Tag: Jagmeet Singh

Categories
Alberta Politics

Liberals win the election but Alberta stays Conservative blue

Pierre Poilievre delivers his election night concession speech to supporters (screenshot: Conservative Party of Canada / Facebook)
Pierre Poilievre delivers his election night concession speech to supporters (screenshot: Conservative Party of Canada / Facebook)

Conservatives win 34 of 37 seats, Liberals win 2, NDP 1

One of Daveberta’s first rules of Alberta politics is to never underestimate the Conservatives, and that rule appears to have held true last night as votes in the federal election were counted across the province.

At the time I am publishing this, Conservative Party candidates are elected in 34 of 37 ridings in Alberta. This makes them a significant block in what will be a 144 MP Conservative Opposition in Ottawa. This is a larger Conservative caucus than existed before this election but falls far short of the huge majority government the Conservatives were expecting Pierre Poilievre would lead them to only a few months ago. The Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Mark Carney were re-elected with 168 seats, including two in Alberta.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

The final pitch: Who will be the big election winners in Calgary and Edmonton?

Liberal Party leader Mark Carney
Liberal Party leader Mark Carney

Jagmeet Singh, Pierre Poilievre, and maybe Mark Carney make final stops in Alberta

Canada’s federal election is four days away and most polls are pointing to a big national victory for Mark Carney’s Liberal Party. While the national polls show the gap between Carney’s party and Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives slightly tightening, the Liberal lead in Ontario and Atlantic Canada looks insurmountable unless something drastic happens before April 28.

While most of Alberta’s federal ridings will be solidly Conservative blue on election night, the province’s two biggest cities could produce some interesting results. I haven’t seen any actual riding-level polls, which are both expensive and difficult to conduct, but most national polls show the Liberals with around 30 percent support in Alberta. This would represent the largest percentage of votes for the federal Liberals in Alberta since 1968.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Vote-splitting in Edmonton Griesbach

A campaign mailer from NDP candidate Blake Desjarlais in Edmonton Griesbach (source: Dave Cournoyer)
A campaign mailer from NDP candidate Blake Desjarlais in Edmonton Griesbach (source: Dave Cournoyer)

The Liberal surge in the national polls, which shows the Liberals jumping up to around 30 percent support in Alberta in some polls (the party’s highest levels of support in this province in almost sixty years), has led to a lot of discussion in this campaign about vote-splitting.

“Stop the Split!” was the key message of a recent pamphlet that Blake Desjarlais’ campaign mailed to voters in the riding. The NDP campaign’s message is “Only Blake Desjarlais can defeat Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in Edmonton Griesbach.” The pamphlet doesn’t mention Kerry Diotte, which is interesting, and points out that in the last election the NDP earned 40 percent of the vote, the Conservatives won 37 percent and the Liberals finished third with 13 percent in the riding.

Discussions about vote-splitting in Edmonton, which usually revolve around defeating Conservative candidates, almost always devolve into cringeworthy arguments between Liberal and NDP partisans – which is why I try to avoid them.

Daveberta readers are smart people and it’s not my place to tell you how to vote. The furthest I’ll wade into the vote-splitting debate in my riding today is to say that it’s true that the Liberals are doing very well in the national polls and it’s also true that Desjarlais’ campaign is the better organized of the two main non-Conservative candidates in Edmonton Griesbach.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Who’s going to win in Edmonton Griesbach?

Edmonton Griesbach NDP candidate Blake Desjarlais snaps a selfie with former Alberta premier Rachel Notley, and NDP MLAs Janis Irwin and Brooks Arcand-Paul (source: Blake Desjarlais / Instagram)
Edmonton Griesbach NDP candidate Blake Desjarlais snaps a selfie with former Alberta premier Rachel Notley, and NDP MLAs Janis Irwin and Brooks Arcand-Paul (source: Blake Desjarlais / Instagram)

NDP MP Blake Desjarlais faces former Conservative MP Kerry Diotte and Mark Carney’s red wave

As Canada’s federal election enters its final week, I am taking a closer look at the race in the Edmonton Griesbach riding. It’s one of a surprisingly large handful of Alberta ridings that are considered competitive in this election and it also happens to be the riding I live and vote in.

The east central/north side Edmonton riding was where the NDP picked up their second seat in Alberta in the 2021 federal election when New Democrat Blake Desjarlais defeated two-term Conservative MP Kerry Diotte. This year’s election is a rematch between the two candidates but, despite traditionally being a blue-orange race, the Liberal Party’s surge could put that party’s candidate in the mix.

