Todd Loewen, former MLA Wayne Anderson, Brian Jean, and Drew Barnes at the Calgary Stampede BBQ in July 2021. (Source: Facebook)
Here he goes, again.
Former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean announced today that he plans to run for the job he quit three years ago.
Jean announced on Facebook that he plans to seek the United Conservative Party nomination in the upcoming Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by-election. The by-election to replace Laila Goodridge, who was recently elected as a Member of Parliament, needs to be called by Feb. 15, 2022. He is the second candidate to announce after Joshua Gogo entered the race last month.
Jean represented the predecessor riding, Fort McMurray-Conklin, from 2015 until 2018, when he quit after losing the UCP leadership to Jason Kenney.
This is Jean’s second political comeback. His first happened when he was a last minute candidate for the Wildrose Party leadership in 2015 after stepping down as a MP in 2014. He saved the party from the brink of oblivion in that election and became leader of the Official Opposition.
Since leaving the Legislature in 2018, he has become a vocal critic of the government, flirted with western separatism in online columns, and called for Kenney to resign as leader of the UCP.
“Something must be done or Rachel Notley will win the next election with an overwhelming majority,” Jean wrote on Facebook of the popular NDP leader who’s party has been leading in the polls since last November, once again publicly signalling his lack of confidence in Kenney.
Jean has every reason to dislike Kenney after an alleged Kamakaze campaign was organized against him during the UCP leadership race, and since quitting he has appeared to take pleasure in poking at his rival from the sidelines.
Jean was even spotted at a Calgary Stampede BBQ hosted by ousted UCP MLAs Drew Barnes and Todd Loewen over the summer.
Brian Jean and Jason Kenney
There is little doubt that he could win the nomination and the by-election. He is a well-known and popular figure in Fort McMurray, and he comes across as affable and down to earth to anyone who meets him. His lack of stick-to-it-iveness should probably raise some concerns, but at this point local conservatives might just be hopeful to find a candidate who can reliably hold on to the seat.
The question is whether the increasingly unpopular Kenney will allow a rival who has openly called for his resignation to run under his party’s banner?
And if Jean isn’t allowed to run for Kenney’s party, will he run as an Independent or for another party, like the struggling Wildrose Independence Party.
Of course, Jean isn’t alone in calling for Kenney’s resignation.
No emergency caucus meeting was held to kick them out, and perhaps more notably, no Kenney loyalists in the cabinet or caucus stepped up to rebuke them and defend their leader. The silence was deafening.
So, Jean now wants his seat back, and he probably wants his party back too.
It is not uncommon for party leaders and politicians to spend time in ridings where by-elections are expected,
Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview NDP MLA Deron Bilous, who served as Economic Development Minister in the first Notley government, is in Fort McMurray this week and has posted a series of videos about his visit on Instagram.
The UCP Caucus was scheduled to hold its annual retreat in Fort McMurray on Sept. 15 and 16, but the event that would have brought most UCP MLAs to the northeast Alberta city ahead of the by-election was abruptly canceled on Sept. 10 after rumours that Kenney was facing a caucus revolt. Kenney also cancelled his scheduled Sept. 15 keynote speech to the annual Oil Sands Conference and Trade Show, which the UCP Caucus retreat was planned around.
Alberta’s municipal election is only 14 days away.
When you think of municipal elections, you might immediately think about roads, libraries, sidewalks, pools, traffic, playgrounds, potholes, public transit, bike lanes and snow removal. And while these are some of the more high-profile responsibilities of municipal governments, the amount of information being thrown at voters in this year’s election has muddied the water about what the ballot issues on October 18 might be.
Electing Mayors, Councillors and School Trustees
The primary function of municipal elections is for voters to elect their local municipal officials in their city, county, municipal district, town, or village. Voters also cast ballots for trustees to govern their Public, Catholic or Francophone school boards. (Here is a list of candidates running in Edmonton’s municipal election).
As if there weren’t already are a lot of challenges facing municipalities, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit Alberta hard and municipal governments are bearing the brunt of many of those health, social and economic challenges.
Municipalities also face a hostile provincial government that has not hesitated to interfere in local issues, in some cases leaving Albertans with a choice between candidates who agree with the provincial government interference, candidates who want to keep their heads down in hopes for a change of provincial government in 2023, or candidates who will stand up for their communities and challenge the United Conservative Party government.
Senate Nominee Election
When you vote on Oct. 18 or in the advance polls you will probably be handed a few different ballots. One of them will ask you to choose up to three candidates in this year’s Senate Nominee Election.
Senate Nominee elections are a uniquely Alberta activity dating back to 1989. The elections are held to choose a list of names for the Premier to recommend to the Prime Minister for appointment to the Senate if vacancies occur.
There is currently one vacancy in Alberta’s 6-member Senate delegation and another vacancy is expected when Senator Doug Blackretires on October 31, 2021.
Unfortunately for the candidates running in this election, they are not going to be appointed unless the Prime Minister is a member of the Conservative Party, the only major party that recognizes the elections as legitimate. The Liberal Party has created a new application process for Senate appointments, dismantling the old partisan patronage machine, and the NDP believe the Upper Chamber should be abolished.
One of the major flaws of the Senate Nominee election is that winning candidates who might eventually be appointed to the Senate never ever have to face re-election, so there is no opportunity for voters to hold these “elected” Senators accountable for their decisions. In fact, they can stay in the Senate until they turn 75-years old if they decide to.
Another major flaw is that a province-wide election in a province of 4.3 million people makes it impossible for the Senate candidates to meaningfully reach many voters. I doubt most Albertans could name a candidate running in year’s Senate Nominee election, but here they are:
Physicians Dr. Sunil Sookram. and Dr. Karina Pillay (also the former Mayor of Slave Lake), Ponoka Mayor Rick Bonnett, former Western Barley Growers Association President Jeff Nielsen, and former deputy premier and finance minister Doug Horner are running as Independent candidates are are the more serious candidates with real public service experience.
Then there are the three People’s Party endorsed candidates who filed their papers to run in the Senate Nominee election only hours before they were defeated as candidates in the Sept. 20 federal election – Nadine Wellwood, Kelly Lorencz, and Ann McCormack.
And finally there are the three UCP loyalists endorsed by the Conservative Party of Canada – lobbyist and former UCP President Erika Barootes, right-wing activist and failed municipal candidate Pam Davidson, and Ukrainian-Canadian trade association president Mikhailio Martyniouk.
The three UCP/Conservative Party candidates, who appear to have less comparable actual public service experience than many of the Independent candidates on the ballot, are still probably going to win. But like previous Senate Nominee elections, the turnout will be low and number of spoiled ballots will be high.
Alberta’s Senate Nominee election should be a serious affair, but it will probably end up being a joke or an afterthought for most Albertans who will have no idea who to vote for.
Plebiscites and Referendums
Depending where you live in Alberta you could also be handed one, two or three additional ballots to cast your vote for referendums and plebiscites, though there is a good chance you haven’t heard much about them during this election.
Even if the Equalization formula was removed from the Constitution, Albertans wouldn’t actually notice any change. We would still pay federal taxes the same as we do now, but the federal government would not be obligated to distribute funds collected through federal taxes to the provinces through an Equalization formula as currently required by the Constitution.
