Tag: Grande Prairie

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Alberta Politics

Nolan Dyck defeats Robin Coward to win UCP nomination in Grande Prairie

UCP MLA Nolan Dyck (source: Nolan Dyck / Facebook)
UCP MLA Nolan Dyck (source: Nolan Dyck / Facebook)

First-term United Conservative Party MLA Nolan Dyck defeated local business owner and separation supporter Robin Coward in the party’s candidate nomination vote in the Grande Prairie riding. Dyck won with 524 votes to Coward’s 162 votes at the September 1, 2026 nomination meeting.

This marks the second big win by an incumbent UCP MLA over an openly separatist supporting candidate in a UCP nomination since the party opened the candidate selection process this summer. Former MLA Jordan Walker defeated separatist organizer and former Wexit Alberta interim leader Kathy Flett by 253 to 136 votes in Sherwood Park last month.

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Alberta Politics

The Peace Country a hotspot for UCP nomination challenges

The Peace Country has turned into a hotspot of UCP MLAs facing challenges in party nominations ahead of the next provincial election. MLA Nolan Dyck is facing a challenge from Robin Coward in Grande Prairie at a nomination meeting on September 1 and MLA Dan Williams is facing a challenge from Dave Long in Peace River at a vote of local members on September 10 and 11.

Grande Prairie-Wapiti MLA Ron Wiebe was spared a nomination challenge when the UCP disqualified challenger Karen Peters, but the party has not officially announced his acclamation.

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

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Alberta Politics

UCP disqualifies Karen Peters from Grande Prairie-Wapiti nomination race, MLA Ron Wiebe expected to be acclaimed

Former UCP nomination candidate Karen Peters was disuqlified from the party’s candidate selection race in Grande Prairie-Wapiti (source: Vote Karen Peters / Facebook)
Former UCP nomination candidate Karen Peters was disuqlified from the party’s candidate selection race in Grande Prairie-Wapiti (source: Vote Karen Peters / Facebook)

Karen Peters has been disqualifed from the United Conservative Party nomination contest in Grande Prairie-Wapiti, making first-term MLA Ron Wiebe widely expected to be acclaimed to run for re-election in the 2027 provincial election.

Peters was the UCP constituency president in the northwest Alberta riding and has posted on her personal Facebook page about chemtrails and vaccination conspiracy theories. These posts raised eyebrows among political watchers but neither issue is grounds for disqualification in the current UCP.

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Alberta Politics

Alberta separatists duking it out for UCP candidate nominations in Grande Prairie and Sherwood Park

Premier Danielle Smith and MLAs Nolan Dyck and Ron Wiebe at the United Conservative Party’s 2024 leaders dinner fundraiser in Grande Prairie (source: Nolan Dyck / Facebook)
Premier Danielle Smith and MLAs Nolan Dyck and Ron Wiebe at the United Conservative Party’s 2024 leaders dinner fundraiser in Grande Prairie (source: Nolan Dyck / Facebook)

Two Grande Prairie MLAs and one former Edmonton-area MLA are facing nomination challenges as United Conservative Party members choose their candidates ahead of Alberta’s next provincial election.

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Alberta Politics Daveberta Podcast

In Session: Jeromy Farkas pushes back against Danielle Smith’s provincial property tax hikes — compares it to equalization

Premier Danielle Smith and Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas in December 2025 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)
Premier Danielle Smith and Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas in December 2025 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

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The Daveberta Podcast is back In Session

You’ve probably noticed I haven’t recorded an episode of the Daveberta Podcast in a while — so if you were missing listening to it, please know that I was missing recording it.

Starting today and over the next few weeks I’m going to record a series of short episodes in which I will share a few key things that I’m watching in Alberta politics in the week ahead and some other things that have caught my attention.

I decided to test this podcast series — which I’m calling Daveberta In Session — during the spring session of the Alberta Legislature. I’m planning to do this for eight or nine weeks until mid May when the Assembly breaks for the summer months — and then we’ll see where we go from there.

In this week’s episode, I discuss:

  • Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas’ threat to hold a municipal referendum on provincial property tax increases that he compared to equalization.
  • NDP MLA Heather Sweet’s private members’ bill to improve whistleblower laws for health care workers.
  • the storm of misinformation and disinformation that is barrelling towards us as Albertans are faced with ten or eleven referendum questions on October 19, 2026.

