Calgary is in the headlines a lot these days, but today’s Daveberta newsletter doesn’t have anything to do with the busted water main that is threatening the city’s water supply (but I do hope to write more about that later).
Today’s newsletter focuses on two big political events happening in Alberta’s largest city this weekend: the announcement of the NDP leadership vote and the federal Conservative nomination vote in Calgary Signal Hill.
There are 84 days until the October 19, 2015 federal election. Here is the latest news from federal candidate nomination updates in ridings across Alberta.
Calgary-Confederation: Noel Keough has entered the NDP nomination contest. He will face Arti Modgill, Kirk Heuser and Marc Power. Dr. Keough is an assistant professor of urban design at the University of Calgary. Earlier this year Dr. Keough withdrew his name from the ballot as the Green Party candidate in Calgary-Klein to endorse provincial NDP candidate Craig Coolahan. Mr. Coolahan defeated Progressive Conservative MLA Kyle Fawcett by 40.2% to 26.6%.
Calgary-Heritage: Artist and country music singer Matt Masters Burgener is seeking the NDP nomination to run against Prime Minister Stephen Harper in southwest Calgary. Mr. Burgener is the son of former PC MLA Jocelyn Burgener, who represented Calgary-Currie from 1993 to 2001.
Calgary-Midnapore: Three candidates will contest the Liberal Party nomination scheduled for July 28. Candidates include Haley Brown, Harbaksh Sekhon and Tanya MacPherson. Mr. Sekhon was the Liberal candidate in Calgary-Hawkwood in the recent provincial election.
Edmonton-Mannng: Artist Aaron Paquette defeated community activist Jeanne Lehman, and University of Alberta english instructor Glenda Baker to win the NDP nomination.
Edmonton-Riverbend: Registered Nurse Ruth Alexander,Meheret Worku and University of Alberta Engineering Professor Brian Fleck is seeking the NDP nomination. Dr. Fleck was the provincial NDP candidate in Edmonton-Whitemud in 2004. Edmonton realtor Sandy Pon has entered the Conservative Party nomination contest triggered by the retirement of Member of Parliament James Rajotte. Also contesting the nomination are former PC MLA Matt Jeneroux and past Wildrose candidate Ian Crawford.
Edmonton-Strathcona: Donovan Eckstrom announced through a YouTube video that he will run for the Rhinoceros Party. In 2011, he was the Rhino Party candidate in the Peace River riding, where he earned 0.72% of the vote.
Edmonton-West: Former Edmonton Public School Trustee Heather MacKenzie defeated hotel manager Jim Hill to win the NDP nomination. Ms. Mackenzie represented west Edmonton’s Ward E on the public school board from 2010 to 2013. She has been endorsed by Catholic School Trustee Patricia Grell, former public trustee Dave Colburn and current public trustee and former NDP MLA Ray Martin.
Lakeland: Duane Zaraska has been nominated as the NDP candidate in this northeast Alberta rural riding. Mr. Zaraska is Vice-President of Region 2 of the Metis Nation of Alberta.
Red Deer-Lacombe: Registered Nurse Doug Hart is expected to enter the NDP nomination contest. As the NDP candidate in Lacombe-Ponoka in provincial election, Mr. Hart finished with 30.1% behind Wildrose candidate Ron Orr with 35.7%. Mr. Hart will face former provincial NDP candidate Katherine Swampy for the nomination.
Red Deer-Mountain View: Lawyer Gary Wanless is seeking the NDP nomination. Mr. Wanless was the lawyer for Red Deer lawyer Robert Goddard, who, in 1999, filed a defamation lawsuit against former MLA and federal party leader Stockwell Day for comments he made in a letter to a local newspaper. Mr. Wanless has withdrawn his name from the NDP nomination contest. Public School Trustee Dianne McCauley is seeking the NDP nomination.
St. Albert-Edmonton: Aretha Greatrix is challenging Darlene Malayko for the NDP nomination. Ms. Greatrix is the Chair of the Wicihitowin Circle of Shared Responsibility and Stewardship and a member of a working group of Mayor Don Iveson’s Poverty Elimination Task Force.
I have added these updates to the list of nominees and nomination candidates planning to run in Canada’s 2015 general election in Alberta. Please email david.cournoyer [at] gmail.com if there are additions to the list. Thank you.