The Equalization referendum is all about the politics of grievance and saving Jason Kenney’s leadership of the UCP. A yes vote won’t accomplish much and a no vote will probably hurt Kenney’s chance of remaining in the Premier’s Office for much longer (Kenney’s approval rating has dropped to 22 per cent according to a recent poll from ThinkHQ).
In this referendum, a no vote is a vote to continue the annual time change and a yes vote is a vote for darker mornings and lighter evenings in the winter. If I understand correctly, it could also mean that from March to November each year Alberta’s timezone will be two hours ahead of the times observed in much of British Columbia. The result of the vote on this question is binding on the provincial government.
At least in Edmonton, candidate endorsements have become a mini-story.
This year’s city council election has seen a string of high-profile endorsements of city council candidates from Mayor Don Iveson, mayoral candidate Mike Nickel and some individual NDP MLAs across the city. While it is not unheard of for incumbent City Councillors to endorse candidates in a municipal election, the number of endorsements in this year’s election is significantly higher than usual.
List of candidates incumbent Edmonton City Councillors have endorsed in this municipal elections.
Just like City Councillor endorsements, it is not unheard of for MLAs to endorse candidates, but this year the number of MLAs endorsing municipal candidates is higher.
The decision by some NDP MLAs to endorse candidates has flustered some political watchers who for some reason believe municipal politics should exist in a vacuum outside of provincial and federal politics, the endorsements appear to be a choice made by individual MLAs rather than a decision made by the party.
And in at least one case, NDP MLAs have endorsed different candidates. In Ward tastawiyiniwak, for example, the NDP endorsements appear to be split, with Edmonton-City Centre MLA David Shepherd endorsing Ahmed Knowmadic Ali and Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview NDP MLA Deron Bilous endorsing Cody Bondarchuk.
List of City Council candidates who Edmonton MLAs have endorsed in this election.
While there was an attempt a year ago to create a single-slate of progressive candidates in Edmonton’s city council election in response to expectations that the UCP would organize a slate, the organizing effort appears to have failed because there were too many progressive candidates wanting to run for city council to make a single-slate feasible.
While it has certainly made Edmonton’s political establishment uncomfortable, it is positive to see progressive groups organizing to support candidates. With traditional low turnout, low interest and high-incumbent re-election, municipal politics in Edmonton could use a bit of disruption.
The new rules make it legal for wealthy people to donate up to $5,000 each to as many candidates as they want in any municipal or school board election across the province, effectively removing the cap on individual donations. While municipal political donors do not receive the generous tax credits they get from provincial or federal donations, there are wealthy Albertans with the ability to financially influence candidates across the board.
The UCP also removed the requirement for candidates to disclose their list of donors ahead of Election Day, which would have allowed voters to see who is financially supporting candidates before they go to the ballot booth. Many candidates will already do this on their own but many won’t because they are not required to by law.
The new rules introduced by the UCP also allow Third Party Advertisers, colloquially known as political action committees, to spend up to $500,000 on advertising during the referendums, up from the previous $150,000 limit. Third Party Advertisers that spend less than $350,000 on advertising during a referendum are not required to file financial statements with Elections Alberta, which means those groups don’t have to publicly disclose their donor lists.
There are currently four registered Third Party Advertisers registered with Elections Alberta that are advertising during the Referendum. Alberta Proud (who’s contact person is former Wildrose Party press secretary Vitor Marciano), Equalization Fairness Alberta (run by former UCP ministerial chief of staff Dr. Bill Bewick), Society of Albertans Against Equalization (run by Canadian Taxpayers Federation director Franco Terrazzano), and Vote Yes To End Equalization Inc.
One Third Party Advertiser registered to participate in Calgary’s municipal election is being investigated by Elections Alberta for allegedly sending out campaign signs for Calgary mayoral candidate Jeff Davison.
And that is a quick guide to the dog’s breakfast that is Alberta’s 2021 municipal elections. Make sure to vote on Oct. 18 or in the advance polls starting today.
Calgary-Edgemont NDP candidate Julia Hayter (Source: Twitter)
Julia Hayter was nominated as the Alberta NDP candidate in Calgary-Edgemont at a meeting held last night.
Hayter was the NDP candidate in the northwest Calgary district in the 2019 election, where she earned 34 per cent of the vote to United Conservative Party candidate Prasad Panda’s 52 per cent. Panda currently serves as Minister of Infrastructure.
Hayter is the second NDP candidate nominated to run in the expected 2023 provincial election. Dr. Luanne Metz has been nominated to run in the neighbouring Calgary-Varisty.
Sayid Ahmed seeking UCP nomination in Edmonton-Decore
Sayid Ahmed has filed papers with Elections Alberta to seek the UCP nomination in Edmonton-Decore. Ahmed is a manager in the provincial Department of Health and is President of the UCP association in the neighbouring Edmonton-Manning district and Vice President of Policy for the Alberta Advisory Board of the Conservative Black Congress of Canada.
Edmonton-Decore has been represented by NDP MLA Chris Nielsen since 2015. Nielson was re-elected in 2019 with 47.5 per cent of the vote, ahead of UCP candidate Karen Principe (Principe is currently running for Edmonton City Council in Ward tastawiyiniwak). The third place candidate in that year’s race, Alberta Party candidate Ali Haymour, is running for city council in Edmonton’s Ward Anirniq.
The district is named after former MLA Laurence Decore, who served as MLA for the then-named Edmonton-Glengarry from 1989 to 1997 and as Mayor of Edmonton from 1983 to 1988. He was leader of the Alberta Liberal Party from 1988 to 1994.
Ahmed is the second prospective candidate to announce plans to seek a UCP nomination ahead of the 2023 election. Chantelle de Jonge has filed her papers to run for the UCP nomination in Chestermere-Strathmore.
Former Edmonton lawyer Randy Hogle running for Senate
Former Edmonton lawyer Randy Hogle has filed his papers to run as a candidate in the Senate Nominee election, which is being held on the same day as Alberta’s October 18 municipal elections.
Hogle had a successful legal career and, despite being legally blind, he excelled as an equestrian athlete. This is his second attempt at political office after a previous run for Edmonton City Council in 1992, during which one of his key platform points was the construction of bike lanes on Jasper Avenue.
Hogle is the son of former long-time CFRN news director Bruce Hogle and brother of former sports reporter and current Hockey Edmonton General Manager Steve Hogle.
Sorensen’s long record of public service includes terms as a trustee on the Canadian Rockies Public Schools from 1997 to 2001, as a Banff town councillor from 2004 to 2010 and as mayor from 2010 until her appointment to the Senate in 2021.
She will sit as an Independent member of Canada’s upper chamber.
UPDATE:
Mykhailo Martyniouk has submitted his papers with Elections Alberta to run in the Senate Nominee election. Martyniouk is the current president of the Canadian Ukrainian Free Trade Agreement Association.
In 2019, Martyniouk donated $1,155 to Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview UCP candidate David Egan and in 2018 he donated $300 to the UCP association in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview. In 2020, he donated 1,600 to the Conservative Party of Canada association in Edmonton-Manning.
Elections Alberta is reporting that it has issued a $9,000 fine against former United Conservative Party nomination candidate Jeff Walters for violations of two sections of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act. The violations are reported to have taken place Walters’ bid for the UCP nomination in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview in 2018.
