Tag: Freedom Conservative Party

Mid-week Alberta Candidate Nomination Update

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date January 30, 2019
3 Comments on Mid-week Alberta Candidate Nomination Update

Photo: NDP MLA Deborah Drever, centre in white, with supporters at the NDP nomination meeting in Calgary-Bow.

Here are the latest updates to the list of candidates seeking nominations to run in Alberta’s next provincial general election:

– As noted in my previous update, New Democratic Party MLAs Deborah Drever and Graham Sucha were nominated as their party’s candidates in Calgary-Bow and Calgary-Shaw.

Kari Whan NDP Bonnyville Cold Lake St Paul — Kari Whan

– In new northeast Alberta district of Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, the NDP has nominated Kari Whan as their candidate. Whan is a teacher at Cold Lake Elementary School and previously taught at Bonnyville Centralized High School.

– Heather Morigeau has been nominated as the Green Party candidate in the downtown district of Calgary-Buffalo. Morigeau is a founder of FoodScape Calgary. A nomination meeting is scheduled for January 29, 2019.

– United Way of Calgary and Area manager Cesar Cela is seeking the NDP nomination in Calgary-East. A nomination meeting is scheduled for February 16, 2019. The district currently represented by NDP-turned-Independent MLA Robyn Luff. who has announced she will not seek re-election.

– NDP MLA Chris Nielsen is seeking his party’s nomination for re-election in Edmonton-Decore. Nielsen was first elected in 2015, earning 67.9 percent of the vote. A nomination meeting has been scheduled for February 19, 2019.

– Valerie Keefe has announced plans to seek the Freedom Conservative Party nomination in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood.

– Ronald Malowany has been nominated as the Alberta Advantage Party candidate in Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville. Malowany is the northern provincial director for the party.

Devon Hargreaves Lethbridge East Liberal Alberta Election 2019 — Devon Hargreaves

– HIV North executive director Melissa Byers and local Fire Captain Todd Russell are seeking the NDP nomination in Grande Prairie. Russell was the NDP candidate in Grande Prairie-Smoky in the 2015 election, earning 31.1 percent of the vote and placing 334 votes behind then-Wildrose Party candidate Todd Loewen. Loewen is now seeking re-election as a United Conservative Party candidate in the new Central Peace-Notley district where he will face NDP MLA and Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd.

– Devon Hargreaves is seeking the Liberal Party nomination in Lethbridge-East. In 2018, Hargreaves launched an e-petition to ban “conversion therapy” – religious or psychological counselling meant to persuade LGBT people to become straight.

– Sherry Greene has been nominated as the Alberta Party candidate in Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin. Greene is a member of the Samson Cree First Nation and a First Nations governance expert. She made headlines in 2017 when she lead a fight for more financial accountability, transparency and consultation with membership at Samson Cree.

– Matthew Powell is seeking the Freedom Conservative Party nomination in Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright.

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!

Tags Alberta Advantage Party, Alberta Election 2019, Alberta Election Candidate Nominations, Alberta Liberal Party, Alberta NDP, Alberta Party, Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, Calgary-Bow, Calgary-Buffalo, Calgary-East, Calgary-Shaw, Candidate nominations, Central Peace-Notley, Cesar Cela, Chris Nielsen, Deborah Drever, Devon Hargreaves, Edmonton-Decore, Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood, Fort Sasktachewan-Vegreville, Freedom Conservative Party, Graham Sucha, Grande Prairie, Grande Prarie-Smoky, Heather Morigeau, Kari Whan, Lethbridge-East, Marg McCuaig Boyd, Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin, Matthew Powell, Melissa Byers, Robyn Luff, Ronald Malowany, Sherry Greene, Todd Loewen, Todd Russell, United Conservative Party, Valerie Keefe, Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright, Wildrose Party

Alberta Politics

MLA Rick Strankman leaves UCP to sit as Independent MLA for Drumheller-Stettler

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date January 15, 2019
No Comments on MLA Rick Strankman leaves UCP to sit as Independent MLA for Drumheller-Stettler

Rick Strankman Jason Kenney UCP Drumheller Stettler MLA — Rick Strankman and Jason Kenney

Two-term Drumheller-Stettler MLA Rick Strankman has left the United Conservative Party and will sit as an Independent MLA if the Legislative Assembly returns before the next election.

In a statement released on January 15, 2019, Strankman lamented the state of hyper-partisanship in Alberta politics and claimed that the UCP was “not including the grassroots principles of strong conservative Albertan values.”