After a campaign filled with accusations of dirty tricks and political mischief, arch conservative Member of Parliament Rob Anders lost the Conservative Party nomination in the new Calgary-Signal Hill riding. After 17-years and many attempts, Calgary’s political establishment finally managed to achieve their goal of denying Mr. Anders the party nomination he needs to win in the next election.
It highlights how divisive a figure Mr. Anders is that Calgarians rallied around and many outsiders (including myself) quietly cheered for his opponent, Ron Liepert. The former provincial cabinet minister’s record suggests that he is not a Red Tory, as some would expect, and perhaps not even a moderate conservative.
During his time in provincial politics, Mr. Liepert was known as a hard-nosed conservative bulldog who the media cast as the bully of the Alberta Legislature. He will fit in well in Stephen Harper‘s Ottawa.
To his credit, Mr. Liepert accomplished something that many other challengers failed to do. Mr. Anders had until yesterday succeeded in the past in besting high-profile challenges from former MLA Jocelyn Burgener, future premier Alison Redford and future MLA Donna Kennedy-Glans in nomination votes and defeated future Calgary mayor Dave Bronconnier and former Liberal MLA Frank Bruseker in general elections.
Unless he decides to seek a nomination in the neighouring Calgary-Rocky Ridge riding or elsewhere, Mr. Anders is now partially unleashed from his partisan obligations in the next campaign and could cause serious trouble for Mr. Liepert and his party before the 2015 election.
While Mr. Liepert may not prove to be a huge improvement from Mr. Anders, he and his team have certainly done Canadians a service by delivering Mr. Anders the political defeat he deserved.
I am sure I speak for many Canadians when I say: good riddance, Mr. Anders.
Here is the audio from a robocall placed by Mr. Anders’ campaign to Conservative Party members in Calgary-Signal Hill announcing Mr. Harper’s endorsement:
One of Canada’s most offensive hyper-Conservatives, Mr. Anders is facing a stiff nomination challenge in the new Calgary-Signal Hill from former Calgary MLA and provincial cabinet minister Ron Liepert.
Mr. Harper’s endorsement is sure to inflame supporters of Mr. Liepert, who will be quick to point out how unusual it is for leader of a party to openly endorse a candidate in a contested nomination race.
Moderate Tories have tried for 17 years to grab the nomination from Mr. Anders, sending high-profile candidates like Alison Redford, Jocelyn Burgener and Donna Kennedy-Glans to run against him, to no avail.
Fort McMurray-Athabasca
Unlike the raucous Conservative by-election nomination race in Macleod, the contest to choose the next Conservative candidate in northeastern Alberta’s Fort McMurray-Athabasca is a sleepy affair. As of this morning, only Fort McMurray lawyer Arlan Delisle and Athabasca County councillor David Yurdiga have entered the Conservative nomination race.
Today, March 24, is the deadline for candidates to enter the Conservative Party nomination contest and the cutoff for membership sales is March 31, 2014.
Edmonton-Centre
On March 26, Edmonton-Centre’s Lewis Cardinal is expected to be acclaimed as the first New Democratic Party candidate nominated for the 2015 federal general election. The nomination meeting will take place in the lobby of the Winspear Centre and will leader Thomas Mulcair and a handful of NDP MPs from across the country. The lobby of the Winspear is a memorable place for many local New Democrats, who remember when Jack Layton used the venue to host a large and energy-filled election campaign rally in 2008.
Edmonton-Mill Woods Varinder Bhullarhas announced that he will seek the Liberal Party nomination in the new Edmonton-Mill Woods riding.
Edmonton-Wetaskiwin
When Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont MP Mike Lake decided to seek the Conservative nomination in the new Edmonton-Wetaskiwin riding, he was taking a gamble. Mr. Lake, who lives a south Edmonton neighbourhood included in the new riding now facing the challenge of winning a nomination in a riding where 75% of the new territory is new ground. Well-respected in Edmonton, he is now facing a challenge from Leduc County mayorJohn Whaley and Edmonton police officer Mohinder Banga.
Lethbridge First-term MP Jim Hillyer is facing two challengers for the Conservative nomination in the new Lethbridge riding. With Mr. Hillyer cut-off from his base of support in the southern half of the former Lethbridge riding, Doug McArthur and Alex Hann hope to replace him as the Tory candidate.