Listen to this episode of the podcast on the Daveberta Substack.

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Alberta Politics

Alberta Liberals rode the Reform Party MLA recall wave

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

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

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

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

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Alberta Politics

Premier Aberhart targeted with MLA recall in Okotoks-High River

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

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

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Alberta Politics

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

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

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Alberta Politics

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

William Aberhart was Premier of Alberta from 1935 to 1943.
William Aberhart was Premier of Alberta from 1935 to 1943.

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

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

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

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

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Alberta Politics

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

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

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

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

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

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

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Alberta Politics

10 things I’m watching in the Alberta Legislature this spring

The Rotunda of the Alberta Legislature Building ahead of the provincial budget announcement in February 2024 (photo credit: Dave Cournoyer)
The Rotunda of the Alberta Legislature Building ahead of the provincial budget announcement in February 2024 (photo credit: Dave Cournoyer)

Political scandals, resignations, budget cuts, strikes and coal mining – Alberta politics is never boring

The familiar voice of Speaker Nathan Cooper calling out “order!” and “the honourable member for…” will once again echo through the hallowed halls of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly when MLAs return to Edmonton for the start of the spring session today.

Government House Leader Joseph Schow released the United Conservative Party government’s legislative agenda for the session, which I will write about over the next few weeks, but here is a broader overview of what I’m watching as MLAs return to the Legislature:

1. Private surgical contracts scandal

Some people are calling it the Dodgy Contracts Scandal and the opposition NDP have gone all in on naming it CorruptCare, but whatever you are calling this political scandal there is no doubt it will be front and centre in this legislative session.

This morning’s news that Minister of Infrastructure Peter Guthrie is resigning from cabinet in protest of the scandal and how Premier Danielle Smith has handled it is sure to add fuel to the political fire.

“I’m not going to stand by and see potential corruption exist within government and be a part of that,” Guthrie is reported to have said. He plans to sit in the Legislature as a UCP MLA, but whether Smith wants him to remain in the government caucus is unclear (and unlikely).

Cracks in UCP cabinet unity started to show when Guthrie’s proposal to remove Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange from her current cabinet post was leaked to the media, though it is unclear who leaked it.

Smith and LaGrange tried to change the channel on the scandal at a press conference last week by pinning the blame on Alberta Health Services procurement staff, but an almost never-ending series of scoops from Globe & Mail investigative reporters Carrie Tait and Alanna Smith have undermined the UCP government’s efforts to spin their way out of the political storm.

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There continues to be chatter in political circles about how unhappy some cabinet ministers are about the allegations levelled by former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos and how Smith has responded, meaning there is a chance more UCP internal drama will spill out into public in the coming weeks.

Expect the NDP opposition, with the protections of parliamentary privilege, to spend a lot of time questioning and prodding UCP cabinet ministers about this scandal during Question Period.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Many subscribers know that I am tracking candidates running for party nominations in Alberta ahead of the upcoming federal election. The list of candidates is available for everyone to read but paid subscribers get extra information about the nomination contests and candidates.

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Alberta Politics

Former Wildrose leader Paul Hinman’s Wildrose Loyalty Coalition names 54 candidates in Alberta’s election

Wildrose MLA Paul Hinman and Wildrose leader Danielle Smith in 2010. (source: Dave Cournoyer)

The separatist Wildrose Loyalty Coalition was only recognized as a political party by Elections Alberta last week and this weekend the right-wing splinter party registered a slate of 54 candidates in ridings across Alberta.

The right-wing slate includes leader Paul Hinman, who is running in Taber-Warner, an area he represented as an Alberta Alliance and Wildrose Alliance MLA from 2004 to 2008.

The Wildrose Loyalty Coalition was formed by Hinman after he was removed as leader of the Wildrose Independence Party. Hinman was leader of the Wildrose Alliance from its creation in 2008 until 2009, when Danielle Smith was chosen as leader.

Meanwhile, the formerly-Hinman-led Wildrose Independence Party has nominated 2 candidates, including now-leader Jeevan Mangat in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake.

The other right-wing separatist party, the Independence Party, has 11 candidates nominated, including recently named Cody Ray Both in Cypress-Medicine Hat, David Braun in Grande Prairie, Vicky Bayford in Red Deer-North, Kerry Lambert in Chestermere-Strathmore, and Frank Kast in Taber-Warner. Kast replaces previously nominated candidate Brent Ginther.