Section 34(2) of the EFCDA: Knowingly Accepted Funds, from 5 contributors, contrary to section 34(1)
Section 46 of the EFCDA: Knowingly Made a False Financial Statement with the CEO.
Also listed as having received administrative penalties from Elections Alberta was Walters’ chief financial officer, Karen Nolin, who was issued a $9,000 fine for violating three sections of the EFCDA.
Two individual political contributors, Reid Hogan and Wyatt Hogan, were fined $2,o00 each for violations of Section 34(1) of the EFCDA for “contributing funds to a registered nomination contestant that had been given or furnished to him by another person.”
Bar-N-Ranche was also issued a fine of $2,500 for violating section Section 16(2) of the EFCDA after making a prohibited contribution of $10,000 to Walters’ UCP nomination campaign, though the donation does not appear on the disclosures submitted by his campaign.
Corporations have been prohibited from making contributions to political candidates and parties in Alberta since 2015.
Walters’ finished third with 7.4 per cent of the vote as the Alberta Party behind NDP MLA Deron Bilous, who was re-elected to a third-term with 50.6 per cent of the vote, and UCP candidate David Egan, who finished second with 36.2 per cent.
Declared Edmonton City Council candidates Cori Longo, Shamair Turner, Glynnis Lieb, Kirsten Goa, and Keren Tang.
With less than a year to go until the 2021 municipal elections, candidates are stepping up to run for Edmonton City Council.
Don Iveson
The big unanswered question about the October 18, 2021 election is whether incumbent Mayor Don Iveson will seek re-election for a third-term. Iveson was first elected in 2013 and won re-election with 73.6 per cent of the vote in 2017. When I asked about his plans for the election on a recent episode of the Daveberta Podcast, Iveson said he wasn’t yet ready to announce his intentions for 2021.
Also rumoured to be considering a run is former Member of Parliament Amarjeet Sohi, who previously served on city council from 2007 to 2015.
Edmonton City Council’s new Ward boundaries with new Indigenous names.
Newly redrawn Ward boundaries will also come with new Indigenous names, a first for a large Canadian city. The new boundaries and new names will be initially confusing for many Edmontonians, but I am hopeful that the City of Edmonton will engage the public in an education campaign explaining the meaning of the new names and the role they play in reconciliation.
By my count, the candidates who have already announced their plans to run are:
Glynnis Lieb is running in Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi. Lieb is the Executive Director of iSMSS in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta.
Keren Tang and Shamair Turner have announced their plans to run in the new Karhiio ward. Tang was a candidate in Ward 11 in the 2017 election, where she placed second and earned 26.7 per cent of the vote. Turner is a first time candidate and former Vice President and Account Executive at Aon Risk Solutions.
Cori Longo and Caroline Matthews are running in the Metis ward. Longo is a former postal worker and Registered Nurse who has worked as the Alberta regional representative for the Canadian Labour Congress. Matthews is the former Director of Recruitment for the University of Alberta’s MBA program and appears to have been endorsed by Edmonton-Greisbach Conservative MP Kerry Diotte, who is pictured campaigning with her in photos on social media.
Community organizer Adrian Bruff is running in the O-day’min ward, which encompasses most of the central core neighbourhoods of the city.
Michael Janz (source: EPSB)
Kirsten Goa has announced her plans to run in the papastew ward. Goa placed second in Ward 8 in the 2017 election, earning 23 per cent of the vote. Also rumoured to be considering running in this new ward is Edmonton Public School Trustee Michael Janz. Janz was first elected to the school board in 2010 and was re-elected in a landslide in 2017.
I am once again tracking candidates who have announced their plans to run for Mayor, City Council and School Board in Edmonton. If I am missing anyone on the list, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com or post a comment and let me know. Thanks!
Walters not seeking re-election
Michael Walters (centre) and a team of supporters at the Edmonton Municipal Election Nomination Day in 2013.
The New Democratic Party and the Liberal Party now appear to have full slates of 34 candidates in Alberta. The two parties have scrambled to nominate candidates in Calgary and parts of rural Alberta, with both parties dropping parachute candidates into many rural ridings in the province.
The dominance of the Conservative Party in rural areas, as well as the palpable hostility toward Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal NDP over the issue of oil pipelines (even though the Trudeau Government purchased and saved the Trans Mountain Pipeline project) is likely the biggest reason why the two parties have had such a difficult time fielding local candidates.
Battle River-Crowfoot: Dianne Clarke has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate.
Bow River: Margaret Rhemtulla has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate. Rhemtulla is the Policy Chair for the Alberta-wing of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Calgary-Midnapore: Brian Aalto has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate.
Calgary-Skyview: Rafih Bari has been nominated as the Libertarian Party candidate.
Edmonton-Centre: Donovan Eckstrom is the Rhinoceros Party candidate. Eckstrom ran for the Rhino Party in Edmonton-Strathcona in the 2015 federal election. Perennial candidate Adil Pirbhai is running as an Independent.
Edmonton-Griesbach: Andrzej Gudanowski is running as an Independent candidate. Gudanowski recently ran as an Independent candidate in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview in the 2019 provincial election and in Edmonton’s 2017 municipal election in Ward 7.
Edmonton—Wetaskiwin: Emily Drzymala is the Green Party candidate. Drzymala is a social worker and the former president of the Alberta College of Social Workers. She was the NDP candidate in Calgary-North Hill in the 1989 provincial election.
Foothills: Cheryl Moller has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate. Moller is a retired teacher and president of the Liberal Party association in Calgary-Rocky Ridge. She was a volunteer for Kara Levis’ campaign for the leadership of the Alberta Party in 2018.
Grande Prairie-Mackenzie: Ken Munro has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate. Munro is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Alberta. He is a longtime Liberal Party supporter in Edmonton, having served as president of the Liberal Party’s Alberta-wing and candidate in Edmonton-South in the 1984 election.
Lakeland: Mark Watson has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate. Watson is a former Smoky Lake town councillor and director with the Smoky Lake & District Agricultural Society. He is also president of the Liberal Party association in this riding.
University of Alberta political science student Jeffrey Swanson has been nominated as the NDP candidate. Swanson is Vice President of the U of A Campus New Democrat club.
Kira Brunner has replaced Elke Crosson as the Green Party candidate.
Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner: Harris Kirshenbaum has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate. Kirshenbaum was campaign manager for former Liberal MLA David Swann in Calgary Mountain-View.
Red Deer-Lacombe: Tiffany Rose has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate. Rose is a PTSD Yoga educator and facilitator and owner of LacOMbe Yoga. Sarah Palmer has replaced Desmond Bull as the Green Party candidate.
Red Deer-Mountain View: Gary Tremblay has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate. Tremblay is the Chair of the Liberal Party association in Calgary-Shepard.
St. Albert-Edmonton: Jason J. Brodeur is the Rhinoceros Party candidate.
Sturgeon River-Parkland: Heather Wood is the Rhinoceros Party candidate.
Please contact me at david.cournoyer@gmail.com for additions or updates related to candidate nominations in Alberta and I will add them to the list. Thank you!
