Tag: Fred Schwieger

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Alberta Politics

NDP nominate Katherine Swampy in Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin and Kevin McLean in Grande Prairie

Katherine Swampy NDP Wetaskiwin Maskwacis candidate
Katherine Swampy (source: Katherine Swampy / Facebook)

The Alberta NDP now have candidates nominated in 80 of 87 ridings after nominating Samson Cree Band Councillor Katherine Swampy in Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin and former city councillor Kevin McLean in Grande Prairie. Nomination meetings are still scheduled for those ridings but the Elections Alberta website indicates both candidates have already been endorsed by the party.

Update: Tanika Chaisson is seeking the NDP nomination in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo. Chaisson is a Laboratory Technician with Suncor and a former National Representative with Unifor. A nomination meeting is scheduled for April 30.

The NDP are expected to announce their candidates in Grande Prairie-Wapiti and Highwood soon.

The United Conservative Party are expected to complete their slate of 87 candidates when they acclaim Lieberson Pang in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood. The candidate entry deadline in the riding was yesterday.

The Green Party has nominated two new candidates, Vanessa Diehl in Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland and Kurt Klingbeil in Morinville-St. Albert, bringing that party’s total number of nominated candidates to 30.

Myles Chykerda has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in Lacombe-Ponoka. The Alberta Party now has 13 candidates nominated and an email from party president Sid Kobewka to supporters yesterday confirmed the party does not intend to nominate a full slate of candidates in this election.

Independence goes Independent

Alberta’s fractious right-wing fringe parties are becoming even more divided after leadership turmoil in the Wildrose Independence Party and the Independence Party of Alberta. Candidates formerly affiliated with the two Alberta independence parties are declaring themselves to be Independent candidates on the ballot.

The Wildrose Loyalty Coalition, a new unregistered party founded by ousted Wildrose Independence Party leader Paul Hinman, announced that Daniel Jeffries will run as the new coalition’s candidate in Lacombe-Ponoka. Though unless the WLC is able to get official party status before May 10, Jeffries will be listed as an Independent candidate on the ballot.

Former Wexit Alberta interim leader Kathy Flett, who briefly served as the Wildrose Independence Party’s VP Communications, is running as an Independent candidate in Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville under the “Independents for Alberta” banner.

Joining Flett as an IFA-affiliated Independent candidate is Angela Tabak, who briefly claimed the title of President of the Wildrose Independence Party following an unsuccessful counter coup, is running as an Independent candidate in Cardston-Siksika.

And in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, former Independence Party candidate Fred Schwieger is now running as an Independent candidate. Schwieger joins a handful of former IPA candidates who are running an Independents since Pastor Artur Pawlowski was ousted from the party leadership last month.

Total Nominated candidates

Here is the current list of nominated candidates:

  • United Conservative Party: 86/87
  • New Democratic Party 80/87
  • Green Party: 30/87
  • Alberta Party: 13/87
  • Liberal Party: 8/87
  • Independence Party of Alberta: 5/87
  • Communist Party: 3/87

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Alberta Politics

UCP candidate Emad El-Zein to challenge NDP leader Rachel Notley in Edmonton-Strathcona

Emad El-Zein is running for the United Conservative Party in Edmonton-Strathcona (souce: Emad El-Zein / Facebook)
Emad El-Zein is running for the United Conservative Party in Edmonton-Strathcona (source: Emad El-Zein / Facebook)

Emad El-Zein will carry the United Conservative Party banner against Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley in Edmonton-Strathcona.

Rachel Notley Alberta NDP leader edmonton-strathcona mla
Rachel Notley (source: Rachel Notley / Facebook)

El-Zein is an engineer and business owner, and is the President of the local UCP association in Edmonton-Strathcona.

He was served as soccer coordinator and membership director of the Malmo Plains Community League.

Notley was first elected to represent Edmonton-Strathcona in 2008 and was re-elected in 2019 with 72 per cent of the vote.

Voters in the south central Edmonton riding have elected NDP MLAs in every election but one since 1986.

UCP to appoint Toews and Savage successors

Sonya Savage

The UCP has announced that it plans to appoint candidates in Grande Prairie-Wapiti and Calgary-North West to replace retiring Finance Minister Travis Toews and Environment Minister Sonya Savage. The two senior UCP ministers announced last Friday that they will not seek re-election.

