

“The said member, Hon. William Aberhart, has failed to implement promises and representations made by him to the electors prior to the election. He has supported government policies and enactment of statutes detrimental to the province and has lost the conference of the electorate of Okotoks-High River electoral division,” read the application submitted on September 20, 1937.

Alberta MLAs Joseph Beaudry and James Hansen the first MLA recall targets

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 15, 2025

Premier William Aberhart usually gets credit for being the first Alberta MLA to face the threat recall but that honour actually belongs to St. Paul MLA Joseph Beaudry and Taber MLA James Hansen.

Alberta’s first MLA recall experiment spiked when Premier Aberhart targeted

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 10, 2025

William Aberhart was Premier of Alberta from 1935 to 1943.

Social Credit’s recall law lasted 18 months on the books before it was repealed

A recent proliferation of MLA recall campaigns has fuelled speculation that Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government could repeal the law, just like Premier William Aberhart did when his party’s MLAs faced recall campaigns 88 years ago.

Aberhart’s Social Credit government passed a recall law in April 1936 and then repealed it in October 1937 after the Premier was targeted by voters in his own riding.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags 1937 Social Credit Backbenchers' Revolt, Accurate News and Information Act, Airdrie-East MLA Recall Campaign, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Recall Election, Alberta Social Credit Party, Angela Pitt, Calgary-Bow MLA Recall Campaign, Calgary-Hays, Calgary-Lougheed, Calgary-North, Calgary-North West, Camrose, Canada Election Substack, Dale Nally, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Demetrios Nicolaides, Ed Gibbons, Ernest Manning, Gary Dickson, Grande Prairie, Highwood, Jackie Lovely, James Hansen, Joseph Beaudry, Karen Leibovici, Kaycee Madu, Ken Nicol, Laurence Decore, Leela Aheer, Mark Smith, MLA Recall in Alberta, Morinville-St. Albert, Muhammad Yaseen, Myles McDougall, Nolan Dyck, Operation Total Recall, Paul Hinman, Preston Manning, R.J. Sigurdson, Rajan Sawhney, Ric McIver, Searle Turton, Spruce Grove-Stony Plain, United Conservative Party, Wildrose Party, William Aberhart

Alberta Politics

Separatists accuse Danielle Smith of purging UCP board

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 10, 2025

The United Conservative Party’s board elections are happening at its AGM at the end of November and the rhetoric is heating up from the party’s bustling separatist wing.

Alberta Prosperity Project co-founder Jeffrey Rath took to the internet to accuse “Danielle Smith’s Death Star team” of abusing their access to party membership lists to purge the party board of separatists.

Alberta is Recalling. UCP MLA Angela Pitt facing recall campaign in Airdrie-East

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 9, 2025

Airdire-East MLA Angela Pitt (source: Angela Pitt / Facebook)

Also: Look who’s running in the UCP AGM board elections

An MLA Recall law championed by United Conservative Party MLAs four years ago is coming back to haunt some of those politicians today.

A second recall campaign launched this month aims to recall UCP MLA Angela Pitt in her suburban Airdrie-East riding north of Calgary. Pitt is the second MLA to face a recall effort in recent weeks with a similar campaign being launched by constituents of Calgary-Bow UCP MLA and Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides in October.

UCP fumbling primed Albertans to support the teachers’ strike

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 1, 2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (right) was photographed sitting at the Calgary International Airport while UCP MLAs were still in the Legislature pushing through Bill 2 on Monday night. Smith is spending the week in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. (photo: publicinterestalberta / Instagram)

Danielle Smith left for Saudi Arabia before invoking Notwithstanding Clause

The fall session of the Legislature started on Monday and Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government wasted no time pushing through its legislation to force striking Alberta teachers back to work.