Red Deer-Mountain View
MP Earl Dreeshen has announced his plans to seek the Conservative nomination in the new Red Deer-Mountain View riding. Mr. Dreeshen has represented the current Red Deer riding since 2008.
Will former provincial cabinet minister Ron Liepert make the jump into federal politics?
With the launch of the TimeToDoBetter.ca website today, rumours began to spread that the former two-term Calgary-West Progressive Conservative MLA turned consultant could challenge ultra-conservative Rob Anders for the Conservative Party nomination in the new Calgary Signal Hill riding.
Mr. Liepert’s candidacy would surely spark another proxy-war between the supporters of the provincial PC and Wildrose parties first seen in last year’s Calgary-Centre by-election.
This would not be the first time these two men have publicly sparred. In 2009, Mr. Liepert accused Mr. Anders of campaigning against him in the 2008 provincial election. Many of Mr. Anders associates have joinedDanielle Smith‘s Wildrose Party, including his close confident Andrew Constantinidis, who ran to replace Mr. Liepert in the 2012 provincial election.
While many of his supporters flocked to the new provincial party, some in the Wildrose establishment see Mr. Anders as a political liability whose ideology could challenge their attempt to rebrand as a moderate conservative alternative to the governing PCs.
In the conservative bloodbath that is sure to ensue if the rumours are true, I would expect nothing less than for Mr. Anders and conservative entertainer Ezra Levant to slice directly at Mr. Liepert’s jugular. They will be sure to remind their conservative base about Mr. Leipert’s record as the Health minister who created the centralized Alberta Health Services and the Finance minister who introduced deficit budgets and talked about increasing taxes.
Mr. Liepert’s ties to the provincial PC establishment date back to the Peter Lougheed era, when he worked at the Legislative Assembly and was appointed as a staff member at Alberta’s trade office in Los Angeles. He first ran for the PC Party in 1993, first in an unsuccessfully bid for the party nomination in Edmonton-Glenora and then as the PC candidate in Edmonton-Highlands-Beverly (in the election he was defeated by his Liberal opponent, Alice Hanson). He was first elected to the Assembly in 2004 as the PC MLA for Calgary-West.
Mr. Leipert is no slouch. In provincial politics, he thrived off the cut and thrust of partisan conflict. Whether he could win the Conservative Party nomination against Mr. Anders is yet to be seen.
Since he was first elected in 1997, Mr. Anders has been challenged by many high profile conservatives and easily defeated all of them in nomination battles.
At the age of 24, Mr. Anders, then a young Republican Party provocateur, returned to Canada to defeat nine other candidates to win his first Reform Party nomination in Calgary-West. His election coincided with the election of a group of young conservative Reformers, including Jason Kenney and Rahim Jaffer.
If he is challenged by Mr. Liepert in the upcoming nomination, it would not be the first time a high-profile politico who has attempted to end Mr. Anders career in Ottawa.
In 2004, future Progressive Conservative premier Alison Redford made her first jump into electoral politics with an unsuccessful nomination bid against Mr. Anders. Mr. Liepert was her campaign manager.
In 2000, he was unsuccessfully challenged by Calgary-Currie PC MLA Jocelyn Burgener (now a poet) and in 2009 he faced future Calgary-Varsity PC MLA Donna Kennedy-Glans. With the help of Mr. Levant, he nastily branded Ms. Kennedy-Glans as a “Liberal saboteur” and a “bizarre cross between a radical feminist and an apologist for a women-hating Arab dictatorship.”
Internal nomination contests are not the only area Mr. Anders has faced challengers. In the 1997 election, alderman and future mayor Dave Bronconnier led an unsuccessful campaign against him as the Liberal Party candidate. In the 2000 election, Mr. Anders defeated both former Calgary-North West Liberal MLA Frank Bruseker and PC candidate Jim Silye (a Reform Party MP for Calgary-Centre from 1993 to 1997). Wind energy entrepreneur Justin Thompson earned 29% as the Liberal candidate in the 2004 election, the highest of any of Mr. Anders challengers. And the 2006 and 2008 elections, former Calgary Board of Education trustee Jennifer Pollock carried the Liberal banner against Mr. Anders.
Despite these high-profile challengers from inside and outside his party, Mr. Anders has yet to face electoral defeat in the political arena.