PHOTO: MAGALIE L’ABBE, CREATIVE COMMONS
It has been a busy week in Alberta politics and here are a few of my thoughts on some recent developments:
Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta’s Finances
Premier Jason Kenney and Finance Minister Travis Toews appointed a “Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta’s Finances” with a mandate to recommend changes limited to Alberta government spending. As others have already pointed out, the narrow mandate is a missed opportunity to actually address the fiscal challenges facing Alberta, which includes issues with revenue ranging from low taxation and over-dependence on oil and gas royalty revenues.
That Kenney, who started his political career as spokesperson for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, would want to focus purely on spending is not a shock. But it is only part of the challenge facing Alberta.
Appointing an arms-length panel to make these recommendations is politically smart and will give cover to a United Conservative Party government that is already inclined to make significant cuts to funding of public services. The NDP made similar political moves when they appointed arms-length panels to recommend changes to the natural resource royalty structure and to recommend action on climate change, which included the creation of the carbon tax, which Kenney has pledged to repeal.
Kenney’s appointment of history professor and former Saskatchewan New Democratic Party cabinet minister Janice MacKinnon and former Alberta Liberal MLA Mike Percy was a clever move that on the surface mildly disarms its critics. But despite their past political affiliations, both MacKinnon and Percy have in the decades since they left elected office been welcomed in conservative circles because of their fiscally conservative views. MacKinnon was even prominently quoted in the UCP election platform.
Albertans need leaders who will look at the big picture, not just a slice of the problem. Judging by its narrow mandate, it is hard to imagine the blue ribboned panelists recommending anything but cuts, cuts, and more cuts.
NDP critics to be named next week
The 24 Alberta NDP MLAs who will make up the Official Opposition will be sworn-in on May 13 at the Legislative Assembly. Unlike their UCP colleagues, who will be sworn-in before the Speech from the Throne on May 21, the two dozen NDP MLAs will have an 8-day jump start with access to their Legislative offices and time to prepare for their first week of Question Period. And with a caucus mostly hailing from Edmonton, NDP MLAs will have a hometown advantage of not having to regularly travel long-distances to work in the capital city.
The NDP critic line-up is expected to be announced shortly after NDP MLAs are sworn-in. With 9 cabinet minister in its ranks, the NDP opposition will be well-equipped to question the cabinet of mostly rookie UCP MLAs. There could be a natural temptation to appoint the former cabinet ministers as critics for the ministerial offices they previously held, but it could also compromise the credibility of those critics who in some cases would be watching much of their 4-years of work be dismantled by the UCP.
Look for Official Opposition leader Rachel Notley to place Edmonton-Glenora MLA Sarah Hoffman, Lethbridge-East MLA Shannon Phillips, Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview MLA Deron Bilous, Edmonton-North West MLA David Eggen, and Calgary-Buffalo MLA Joe Ceci in key critic roles.
The NDP will be tempted to continue their relentless campaign against the UCP on social issues, but treating the post-election period as just an extension of the 2019 election could be a strategic mistake. The NDP need to prepare themselves for how to respond effectively to the aggressive legislative agenda Kenney is expected to implement in the “Summer of Repeal” and to a fall provincial budget that could include deep and short-sighted budget cuts.
auf Wiedersehen, Derek.
Former Wildrose Party and UCP MLA Derek Fildebrandt resigned as leader of the Freedom Conservative Party last week after his party’s electoral poor showing and his failure to win re-election in Chestermere-Strathmore in the April 2019 election. Fildebrandt, also a former spokesperson for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is succeeded by interim leader David White, a former paramedic who ran for the party in Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin.
Say what you want about his political views and personalbehavior, but Fildebrandt has been one of the most consistently colourful characters in Alberta politics since he burst on to the provincial scene in 2012.
The Freedom Conservative Party is the latest name of a tiny right-wing populist and sometimes separatist party that has existed since 1999. It took its latest form in June 2018 when theWestern Freedom Party was renamed the Freedom Conservative Party. The party was originally formed as the Alberta First Party in 1999, renamed the Separation Party of Alberta in 2004 and again renamed the Alberta First Party in 2013 before it became the Western Freedom Party in April 2018.
Eleven days have passed since Alberta’s provincial election in which Albertans voted in droves and gave our province its first ever one-term government. That alone provides a lot of reflect on, but there is so much more.
Having taken a much-needed vacation after the election (I was on an early flight out of the country on the morning following election night), I now have some thoughts on the results and what they could mean for Alberta and the political parties.
First, the voter turnout was high. The official results of the election were released this week, showing that 64 per cent of eligible voters in Alberta participated in the election. This is down from the previous voter turnout numbers released by Elections Alberta before the count was official that showed a 71 per cent turnout. While the numbers are not as fantastic as 71 per cent, this election marks the highest turnout since the 1982 election, which was 66 per cent.
The high turnout in advance voting, in particular the “vote anywhere” ballots that allowed Albertans to vote at any advance polling station in the province, was remarkable. More than 700,000 votes were cast at the advance polls, with more than 260,000 of them being “vote anywhere” advance ballots. This was the first time this option was allowed in an Alberta election, and it appears that many Albertans liked the option of voting anywhere during the 5-days of advance voting.
The United Conservative Party elected 63 MLAs and earned a remarkable 1,040,004 votes, the highest of any political party in Alberta’s history. That party’s 54.9 per cent is the highest earned by a political party since the Progressive Conservatives in the 2001 election. It appears as though much of the UCP’s popular vote was boosted by significant landslide victories in rural districts across the province, making rural MLAs a powerful force in the UCP caucus.
While the internal politics of this relatively new party are still evolving, incoming-premier Jason Kenney has a strong mandate to implement his incoming government’s agenda. Kenney has said he will appoint a cabinet by the end of April and hold a session of the Legislative Assembly in May, kicking off what he previously described as a “Summer of Repeal.” Kenney has pledged to dismantle many of the NDP’s flagship programs, including the Climate Leadership Plan and Energy Efficiency Alberta.
The large UCP caucus only includes one MLA with previous provincial cabinet experience, Calgary-Hays MLA Ric McIver, so the learning curve will be steep for those appointed by Kenney next week. But like the NDP when it formed government in 2015, the UCP in 2019 will be bolstered by legions of career political staffers migrating to Alberta over the next few months.
Kenney is expected to continue to focus on his three key talking points from the election campaign – jobs, economy and pipelines – which is also expected to include a heavy does of political rhetoric aimed at Ottawa, Justin Trudeau, and anyone from outside Alberta who dares criticize the oil and gas sector (which will certainly keep Kenney busy).
The social conservative issues that dogged Kenney and many now elected UCP MLAs will not be his focus, but the social conservative groups who make up critical elements of his electoral coalition will expect to be rewarded for their loyalty. This could potentially create a difficult balancing act over the next four years.
The New Democratic Party was unable to get re-elected into government, but earned 619,147 votes, the party’s highest ever vote total. The larger voter turnout and consolidation of conservative votes around UCP candidates meant the NDP only earned 32.7 per cent of the vote and elected 24 MLAs, which is still one of the largest elected opposition caucuses in Alberta’s history. The NDP vote was heavily concentrated within Edmonton city limits, delivering the party all but one of the capital city’s electoral districts.
Outgoing-Premier Rachel Notley has pledged to stay on as party leader, which is a positive outcome for the NDP after its election defeat. Notley is the party’s strongest asset and is probably key to why the party formed government in 2015 and was not decimated in this election.