Of the two, only Savage was already nominated to run in the May election.

Rumours circulated over the weekend that the UCP could appoint Trade, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Rajan Sawhney as the UCP candidate in Calgary-North West. Sawhney has served as MLA for Calgary-North East since 2019 but announced in February 2023 that she would not run for re-election.

There is also speculation in political circles that the UCP could name Nolan Dyck as the party’s candidate in Grande Prairie-Wapiti. Dyck is currently seeking the nomination in the neighbouring Grande Prairie riding but is President of the UCP association in Grande Prairie-Wapiti and is politically close to Toews.

Liberal Party names 6 new candidates

The Liberal Party has named six new candidates, bringing the party’s total slate of candidates up to seven.

Donna Wilson Liberal Edmonton Whitemud By-Election
Donna Wilson

The slate of new candidates includes Dr. Donna Wilson, a nursing professor at the University of Alberta who’s area of research focuses on health services and health policy.

Wilson will be carrying the party’s banner in Edmonton-Whitemud, where she previously ran for the Liberals in a 2014 by-election. Back then, the Liberals were led by now-UCP candidate Dr. Raj Sherman and the Wildrose Party was led by now UCP Premier Danielle Smith. The riding is currently represented by NDP MLA Rakhi Pancholi.

Wilson also ran for the Liberals in Edmonton-Riverview in the 2015 election.

Other Liberal Party candidates include:

  • Charlie Heater in Calgary-Fish Creek
  • Prince Mugisha in Calgary-North East
  • Jean Kijuli in Edmonton-Manning
  • Abdi Bakal in Edmonton-Mill Woods
  • Patricia Chizek in Lethbridge-West

Bakal and Chizek were candidates in those ridings in the 2019 election. Liberal Party leader John Roggeveen has not announced where he plans to run.

Other nomination updates

The Independence Party of Alberta has nominated Bob Blayone in Camrose, Terry Wolsey in Cardston-Siksika, David Reid in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, Corrie Toone in Livigstone-Macleod, Katherine Kowalchuk in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Fred Schwieger in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, Brent Ginther in Taber-Warner.

Ashley MacDonald is the Green Party candidate in Red Deer-South.

Upcoming nomination votes

With just 63 days left until Election Day, the UCP have nominated candidates in 81 of Alberta’s 87 ridings and Alberta NDP have nominated 77 candidates. The Green Party has 27 candidates, the Alberta Party has nominated 12 candidates, the Liberal Party has seven, and the Independence Party has at least seven.

Candidate nomination votes are currently scheduled for the following dates:

  • April 1 – Calgary-North East UCP
  • April 3 – Grande Prairie UCP
  • April 21 – Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville

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Nomination Updates: Pamela Rath nominated for UCP in Calgary-Mountain View, Cathy Hogg wins Cypress-Medicine Hat NDP race, Grande Prairie draws a crowd

Recently nomination candidates Landen Tischer (NDP Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock), Pamela Rath (UCP Calgary-Mountain View), Cathy Hogg (NDP Cypress-Medicine Hat), Amritpal Matharu (UCP Edmonton Meadows)
Recently nomination candidates Landen Tischer (NDP Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock), Pamela Rath (UCP Calgary-Mountain View), Cathy Hogg (NDP Cypress-Medicine Hat), Amritpal Matharu (UCP Edmonton Meadows)

Former Calgary Catholic School District Trustee Pamela Rath has been nominated United Conservative Party candidate in Calgary-Mountain View. Rath served as a trustee from 2017 until her resignation in December 2022 for “personal and family matters.”

Rath’s resignation came a few months after she was censured by her trustee colleagues after being found to be in violation of the board’s code of conduct, though the nature of her alleged misconduct was never made public.

The riding has been represented by Alberta NDP MLA Kathleen Ganley since 2019 and was previously represented by Liberal MLA David Swann from 2004 to 2019. 

School trustee Cathy Hogg won the most unusual of contests: a contested NDP nomination race in Cypress-Medicine Hat.

Hogg defeated retired teacher Tim Gruber and private college founder David Martin. She has served as a trustee with the Prairie Rose Public School since 2013 and previously served as President of the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta. 