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Alberta boys Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney return to the province of their youths

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre and former Prime Minister Stephen Harper at an election rally in Edmonton on April 7, 2025 (source: Pierre Poilievre / Facebook)
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre and former Prime Minister Stephen Harper at an election rally in Edmonton on April 7, 2025 (source: Pierre Poilievre / Facebook)

It was Alberta Week in Canada’s federal election campaign

It was Alberta Week in the federal election campaign with the two party leaders who grew up in the western province returning to wave their party flags and rally supporters.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Preston Manning enters the chat

Manning Centre founder and former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning (Photo credit: David J. Climenhaga).
Manning Centre founder and former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning (Photo credit: David J. Climenhaga).

Conservative movement grandfather emerges from political retirement with grumpy separatist threats

Preston Manning emerged from political retirement to insert himself into the federal election mix by writing an op-ed in the Globe & Mail claiming that Liberal Party leader Mark Carney poses a threat to national unity. Manning’s argument triangulates with Premier Danielle Smith’s threats that a re-elected Liberal government would lead to an “unprecedented national unity crisis” – claims that are likely not very helpful for Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.

Manning is undoubtably frustrated by the Liberal Party’s resurgence in public support but threatening that the country will be torn apart if the Conservatives don’t win the election is a shameful bookend to his long and fascinating career in Albertan and Canadian politics.

But who’s Preston?

Manning is probably a familiar name to a lot of Daveberta readers but, now that he’s been out of elected office for more than two decades, there’s a good chance that even a few keen politician watchers in 2025 aren’t too familiar with him.

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith threatens a national unity crisis if Canadians re-elect Mark Carney’s Liberals

Liberal Party leader Mark Carney on the campaign trail (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)
Liberal Party leader Mark Carney on the campaign trail (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)

UCP MLA writes that Canada is broken and Team Canada is a “fake team”

Mark Carney has only been Prime Minister of Canada for 17 days but last week he may have made one of the most consequential statements by a Canadian political leader in recent memory.

“The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” Carney said in response to American President Donald Trump’s almost daily threats against Canada.

Trump backed down on his threats last week to level 25 percent tariffs against the Canadian automobile manufacturing industry, probably temporarily, after Carney announced retaliatory tariffs, but this week could feature Trump’s next big intervention in a federal election campaign where he has become the biggest villain. April 2 is what the Trump is calling “Liberation Day.” It’s the day he says he plans to level more huge tariffs on products being imported into the US.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

What to make of Mark Carney’s meeting with Danielle Smith

Premier Danielle Smith speaks to supporters at the United Conservative Party Leader’s Dinner fundraiser in Edmonton on March 19, 2025 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)
Premier Danielle Smith speaks to supporters at the United Conservative Party Leader’s Dinner fundraiser in Edmonton on March 19, 2025 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Liberal PM expected to call federal election on Sunday for an April 28 or May 5 vote

Prime Minster Mark Carney was in Edmonton yesterday for his first visit since winning the Liberal Party leadership and becoming leader of the government. Carney met with Premier Danielle Smith, who re-endorsed Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre the night before at a sold out Leader’s Dinner fundraiser in the capital city.

The Prime Minister and Premier did not make themselves available to speak with the media after the meeting and there were no photos taken of the two politicians together, which is probably an indication of how well we can expect the meeting went (Smith’s office later posted a photo of her meeting with Ambassador of Austria Andreas Rendl, which also gives us an idea of where the Prime Minister fits in her pecking order).

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

It’s all about the UCP leadership review

Minister of Public Safety Mike Ellis and Premier Danielle Smith respond to questions about politicians accepting tickets to NHL playoff games (source: Screenshot from YourAlberta / YouTube)
Minister of Public Safety Mike Ellis and Premier Danielle Smith respond to questions about politicians accepting tickets to NHL playoff games (source: Screenshot from YourAlberta / YouTube)

Protected rights for the unvaccinated and tax cuts aimed at appeasing unruly UCP members ahead of November vote

Summer is normally a time when politics cools down and politicians hit the BBQ circuit, but there’s something smelly in the air and it’s not just the wildfire smoke that Albertans have become accustomed to being part of our increasingly hot summers.