While the NDP sometimes tends to act like it is more inclined for life on the opposition benches, the new official opposition caucus will only have 3 MLAs who previously served in opposition (Notley, Edmonton-North West MLA David Eggen and Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview MLA Deron Bilous). This is the first time the NDP will form official opposition since its previous tenure in the role from 1982 to 1993.
A struggle for the new NDP caucus and for the NDP internally will be to decide whether it wants to remain the centre-leftish liberal-like party it was in government or whether it should return to something closer to its social democratic roots.
While I have a hard time expecting the NDP’s advocacy for oil pipelines to waver, the party has the opportunity to present a strong alternative to the UCP on issues ranging from climate change to support for strong public services like health care and education. Support for pipelines might be the biggest challenge the NDP will have to reconcile with if it wants to be seen as a serious advocate for action against climate change.
The Alberta Party lost all 3 of its seats in the Assembly despite having high-profile former Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel at its helm. The Alberta Party increased its popular vote to 9.1 per cent but none of its candidates came close to being elected. Even in Calgary-Elbow, popular opposition MLA and former party leader Greg Clark fell more than 3,000 votes short of being re-elected.
This result should prompt some serious internal discussions about what role the moderate conservative party plays in Alberta politics, especially as it now has no presence in the Assembly.
For the first time in 33 years the Liberal Party has no presence in the Assembly. Leader David Khan performed well in the televised leaders’ debate and was expected to have a shot at being elected in Calgary-Mountain View, the seat being vacated by retiring four-term Liberal MLA David Swann. But when the votes were counted Khan finished in fourth place with 5.6 per cent. The party only fielded 51 candidates and earned 18,546 votes, which translated into 1 per cent of the vote.
The Liberals will continue to exist on paper but for all intents and purposes the party that formed the official opposition from 1993 to 2012 has ceased to exist as a political force in Alberta.
Disgruntled former Wildrose and UCP MLA Derek Fildebrandt’s Freedom Conservative Party barely registered on the electoral radar. Running candidates only 24 districts, the populist-UCP spinoff finished with 9,945 votes province-wide. Fildebrandt finished a distant third in Chestermere-Strathmore, 61 per cent behind UCP MLA Leela Aheer.
Despite the crushing loss, Fildebrandt carries no shortage of political ambition. My bet is that he will show on a ballot as a People’s Party of Canada candidate in the October 2019 federal election.
I am planning on taking a closer look at the district and regional level results over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more analysis and commentary about the results of Alberta’s election.
Photo: Debbie Jabbour (centre) with Premier Rachel Notley (left) at an announcement in the Peace River district in 2016.
Debbie Jabbour has been nominated as the New Democratic Party candidate in the sprawling northwest Alberta district of Peace River. Jabbour, who was first elected in 2015, fended off a nomination challenge from Justin Sharpe.
She was first elected in 2015, earning 39.3 per cent, and previous to that worked as a provisional psychologist. She has served as Deputy Speaker and Chair of Committees in the Legislative Assembly since her election.
Premier Rachel Notley will officially accept her party’s candidacy at a nomination meeting scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 17, 2019 in her Edmonton-Strathcona district. Notley was re-elected to serve a third-term as the MLA for this district in 2015 with 82 per cent of the vote. The meeting is expected to be more of a rally and campaign kick-off, with the Speech from the Throne taking place on March 18 and an election call expected shortly afterward.
The NDP have also nominated Holly Heffernan in Drumheller-Stettler, Robyn O’Brien in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, Jeff Ible in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, Doug Hart in Lacombe-Ponoka, and Esther Tailfeathers in Cardston-Siksika.
United Conservative Party
The UCP has acclaimed Kulshan Gill as that party’s candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona. Gill ran for the UCP nomination in the northeast district of Edmonton-Manning but was defeated by Harry Grewal. Real estate agent Jovita Mendita withdrew from the UCP contest in that district.
The UCP has scheduled a nomination contest in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood on March 21, 2019. despite initially having four candidates registered as interested in seeking the nomination, only two candidates remain: Leila Houle and Atul Ranade.
Houle previously ran for the well-known-for-all-the-wrong-reasons UCP nomination in Edmonton-West Henday and was defeated by Nicole Williams. She previously ran as the federal Liberal candidate in the now-defunct Westlock-St. Paul district in 2008, finishing with 9.1 per cent in that vote. Renade registered intention to seek the UCP nomination in August 2018 after previously withdrawing from UCP nomination contests in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview and Edmonton-South.
Del Shupenia’s candidacy was not accepted by the party and George Lam and Michael Kalyn have withdrawn from the contest.
Arundeep Sandhu broke his silence this week and spoke to CBC’s The Ledge podcast about his disappointment in Jason Kenney’s decision to appoint Len Rhodes as the UCP candidate in Edmonton-Meadows. Sandhu is considering running as an independent candidate or even for a different party. “I’m a conservative, but I don’t believe I can run for the UCP as long as this leadership and this leadership team is in there,” he told CBC.
Alberta Party
Three more Alberta Party candidates have had their 5-year bans on running as candidates waived by the Court of Queen’s Bench. Rachel Timmermans in Calgary-Lougheed, Tim Meech in Livingstone-Macleod, and Ali Haymour in Edmonton-Decore will appear on ballots in their respective districts in the upcoming election.
The court has not yet waived the ban placed on party leader and former Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel, who had been planning to run in Edmonton-McClung. Elections Alberta ruled in early February that seven Alberta Party candidates were ineligible to run after being late to file financial statements from their nomination contests.
Danielle Klooster is the nominated Alberta Party candidate in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake. Klooster is a former town councillor from Penhold and ran for the Alberta Party in 2012 and 2015, earning 4.8 per cent and 6.1 per cent of the vote in those races.
Hazelyn Williams is the Alberta Party candidate in Edmonton-Ellerslie. Williams in the third candidate to be nominated by the Alberta Party in Ellerslie during this election cycle, replacing previously nominated candidate Yash Sharma, who was removed after appearing at a controversial rally, and Richard Corbin, who withdrew for unexplained reasons.
Green Party
Jenn Roach has been nominated as the Green Party candidate in Leduc-Beamont.
Freedom Conservative Party
The Freedom Conservative Party has nominated Sheyne Espey in Calgary-Peigan, Jeff Rout in Leduc-Beaumont, and Clayton Knutson in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake. Wade Woywitka and Matthew Powell are competing for the FCP nomination in Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright.
Liberal Party
Former Grande Prairie city councillor Kevin McLean has been nominated as the Liberal Party candidate in St. Albert. McLean served on Grande Praire City Council from 2010 to 2017 and ran for the Liberal Party in Grande Prairie-Smoky in the 2012 and 2015 elections, earning 4.8 per cent of the vote in each of those races.
Independent/Alberta Independence Party
Two candidates affiliated with the unregistered Alberta Independence Party have filed papers to run as Independent candidates in the upcoming election: CW Alexander in Calgary-Klein and Monica Friesz in Calgary-Mountain View.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview – David Egan (not to be confused with David Eggen) defeated Roger Fodjo and Ruby Malik to secure the United Conservative Party nomination in this east Edmonton district. Egan was a campaign volunteer for and was endorsed by Edmonton-Griesbach Member of ParliamentKerry Diotte.