And way up north, Scott Sinclair defeated three other candidates to win the UCP nomination in Lesser Slave Lake. I’m told that Sinclair beat second place finisher Martine Carifelle by three votes. Sinclair will face Registered Nurse and former NDP MLA Danielle Larivee in the election.

Grande Prairie UCP race draws a crowd

Three more candidates – Larry Gibson, Don Golden and Tayyab Parvez – have joined the UCP nomination contest to replace retiring MLA Tracy Allard..

Gibson is an energy and utilities consultant and former chair of the Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce. Golden is a realtor and former Catholic school board trustee. And Parvez is an engineer and the nephew of Calgary-North MLA Muhammad Yaseen. Nolan Dyck announced his candidacy last week.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Travis Toews is expected to announce soon whether or not he will run for re-election in the neighbouring Grande Prairie-Wapiti. Toews was first elected as MLA in 2019 and placed second to Danielle Smith in the 2022 UCP leadership race.

More nomination updates

Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock: Pastor-turned-horizontal directional driller Landen Tischer was nominated as the NDP candidate in this sprawling riding north of Edmonton.

Calgary-Bow: Paul Godard has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Godard ran for the Alberta Party in the riding in 2019.

Calgary-Edgemont: Allen Schultz has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.

Calgary-Foothills: Shaoli Wang has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Wang previously ran for mayor in 2021 and as an Independent candidate in Calgary-Rocky Ridge in the 2019 federal election.

Camrose: Bob Blayone has announced he will run for the Independence Party of Alberta nomination in this central Alberta riding. Baylone acts as a spokesperson for the Independence Party and previously ran for town council in Peace River in 2021.

Central Peace-Notley: Lynn Lekisch is the Alberta Party candidate in this northwest Alberta riding. Lekisch ran for the NDP nomination in the riding in July 2022 but was defeated by Megan Ciurysek. 

Edmonton-Castle Downs: Patrick Stewart has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.

Edmonton-Decore: Lawyer Brent Tyson has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate.

Edmonton-Glenora: Shannon Berry has withdrawn from the UCP nomination contest, leaving Amit Batra as the only declared candidate at the moment. UPDATE: Amit Batra has been disqualified by the UCP.

Edmonton-Meadows: Amritpal Matharu defeated Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu to win the UCP nomination. Matharu is a shop manager at TJs Auto and Brakes & Tires and General Secretary of Gurdwara Millwoods.

Edmonton-West Henday: Joseph Angeles and Slava Cravcenco are on the ballot at the UCP nomination meeting on March 2.

Leduc-Beaumont: Al Luthra is no longer seeking the nomination. Heather Feldbusch, Nam Kular, Brandon Lunty, Dawn Miller, Dave Quest, and Karen Richert will be on the ballot when UCP members in the riding vote to choose a candidate on March 18.

Livingston-Macleod – Nanton town councillor Kevin Todd has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate. Todd had previously been seeking the UCP nomination but had a change of heart before the candidate entry deadline and choose to run for the Alberta Party instead.

Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills- Past Independence Party leadership candidate Katherine Kowalchuk is running for that party’s nomination in this central Alberta riding. Kowalchuk is connected to the COVID-skeptical Lawyers 4 Truth group and was briefly nominated as a Liberal Party candidate in Calgary-Signal Hill ahead of the 2015 federal election.

Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre: Fred Schwieger is running for the Independence Party of Alberta. A nomination vote is scheduled for March 18, 19 and 20.

Upcoming nomination votes

With just 88 days left until Election Day, the Alberta NDP have nominated candidates in 75 of Alberta’s 87 ridings. The United Conservative Party has candidates named in 68 ridings and the Green Party has 26 candidates. The Alberta Party has nominated 13 candidates and the Liberal Party has one.

Candidate nomination votes are currently scheduled for the following dates:

  • March 2 – Edmonton-West Henday UCP
  • March 4 – Red Deer-South UCP
  • March 5 – Calgary-Bhullar-McCall UCP
  • March 9, 10, 11 – Livingstone-Macleod UCP
  • March 11 – Edmonton-Strathcona NDP
  • March 13 – Calgary-Lougheed UCP
  • March 14 – Calgary-Lougheed NDP
  • March 14 – Lethbridge-West UCP
  • March 16 – Cypress-Medicine Hat UCP
  • March 18 – Leduc-Beaumont UCP
  • March 18, 19, 20 – Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre IP

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