Recently ousted Independence Party leader Pastor Artur Pawlowski announced last week that he plans to create a new party called the Solidarity Movement of Alberta.

I’m planning to write a more in-depth piece about Alberta’s cottage industry of right-wing political parties on the Daveberta Substack next week.

More nominations

Other smaller parties have also announced new candidates:

The Alberta Party nominated Darrell Dunn in Vermilion-Lloydminster-Vegreville, Wayne Jackson in Calgary-Beddington, and Preston Mildenberger in Grande Prairie.

The Green Party has nominated Christopher Khan in Edmonton-Meadows, David Clarke in Edmonton-City Centre, Derek Thompson in Edmonton-Manning, Lane Robson in Calgary-Currie, Shane Diederich in Grande Prairie. Michelle Overwater Giles in Airdrie-Cochrane, Justin Fuss in Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin, and Galloway Hiatt in West Yellowhead.

Newly registered Independent candidates include Andrej Gudanowski in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview, Nancy O’Neill in Lesser Slave Lake, Larry Heather in Calgary-Acadia, and disqualified UCP candidate Zulkifl Mujahid in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo.

Total Nominated candidates

Here are the total nominated candidates running in Alberta’s provincial election:

  • United Conservative Party: 87/87
  • Alberta NDP: 87/87
  • Wildrose Loyalty Coalition 53/87
  • Green Party: 39/87
  • Alberta Party: 21/87
  • Liberal Party: 12/87
  • Independence Party: 11/87
  • Advantage Party: 3/87
  • Communist Party: 3/87
  • Wildrose Independence Party: 2/87
  • Buffalo Party 1/87
  • Pro-Life Political Association: 1/87

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Daveberta Substack Podcast Alberta Politics Election Dave CournoyerI’m continuing to post candidate nomination updates on this website but subscribe to the Daveberta Substack to read my latest Alberta election coverage. My most recent piece dives into how the United Conservative Party went from being a political juggernaut in 2019 to being neck-and-neck with the Alberta NDP in 2023.

I am planning to share most of my writing for the upcoming Alberta election on Substack, so don’t miss out!

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Alberta Party and Liberals nominate new election candidates, Buffalo Party names first ever candidate

(Photo credit: Daniel Mayer

With 33 days left until Election Day, the United Conservative Party has named candidates in all 87 ridings and the Alberta NDP is only four away from completing its slate.

Although their nomination meetings are still scheduled on the NDP website, Elections Alberta’s website shows the NDP have endorsed Tanika Chaisson in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, Kevin McLean in Grande Prairie, Harry Singh in Drayton Valley-Devon and Jessica Hallam in Highwood.

The NDP is expected to have candidates nominated in Cardston-Siksika, Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, Grande Prairie-Wapiti and Taber-Warner by April 30. The four are all considered extremely safe UCP ridings, which is probably why the NDP is in no rush to fill those spots.

Meanwhile, some of the smaller parties are continuing to name candidates. 

The Alberta Party now has a slate of 16 with the addition of three more candidates to its roster:

  • Jason Avramenko is running in Calgary-Currie. He ran for the Alberta Party in Chestermere-Strathmore in the 2019 election.
  • Glenn Andersen is running in Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul. Anderson was mayor of St. Paul from 2007 to 2017 and ran for the Alberta Party in the same riding in 2019. He also ran for the PC Party nomination in the former Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills riding in 2015.
  • Braham Luddu is running in Lethbridge-West. He ran for the Alberta Party in Calgary-Cross in the last election.

The Liberal Party is now up to 11 candidates after naming Zarnab Zafar in Calgary-Beddington, Leila Keith in Calgary-Currie, and Dylin Hauser in Livingstone-Macleod. Keith ran in Calgary-South East and Hauser ran in Livingstone-Macleod in 2019. 

The Buffalo Party has nominated Andrew Jacobson in Edmonton-Strathcona. Jacobson is the first candidate nominated to run in an election under the Buffalo banner since the party’s creation in February 2022.

Brooklyn Biegel has been named as the Independence Party candidate in Grande Prairie-Wapiti.

Conrad Nunweiler is running as an Independent separatist candidate in Peace River.