Real estate agent Jeff Waltersrecently dropped out of the UCP nomination contest in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview and has now been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Walters released a statement on his Facebook page explaining the switch:
“As I knocked doors, I really got to know the concerns, issues, and fears of my constituents. At the same time, I learned about the inner workings of the United Conservative Party and it became clear I could not continue my candidacy without compromising myself and my values.”
“It has become increasingly obvious to me that the UCP does not actually care about the grassroots and operates a centrally controlled party and caucus that would be no better for Albertans than the NDP has been. This is counter to what I’m hearing Albertans want and expect, as I have knocked on nearly 5000 doors in the Beverly-Clareview riding.”
Edmonton-Ellerslie – Chuck McKenna is seeking the Alberta Party nomination in this southeast Edmonton district. McKenna was a candidate in the 2007 municipal election in Ward 6 and in the 2010 municipal election in Ward 12, during which time he was also Kerry Diotte’s campaign manager in the neighbouring Ward 11. In 2001, he was acting president of the Canadian Alliance association in Edmonton Southeast.
Yash Sharma had been previously nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in this district and was disqualified after participating in a protest held in response to an Indian Supreme Court decision to allow women of menstruating age to attend an ancient temple.
Before entering politics, O’Neill was a journalist with the Globe & Mail.
Both O’Neill and current Alberta Party leader Stephen Mandel were considered star candidates for the PC Party in the 2015 election and were featured in online and television ads produced during the campaign.
Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland – Oneil Carlier was nominated as the NDP candidate in this new district west of Edmonton. Carlier has represented Whitecourt-Ste. Anne and has served as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry since 2015.
Red Deer-South – Bruce Buruma is seeking the UCP nomination. Buruma is Director of Community Relations forRed Deer Public School District and Executive Director of the Foundation for Red Deer Public Schools.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Cam Westhead at his nomination meeting in Banff-Kananaskis (photo source: Alberta NDP on Twitter)
Photo: MLA Cam Westhead at his nomination meeting in Banff-Kananaskis (photo source: Alberta NDP on Twitter)
MLA Cam Westhead was nominated as the New Democratic Party candidate in the newly redrawn Banff-Kananaskis district. Westhead is a Registered Nurse and former treasurer of United Nurses of Alberta Local 115 at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary. He was first elected 2015 in the current Banff-Cochrane district with 43 percent of the vote.
Banff-Kananaskis
Westhead’s nomination was endorsed at a meeting this week by a number of prominent municipal elected officials from the district, including Canmore Mayor John Borrowman and former town councillor Sean Krausert and Banff town councillor Corrie DiManno. Borrowman is reported to have described Westhead as “a very strong representative of the Bow Valley to the legislature in Edmonton.”
“He’s an excellent listener, but he doesn’t stop there,” the Rocky Mountain Outlook reported Krausert as saying. “He goes back to Edmonton and talks to the person he needs to talk to and gets something done and he does that time and time again with integrity, with honesty and it’s just been a pleasure to see an MLA do what an MLA is suppose to do.”
Brenda Stanton was nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in Banff-Kananskis this week. Stanton is the owner of Back to Basics Hospitality Training & Consulting and is the former president of the Canmore/Kananaskis Chamber of Commerce and former vice chair of Tourism Canmore/Kananaskis.
Eva Kiryakos
In Calgary-South East, Eva Kiryakos was nominated as the United Conservative Party candidate after Cameron Davies and Matt Jones withdrew from the contest. According to her online biography, Kiryakos has practiced law for 11 years and one of her main campaign promises is to modify or repeal the Protecting Choice for Women Accessing Health Care Act, which seeks to limits protest and harassment of health care workers and patients accessing facilities that offer abortion services in Alberta.
MLA Jon Carson has been nominated as the NDP candidate in Edmonton-West Henday. Carson was first elected as MLA for Edmonton-Meadowlark in the 2015 election while earning 57 percent of the vote.
Kristie Gomuwka has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in West Yellowhead. Gomuwka is a director of the Edson Friendship Centre and was a candidate for trustee with the Grande Yellowhead Public School District in October 2017. She is married to Town of Edson Mayor Kevin Zahara.
Martin Long defeated Whitecourt town councillors Paul Chauvet and Ray Hilts, and two-time Wildrose Party candidate and former Hinton town councillor Stuart Taylor to secure the UCP nomination in West Yellowhead today. Long works at the Alberta Newsprint Company paper mill in Whitecourt, is the chairperson of the Tennille’s Hope Soup Kitchen and is a former director of the Whitecourt-Ste. Anne Wildrose Party association.
NDP MLAs duel for nomination in St. Albert
MLAs Trevor Horne and Marie Renaud (photo from St. Albert Public Library on Facebook)
Two NDP MLAs will challenge each other for their party’s nomination in the newly redrawn St. Albert district. In what will be the first contested NDP nomination contest of this cycle, current Spruce Grove-St. Albert MLA Trevor Horne and current St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud will seek the NDP candidacy at a December 12, 2018 nomination meeting.
Renaud had already announced her intentions to seek the nomination months ago, but Horne’s intentions had been unclear. Because of a significant change in the electoral boundaries, Horne’s Spruce Grove-St. Albert district is being split between the new Spruce Grove-Stony Plain, Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland and St. Albert districts, leaving this incumbent without a clear place to seek re-election without challenging fellow NDP MLAs Renaud, Oneil Carlier or Erin Babcock.
UPCOMING NOMINATION MEETINGS
November 17, 2018 – David Egan, Roger Fodjo, and Ruby Malik are seeking the UCP nomination in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview. Jeffery Walters has withdrawn from the contest. The district is currently represented by NDP MLA Deron Bilous, who was elected with 73.8 percent of the vote.
November 18, 2018 – MLA Oneil Carlier is expected to be nominated as the NDP candidate in the new district of Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland. Carlier has represented Whitecourt-Ste. Anne and has served as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry since 2015.
Calgary-Bow – Frank Penkala is seeking the Alberta Party nomination.
Calgary-Falconridge – Gurjinder Dhillon and Raman Gill have withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest.
Sherwood Park – MLA Annie McKitrick has officially filed her intention to seek the NDP nomination for re-election in 2019. McKitrick was first elected in 2015 with 52 percent of the vote and has served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Education since 2017.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Here is the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended October 14, 2018. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.
At the top of this week’s non-fiction bestseller list is Made In Alberta: The Ray Martin Story by Ray Martin and John Ashton. Martin was the Leader of the Alberta NDP and the Leader of the Opposition in the Alberta Legislature from 1984 to 1993 and as the MLA for Edmonton-Norwood from 1982 to 1993 and Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview from 2004 to 2008. Ashton is well known in Alberta’s political circles as a veteran campaign NDP manager and has worked on 25 election campaigns in six provinces.