Strankman was the first incumbent MLA to lose his party’s nomination in this election cycle when he went down to defeat at the hands of Pollockville rancher and political family scion Nate Horner in an October 2018 nomination contest.

Nate Horner United Conservative Party Drumheller-Stettler — Nate Horner

Despite endorsements from six of his caucus colleagues, Strankman was unable to fend off this nomination challenge. Horner defeated Strankman by a margin of 969 votes to 740.

Strankman was first elected in 2012 as a Wildrose Party candidate, defeating Progressive Conservative Minister of Tourism, Parks and Recreation Jack Hayden by 865 votes. He was re-elected in 2015 in a rematch with Hayden, that time widening his margin of victory to 2,182 votes.

Strankman was one of five Wildrose MLAs not to cross the floor to the PCs in 2014.

Following his nomination defeat in 2018, there was speculation that Strankman could have sought the nomination to run in Drumheller-Stettler as a candidate with Strathmore-Brooks MLA Derek Fildebrandt’s right-wing Freedom Conservative Party. His decision to instead sit as an Independent MLA is not a great endorsement of Fildebrandt’s new party, which has already attracted the attention of another former Wildrose MLA, Joe Anglin.

Derek Fildebrandt Alberta Wildrose MLA — Derek Fildebrandt

It is not clear whether Strankman plans to seek re-election as an Independent candidate in 2019.

In 2015, Strankman introduced the Election (Restrictions on Government Advertising) Amendment Act, into the Assembly. The private members’ bill would have restricted the ability of government to make announcements and advertise during of election and by-election periods. The bill died on the order paper when it was referred to the Select Special Ethics and Accountability Committee.

In 2016, Strankman was twice forced to apologize after penning an article comparing Alberta’s carbon tax to the Holodomor, the Ukrainian genocide of the 1930s which killed between 3.3 to 7.5 million people. He has also publicly questioned the science of climate change.

In July 2017, Strankman claimed the “electronic sphere” and a “hack job” were responsible for a tweet posted by his MLA twitter account accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being a “gutless puke.”

He is perhaps most well-known for being jailed in 2002 after being charged under the Customs Act for taking 756 bushels of wheat across the American border in protest of the Canadian Wheat Board. He was later pardoned by Prime Minster Stephen Harper.

Strankman is the sixth MLA to leave the UCP since it was formed in the summer of 2017. He endorsed Jason Kenney in the 2017 UCP leadership contest. His departure comes days after former WIldrose and Progressive Conservative MLA Ian Donovan announced he was leaving the UCP, citing “dictatorship”-like control by Kenney and central party officials.

Listen and subscribe to the latest episode of the Daveberta Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you find podcasts online. We would love to hear what you think of this episode, so feel free to leave a positive review where you download, comment on the blog, Facebook or Twitter or send us an email at podcast@daveberta.ca.

Daveberta Podcast

Episode 25: We answer your Alberta Politics questions

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 24, 2018
1 Comment on Episode 25: We answer your Alberta Politics questions

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We asked listeners to send us their Alberta politics questions and we dedicated our final episode of 2018 to answering them!

We kicked off this episode with a game of “is it more likely,” where we discuss different potential scenarios in Alberta politics in 2019 and then we dove into the mailbag to answer questions on topics including Alberta separatism, political polarization and public policy, the state of opinion in the mainstream media, and whether Twitter is an effective way to discuss politics.

As this is our last episode of 2018, our first season, we want to thank everyone who has listened, downloaded and subscribed to the Daveberta Podcast over the past year. We also want to thank all of our special guest co-hosts who joined us on the podcast in 2018 – Kyla Fisher, Lianne Bell, Janelle Morin, Kate Kerber, Erika Barootes, Janis Irwin, Natasha Soles, Jamil Jivani and Kristin Raworth– we loved having you on the pod!

We really appreciate all of your feedback and and questions and we are looking forward to recording new episodes with some great guests in 2019. With a provincial and federal election expected within the next 10 months, it will be a busy year ahead!

And as always, we owe a huge thanks to our producer, Adam Rozenhart, who keeps us on track and makes each episode of the Daveberta Podcast sound so great.

Thank you for listening. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Daveberta Podcast is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB Financial.

You can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you find podcasts online. We would love to hear what you think of this episode, so feel free to leave a review where you download, comment on the blog, Facebook or Twitter or send us an email at podcast@daveberta.ca.