In a severely time-limited debate that took less than 12 hours in total, UCP MLAs voted on third reading to pass Bill 2: Back to Work Act at around 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

The bill imposed a new contract on 51,000 striking teachers until 2028, threatened hefty fines for any teachers who dared defy the UCP’s rushed law, and used the constitutional sledgehammer known as the Notwithstanding Clause to suspend teachers’ and the Alberta Teachers’ Associations’ rights to collective bargaining under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Where is Nenshi? He’s in the Legislature.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 26, 2025

One of the biggest questions I get asked about Alberta politics these days is “where is Nenshi?”

Well, former mayor of Calgary and current Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi now has a seat in the Assembly and will be spending some time getting acquainted with what levers of the legislative process are available to opposition leaders.

While there will be a temptation to put extra effort into sparring with Smith and scoring points in Question Period, the NDP need to reintroduce a curiously absent Nenshi to Albertans and figure out what their pitch is to the province’s voters — and then get out there and sell it.

Nenshi’s decision to shuffle Sherwood Park MLA Kyle Kasawski into the role of Shadow Minister for Affordability and Utilities this week is a good start.

🎙️ Podcast: Unpacking Alberta’s political mystery

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 25, 2025

Medicine Lake in Jasper National Park (photo: Dave Cournoyer)

I’m Dave Cournoyer and this isn’t the Daveberta Podcast but it might be the next best thing.

A few weeks ago I joined my friend and former Daveberta Podcast co-host Ryan Hastman on his new podcast, the Alberta Edge, for a discussion about Alberta politics along with respected pollster Janet Brown.

I’m happy to share that episode of Alberta Edge with Daveberta subscribers today. Be sure to visit TheHub.ca and subscribe to Ryan’s podcasts.

Enjoy the show and thanks for listening.

Listen to the podcast episode on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta Edge Podcast, Alberta Election Podcast, Alberta History, Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics Podcast, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Canada Election Substack, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Podcast, Daveberta Substack, Janet Brown, Naheed Nenshi, Ryan Hastman, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Alberta separatists march on the Legislature and UCP AGM

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 25, 2025

The steps of the Legislature are a busy place this week as supporters of Alberta separatism are promising a large pro-independence rally on October 25. The rally will feature speakers from the Alberta Prosperity Project including Jeffrey Rath, Dennis Modry and Mitch Sylvestre, restaurant owner, podcaster and COVID-19 restrictions opponent Chris Scott, and former UCP nomination candidate Tanya Clemens.

Describing the rally as the first battle in the fight for an independent Alberta, Sylvestre told separatist supporters in a rambling video posted by the APP yesterday that “before we have to pay in blood we have to pay in time because Communism always comes in on a promise and leaves with a bullet.”

Sylvestre is the president of the UCP constituency association in the Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul riding and is the proponent of the court-delayed citizen initiative to hold a province-wide referendum asking the question “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?”

Forever Canadian petition rumoured to have collected more than 300,000 pro-Canada signatures

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 24, 2025

Former cabinet minister Thomas Lukaszuk and his Forever Canadian Unity Bus (source: Thomas Lukaszuk / Facebook)

Former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Thomas Lukaszuk is on the final stretch of his “Unity Bus” tour to collect signatures for the Forever Canadian petition that asks the simple question “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?”

Lukaszuk’s question requires 293,976 in-person signatures in order to be approved and sent to an MLA committee to be considered for a province-wide referendum, but there are rumours that the pro-Canada campaign’s more than 4,000 volunteers have already collected more than 300,000 signatures.

Campaign to recall UCP MLA Demetrios Nicolaides begins in Calgary-Bow

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 24, 2025

Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides (foreground) and Minister of Finance Nate Horner (background) (source: Government of Alberta / Flickr)

As teachers rallied outside the Legislature, Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides learned he will face the first MLA recall campaign since the UCP passed the law in 2021.

Nicolaides’ opponents will need to collect 16,006 signatures from residents in the Calgary-Bow riding he has represented since 2019. The number of required signatures represents 60 per cent of the total number of voters in the last provincial election in the riding.