EDMONTON NON-FICTION BESTSELLERS
1. Made In Alberta: The Ray Martin Story – Ray Martin and John Ashton *
2. Raising Grandkids – Gary Garrison *
3. Out of Line – Tanis MacDonald
4. Right Here, Right Now – Stephen Harper
5. Alberta Images – Daryl Benson
6. The Woo-Woo – Lindsay Wong
7. Dare to Lead – Brene Brown
8. Where Rivers Meet – Stephen Legault
9. Mamaskatch – Darrel J. McLeod
10. Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography – Andrea Warner
EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS
1. French Exit – Patrick DeWitt
2. Orange Shirt Day (children’s) – Phyllis Webstad
3. Glass Houses – Louise Penny
4. Split Tooth – Tanya Tagaq
5. Treaty 6 Deixis – Christine Stewart *
6. An Ocean of Minutes – Thea Lim
7. Women Talking – Miriam Toews
8. In a House of Lies – Ian Rankin
9. Washington Black – Esi Edugyan
NDP MLA Michael Connolly (left) with Premier Rachel Notley and Finance Minister Joe Ceci (source: Facebook)
Photo: NDP MLA Michael Connolly (left) with Premier Rachel Notley and Finance Minister Joe Ceci (source: Facebook)
New Democratic Party MLA Michael Connolly announced this weekend that he will not seek re-election to the Legislative Assembly when the next provincial election is called in 2019.
Connolly, 24, was one of eight under-30 NDP MLAs elected in 2015. He was elected in Calgary-Hawkwood, unseating Progressive Conservative MLA Jason Luan (who is now the nominated United Conservative Party candidate in Calgary-Foothills) and had declared his plans to seek re-election in the newly redrawn Calgary-Varsity district. Due to boundary redistribution, the Hawkwood district is being split into the new Calgary-Edgemont, Calgary-Foothills and Calgary-Varsity districts.
Connolly is the eleventh MLA to announce plans not to seek re-election in 2019.
NDP MLA Deron Bilous was nominated as his party’s candidate for re-election in 2019. Bilious has represented Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview since 2012 and currently serves as Minister of Economic Development and Trade.
Ron Orr
MLA Ron Orr defeated Lacombe City Councillor Thalia Hibbs to secure the UCP nomination in Lacombe-Ponoka. Orr was first elected in 2015 as a Wildrose Party candidate and currently serves as his party’s critic for Culture and Tourism.
Long-time conservative partisan activist Whitney Issik defeated Michael LaBerge, Christopher Grail, and Philip Schuman to win the UCP nomination in Calgary-Glenmore. As noted in a previous article, Issik worked as a campaign manager for Jim Prentice during his brief run for the federal PC Party nomination in Calgary-Southwest in 2002 and as policy co-chair of the federal PC Party during the 2000 federal election.
One of Issik’s opponents, Philip Schuman, was forced to apologize days before the nomination vote after it was revealed that he offered to introduce potential fundraisers to the administrators of an Instagram account that frequently posts anti-Semitic and racist memes.
Jeremy Nixon defeated Kathy Macdonald to secure the UCP nomination in Calgary-Klein. Nixon ran in this district under the Wildrose banner in 2012and 2015, when he placed third with 23 percent of the vote. He is the brother of Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Jason Nixon.
Kenneth and Carl Paproski
If elected, the Nixons might be the first brotherly-duo elected to Alberta’s Legislative Assembly at the same time. While there are cases of family members serving as MLAs during different periods of time (perhaps most notably, current Premier Rachel Notley and her father Grant Notley), I have not found a case of two siblings serving in the Legislature at the same time.
The closest case I could find was the Paproski brothers. Kenneth Paproski served as the PC MLA for Edmonton-Kingsway from 1971 to 1982 and was succeeded by his brother, Carl Paproski, who served as MLA of the same district from 1982 until 1986. Their other brother, Steve Paproski, served as MP for Edmonton-Centre and Edmonton-North from 1968 to 1993. (If any readers know of a period where two relatives served together in the Assembly, please let me know).
Calgary-Klein is currently represented by NDP MLA Craig Coolahan, who was elected with 44.3 percent of the vote in 2015. Coolahan is expected to be nominated as a meeting on October 3, 2018 and former Alberta Party leadership candidate Kara Levis is her party’s nominated candidate.
Upcoming nomination meetings
Nate Horner
UCP members in Drumheller-Stettler will choose their candidate for the next election at meetings being held on September 27, 28 and 29, 2018 in communities across this sprawling rural central Alberta district. Incumbent UCP MLA Rick Strankman, who was first elected as a Wildrose MLA in 2012, is believed to be in a fight for his political life against challengers Nate Horner and Todd Pawsey.
Horner is a rancher and the latest member of the Horner political family to jump into the provincial arena. Horner is the grandson of former area Member of Parliament Jack Horner and a relative of former deputy premiers Hugh Horner and Doug Horner. (Another Horner, Byron Horner, has been nominated as the Conservative Party candidate for the next federal election in Courtney-Alberni).
The Alberta Party is expected to nominate Mount Royal University contract faculty member Lana Bentley as their candidate in Calgary-Acadia on September 24, 2018. Bentley teaches in the Faculty of Health, Community and Education. The Alberta Party is also expected to nominate a candidate in Edmonton-Glenora on September 25, 2018, but the party has yet to announce who is seeking the candidacy. Previously nominated candidate Carla Stolte withdrew her candidacy during the summer.
– Sohail Chaudhry has withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest in Calgary-Acadia.
– Sherissa Celis has joined the UCP nomination contest in Calgary-Cross.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Calgary-Elbow has a long-history in conservative partisan lore, having been represented by former premiers Ralph Klein and Alison Redford and past deputy premier David Russell, but it has also been a marginal district at times.
Klein only narrowly defeated Liberal Gilbert Clark in 1989 and the district would abandon the Tories for Liberal Craig Cheffins in the 2007 by-election to replace Klein. Redford retook the district for the PCs in 2008, but her disastrous tenure in the premier’s office certainly contributed to Alberta Party leader Greg Clark (son of Gilbert) winning in Calgary-Elbow in 2015.
Danielle Larivee was nominated as NDP candidate in Lesser Slave Lake. Larivee was first elected in 2015 and currently serves as Minister of Children’s Services and Minister for the Status of Women. Before her election Larivee worked as a Registered Nurse in public health in northern Alberta.
Former president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association Travis Toews defeated Sexsmith town councillor Kate Potter to secure the UCP nomination in Grande Prairie-Wapiti. Toews had the endorsement of former Grande Prairie PC MLAsWalter Paszkowski and Everett MacDonald in this district currently represented by retiring UCP MLA Wayne Drysdale.
Former Liberal MLA Mo Elsalhy was nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in Edmonton-South West and Marvin Olsen has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville.
Upcoming Nomination Meetings
Karen Principe
Former PC MLA Janice Sarich, past city council candidate Karen Principe, and real estate agent Gordon Reekie will compete for the UCP nomination in Edmonton-Decore on September 20, 2018.
Sarich represented this district from 2008 until 2015 when she was unseated by NDP candidate Chris Nielsen. Principe placed a strong third in the October 2017 city council race that saw incumbent councillor Dave Loken unseated by Jon Dzadyk. Reekie had previously been a candidate for the UCP nomination in the neighbouring Edmonton-Castle Downs before withdrawing from that contest before the vote was held.
NDP MLA Marlin Schmidt is expected to be nominated as his party’s candidate in Edmonton-Gold Bar on September 20, 2018. Schmidt was first elected in 2015, earning 68 percent of the vote in the 2015 election. He now serves as Minister of Advanced Education and will face a rematch against UCP candidate David Dorward, who Schmidt defeated in 2015 and placed a strong second against in 2012.
Edmonton-Gold Bar is a former Liberal Party stronghold, having been represented by party heavy-weights Bettie Hewes from 1986 to 1997 and Hugh MacDonald from 1997 to 2012, though support for the party collapsed to an abysmal 3.1 percent in the 2015 election.