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Daveberta Substack Podcast Alberta Politics Election Dave CournoyerSubscribe to the Daveberta Substack to read my latest Alberta election coverage, including what I’ve learned after years of tracking election candidate nominations. I am planning to share most of my writing for the upcoming Alberta election on Substack.

Most of my writing during the election will be accessible to all subscribers but to get full access to election extras (like this and this) and future episodes of the Daveberta Podcast (like the new episode coming out soon where I talk about public education with Edmonton Public School Board chairperson Trisha Estabrooks) please consider signing up for a paid subscription. Thank you!

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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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Daveberta Substack Podcast Alberta Politics Election Dave CournoyerIf you haven’t already, please subscribe to the Daveberta Substack. I am planning to share most of my writing for the upcoming Alberta election on Substack.

Most of my writing during the election will be accessible to all subscribers but to get full access to election extras and future episodes of the Daveberta Podcast, please consider signing up for a paid subscription. Thanks!

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UCP slate at 86 candidates with appointees in Edmonton-South, Lethbridge-West and Grande Prairie-Wapiti

Premier Danielle Smith (source: Government of Alberta / Flickr)
Premier Danielle Smith (source: Government of Alberta / Flickr)

The United Conservative Party announced the appointments of three candidates and the acclamation of another, filling the party’s slate to 86 candidates in 87 ridings.

Here are the candidates appointed by Premier Danielle Smith through her powers allowed by the UCP constitution:

  • Edmonton-South: Joseph Angeles is a lawyer who previously ran for the UCP nomination in Edmonton-West Henday. He replaces Tunde Obasan, who withdrew his candidacy last week.
  • Lethbridge-West: Cheryl Seaborn is a Registered Nurse and former president of the UCP association in the riding. She replaces Torry Tanner who won the UCP nomination last month but resigned shortly after when a video surfaced of her claiming young children were being to exposed pornography in schools and teachers were hiding their students’ gender reassignments from parents. 
  • Grande Prairie-Wapiti: Endorsed by the local UCP constituency board of directors, Ron Wiebe will succeed Travis Toews as the UCP candidate in the riding.

And the acclamation: 

Edmonton-Glenora: Melissa Crane is a ministerial press secretary and ran for the UCP nomination in St. Albert in December 2022.

That leaves the UCP one short of a full slate. The UCP nomination in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood closes on April 13. Lieberson Pang is seeking the nomination. 

NDP sets nomination dates

The Alberta NDP have candidates nominated in 78 of 87 ridings and plan to hold nomination meetings to nominate the remainder of the slate before the election is called.

Vegreville Town Councillor Taneen Rudyk is acclaimed in Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville and the NDP have scheduled nomination meetings in Maskwacis-Wetaskwin on April 22 (Samson Cree Band Councillor Katherine Swampy is the only approved candidate at the moment) and Grande Prairie on April 30.

UPDATE: Former Grande Prairie city councillor Kevin McLean is running for the NDP nomination in that riding. McLean served on city council from 2010 to 2017 and placed second in the 2022 municipal by-election. He ran for the Liberal Party in the former Grande Prairie-Smoky riding in the 2012 and 2015 provincial elections and in St. Albert in the 2019 election.

Kevin McLean NDP Grande Prairie Nomination
Former Grande Prairie city councillor Kevin McLean’s statement on Facebook,

The ridings without nominated NDP candidates or scheduled nomination meetings are Cardston-Siksika, Drayton Valley-Devon, Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, Grande Prairie-Wapiti, Highwood and Taber-Warner.

Other nomination news

  • Jason McKee is running for the Green Party in Calgary-West.
  • Alberta Party leader Barry Morishita confirmed today in an email to supporters that he will run in the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding in the next election.

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Daveberta Substack Podcast Alberta Politics Election Dave CournoyerA big thank you to the more than 2,000 people who have subscribed to the Daveberta Substack (and more than 100 who signed up for paid subscriptions!).

Check out my latest column about Premier Danielle Smith refusing to answer questions about her 11-minute phone call with Pastor Artur Pawlowski. Look for the first of many election extra special emails from the Daveberta Substack in your inbox early next week.

Happy Easter to all my readers. I will be taking some time to relax and enjoy the first real weekend of spring, so unless something big happens I’ll be back with more candidate nomination updates next week.

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