Tag: Edmonton Southeast

Danielle Smith’s Fundraising Machine

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 20, 2024

Premier Danielle Smith at the United Conservative Party's leader's dinner in Edmonton (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

A special weekend episode of the Daveberta Podcast

It’s rare that I send out a newsletter on the weekend but I thought subscribers would enjoy listening to a new episode of the Daveberta Podcast we recorded this week.

We cover a lot of ground in this episode of the Daveberta Podcast, including:

Premier Danielle Smith’s recent packed leader’s dinner fundraisers in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Bonnyville.
how the Alberta NDP leadership candidates are leaning into digital advertising on the Meta platform and what this might say about their campaigns.
how federal boundary changes are impacting the electoral map in south east Edmonton (I’m calling it the Mill Woods Shuffle) and former Progressive Conservative MLA Naresh Bhardwaj’s campaign for the Conservative nomination in the new Edmonton-Southeast riding (I’ve updated the list).
how electoral boundary commissions work in Alberta (one of my favourite topics).

The full episode of this Daveberta Podcast is available to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack.

Alberta Politics

What Danielle Smith said she wouldn’t campaign for in the 2023 election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 26, 2024

Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean and Premier Danielle Smith during their trip to Texas last week. (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Smith said she wouldn’t campaign on an Alberta Pension Plan and police force, but it looks like that’s what we’re getting.

I want to focus on the lede from this widely shared Canadian Press story published on March 5, 2023:

United Conservative Leader Danielle Smith says she won’t be campaigning on some of her party’s more contentious ideas — sovereignty legislation, a provincial police force and an Alberta pension plan — ahead of the May 29 election.

The reason why this story is notable is because of how much of the re-elected UCP’s political agenda today focuses on those three things Smith specifically didn’t want to talk about during the campaign.

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It’s not unusual for parties that form government to back away from campaign promises or even implement policies they didn’t campaign on at all. But it feels a little more unusual for a party leader to implement policies she said she didn’t want to talk about during a 28-day election campaign that happened less than a year ago.

It was a shameless and cynical move, because despite Smith saying she didn’t want to campaign on those issues during the election, it was clear the UCP was going to move forward on pensions, police and sovereignty if they were re-elected.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

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Alberta Politics

Alberta NDP name change pushed by group led by former MLA

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 28, 2023

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley during the 2023 election (source: Alberta NDP / Facebook)

Alberta’s Progressive Future calls for Alberta NDP to distance itself from the Ottawa NDP

When I worked for the Alberta Liberal Party back in the 2000s, we had an inside joke that the Liberals could run Jesus Christ as a candidate in Wainwright and still lose. It was funny because it was probably true (the last time voters in Wainwright elected a Liberal MLA was in 1909) and was a reflection of how cynical we were that the party had any chance of actually winning any seats in rural Alberta.

I imagine more than a few Alberta NDP supporters felt the same when the results of the 2023 election started rolling in on May 29, 2023. Despite making big gains in Calgary and winning 38 seats province-wide, the party’s hopes of forming government were dashed at the city limits.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

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