Lacombe City Councillor Thalia Hibbs will challenge UCP MLA Ron Orr in a nomination contest in Lacombe-Ponoka scheduled for September 21, 2018.It was announced at a forum in Lacombe that nomination candidate Rita Reich has dropped out of the contest, though no reason was given.
Thalia Hibbs
Orr was first elected as a Wildrose Party candidate in 2015, winning a close three-way contest between himself, New Democrat Doug Hart and PC candidate Peter DeWit. Orr currently serves as Official Opposition critic for Culture & Tourism and in November 2017, the former Baptist pastor suggested that the legalization of marijuana in Canada could lead to a communist revolution.
Hibbs has served on Lacombe City Council since October 2017 and previous to that served as a trustee with the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Schools from 2010 to 2017.
Issik is a long-time party activist, having worked as a campaign manager for Jim Prentice’s brief run for the federal Progressive Conservative nomination in Calgary-Southwest in 2002, as a constituency assistant to former Calgary-Mountain View MLA Mark Hlady (who is now seeking the UCP nomination in that district), and as policy co-chair of the federal PC Party during the 2000 federal election. LaBerge is president of Channel Energy Inc. Schuman is an insurance company account executive and until July 2017 was the Media Coordinator for United Liberty, the political action committee created by now-Freedom Conservative Party MLA Derek Fildebrandt.
Past Wildrose Party candidates Kathy Macdonald and Jeremy Nixon are seeking the UCP nomination in Calgary-Klein on September 22, 2018. MacDonald is a retired Calgary police officer and was the Wildrose Party candidate in the 2014 by-election in Calgary-Foothills and 2015 Wildrose candidate in Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill. She also ran for the Wildrose Party nomination ahead of the 2015 by-election in Calgary-Foothills. Nixon ran in this district under the Wildrose banner in 2012 and 2015. He is the brother of Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Jason Nixon.
Deron Bilous is expected to be acclaimed for the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview on September 23, 2018. Bilious has represented this district since 2012 and was re-elected in 2015 with 73.8 percent of the vote. He currently serves as Alberta’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade. This district has deep NDP roots, having been represented by former city councillor Ed Ewasiuk from 1986 to 1993 and former party leader Ray Martin from 2004 to 2008.
Camrose – Brandon Lunty is seeking the UCP nomination. Lunty was the Wildrose candidate in Calgary-South East in the 2015 election, placing third with 29 percent of the vote behind PC MLA Rick Fraser and New Democrat Mirical Macdonald.
Calgary-Falconridge – Christopher Steeves has withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest in this new east Calgary district. He served as a councillor with the City of Chestermere from 2005 to 2017.
Sherwood Park – Sean Kenny is the fourth candidate to enter the UCP nomination contest in this suburban Edmonton area district.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Minster of Health and Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman has been nominated as the New Democratic Party candidate in Edmonton-Glenora for the next election. Hoffman was first elected as MLA for this district in 2015 with 68 percent of the vote, unseating two-term Progressive Conservative MLA Heather Klimchuk. She previously served two terms on Edmonton’s Public School Board including as chair from 2012 to 2015.
Hoffman has managed to navigate her role as Health Minister, a large and challenging department, and continue to serve as Premier Rachel Notley’s chief political lieutenant. As I have written before, she is a contender for strongest member of cabinet, and is on my list of cabinet ministers who I believe are future Premier material.
Dave Hanson
MLA Dave Hanson fended off two challengers to secure the United Conservative Party nomination in the new Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul district today. City of Cold Lake mayor Craig Copeland, who also ran for the PC Party in Bonnyville-Cold Lake in the 2015 election, and private school administrator Glenn Spiess, were unable to unseat Hanson in this contest.
Schweitzer is endorsed by Chestermere-Rockyview UCP MLA Leela Aheer, former PC MLA and cabinet minister Jim Dinning, and former Calgary mayoral candidate Bill Smith. And Davis is endorsed by retired oil company executive Allan Markin and Kudatah leader George Clark.
Whoever wins this nomination will face Alberta Party MLA Greg Clark, who was first elected as MLA for Calgary-Elbow in 2015.
Toews is being endorsed by Walter Paszkowski (MLA for Smoky River from 1989 to 1993, and MLA for Grande Prairie-Smoky from 1993 to 2001),Everett McDonald (MLA for Grande Prairie-Smoky from 2012 to 2015), and County of Grande Prairie councillor Peter Harris.
Former Liberal Party MLA Mo Elsalhy is expected to be nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in Edmonton-South West on September 15, 2018. Elsalhy was the MLA for Edmonton-McClung from 2004 and 2008 and ran for the party leadership in 2008. He attempted a comeback in 2012 but was unable unseat PC MLA David Xiao. During his time as MLA he served in various critic roles, including as Official Opposition critic for Justice and Public Safety, and Innovation and Science.
CBC reported in May 2018 that Larson has questioned vaccination science and has suggested parents may be harming their children by vaccinating them against disease. Larson is an independent contractor and the step-son of former Reform Party Member of Parliament Deborah Grey.
NDP MLA Danielle Larivee is expected to be nominated as her party’s candidate in Lesser Slave Lake on September 16, 2018. Larivee was first elected in 2015, unseating seven-term PC MLA Pearl Calahasen. Larivee currently serves as Minister of Children’s Services and Minister for the Status of Women.
Marvin Olsen expected to be chosen as the Alberta Party candidate in Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville on September 16, 2018. Olsen is the owner of Grim’s Contracting Ltd. Previously declared nomination candidate Campbell Pomeroy withdrew his name from the contest.
Calgary-Klein – Julie Huston has withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest.
Calgary-Lougheed – Rachel Timmermans has been selected as the Alberta Party candidate in this southwest Calgary district. Timmermans, a Mount Royal University policy studies student, will face UCP leader Jason Kenney in the next election.
Calgary-North – Tommy Low is seeking the UCP nomination.
Calgary-North East – Gurbachan Brar is seeking the NDP nomination in this new north east Calgary district. Brar is a former President of the Punjabi Likhari Sabha and a former broadcaster at RED FM 106.7.
Camrose – Kevin Smook is seeking the Alberta Party nomination. Smook is councillor for Division 1 on Beaver County council, where he was first elected in 2013. He served as Reeve of Beaver County from 2014 to 2017.
Edmonton-Rutherford – Aisha Rauf defeated Arnold D’Souza to secure the Alberta Party nomination. She is an instructor and according to her website biography is waiting for her PhD Linguistics thesis defence. She was interviewed in a September 2017 episode of the Broadcast.
If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for party nominations, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list. Thank you!
Former NDP leader, school trustee Ray Martin releasing new book
Martin is the former leader of the Alberta NDP and served as leader of the Official Opposition in the Legislative Assembly from 1984 to 1993. He was elected as the MLA for Edmonton-Norwood from 1982 to 1993 and Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview from 2004 to 2008, and ran for the provincial NDP in 9 separate elections between 1975 and 2012. He most recently served as a trustee on the Edmonton Public School Board representing Ward D from 2013 to 2017.
Martin’s decades worth of experiences in Alberta politics will certainly mean he has many interesting stories to tell. I am definitely adding this new book to my Fall 2018 reading list.
Here he goes, again.