A political scandal surrounding Premier Danielle Smith and senior United Conservative Party cabinet ministers accepting tickets to skybox seats during the Edmonton Oilers NHL playoff run has erupted. Globe & Mail journalist Carrie Tait first broke the story that Smith and some UCP cabinet ministers had accepted box seat tickets to NHL playoff hockey games from private corporations that have close connections to or are lobbying the Alberta government.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Nenshi wins Alberta NDP leadership vote in a landslide victory

Rachel Notley and Naheed Nenshi at the announcement of the NDP leadership vote results (source: Alberta NDP / YouTube)
Rachel Notley and Naheed Nenshi at the announcement of the NDP leadership vote results (source: Alberta NDP / YouTube)

Former Calgary mayor wins with a record 62,746 votes on the first ballot

Naheed Nenshi is the new leader of the Alberta NDP. The former Calgary mayor won with a huge landslide victory on the first ballot.

Here are the results of the NDP leadership vote:

  1. Naheed Nenshi: 62,746 (86%)
  2. Kathleen Ganley: 5,899 (8%)
  3. Sarah Hoffman: 3,063 (4%)
  4. Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse: 1,222 (2%)

Nenshi’s three-terms as mayor of Alberta’s largest city have made him one of the province’s most recognizable politicians. That name recognition and his history of electoral success in Calgary almost certainly helped carry him to his landslide first place finish in the race to replace Rachel Notley.

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Alberta NDP name change pushed by group led by former MLA

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

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith hosts Alberta’s largest call-in talk show: the United Conservative Party

Premier Danielle Smith speaks to delegates at the 2023 United Conservative Party annual general meeting in Calgary (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)
Premier Danielle Smith speaks to delegates at the 2023 United Conservative Party annual general meeting in Calgary (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Any good talk radio host understands that the show doesn’t belong to the host, it belongs to the listeners. And if this past weekend’s annual general meeting is any indication, talk radio host-turned-Premier Danielle Smith might be taking a similar approach as leader of the United Conservative Party.

Aside from a nod to protecting parental rights during her keynote speech, Smith largely stood out of the way as more than 3,700 delegates packed into Calgary’s BMO Centre to vote on party policy and elect a new executive board. It was an impressive crowd and probably the largest provincial political convention in Alberta’s history.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

What UCP cabinet minister mandate letters say about the government’s agenda

AI generated images of the “Alberta Legislature Building on the moon.” (source: DALL-E mini)
AI generated images of the “Alberta Legislature Building on the moon.” (source: DALL-E mini)

Kind of like Aunt Martha’s fruitcake. It keeps coming back at you year after year.

Over the summer months, while most Albertans were focusing on navigating wildfire smoke and intense heat, the provincial government released a steady stream of mandate letters from Premier Danielle Smith to her cabinet ministers.

The mandate letters are meant to provide direction from the Premier to the Ministers on where the departments they are responsible for fit in the government’s agenda.

Publicly releasing ministerial mandate letters provides a certain level of transparency on the surface but the stream of press releases, as conservative thinker Ken Boessenkool mused last year, “turns an important governing process into a communications and stakeholder exercise.”

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith is no fan of wind and solar power

Danielle Smith and Rob Anderson in the Media Room at the Alberta Legislature in 2010 (Source: Dave Cournoyer)..
Danielle Smith and Rob Anderson in the Media Room at the Alberta Legislature in 2010 (Source: Dave Cournoyer).

As a columnist, Smith was a harsh critic of “unreliable” renewable energy

The United Conservative Party government’s decision to impose an immediate 7-month moratorium on all new major wind and solar energy projects in Alberta came as a surprise to many political watchers.

The drastic decision was sudden and it wasn’t featured in any of the UCP’s campaign promises in the election held only 75 days ago. But anyone who has paid close attention to now-Premier Danielle Smith’s newspaper and radio commentary knows she has not hidden her deeply critical and skeptical views of wind and solar power.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras.

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics Daveberta Podcast

Episode 78: Orange and Red in a Sea of Blue

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Brad Lafortune joins Dave Cournoyer on the Daveberta Podcast to discuss the federal election results in Alberta, including NDP candidate Blake Desjarlais‘ spectacular win over Kerry Diotte in Edmonton-Griesbach, and the ongoing troubles in the United Conservative Party and how many more days Jason Kenney might have as leader.

We also discuss the future of childcare and early childhood education in Alberta now that Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have formed government after signing $10/day childcare agreements with more than half of Canada’s provinces.

Brad Lafortune is the Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta.

The Daveberta Podcast is hosted by Dave Cournoyer and produced by Adam Rozenhart.

The Daveberta Podcast is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network: Locally grown. Community supported.

You can listen and subscribe to the Daveberta Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find podcasts online. We love feedback from our listeners, so let us know what you think of this episode and leave a review where you download.

 

Email