Tag: Kyle Kasawski

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Alberta Politics

Is Naheed Nenshi ready to be the next Premier of Alberta?

Flashy new NDP ad gives a glimpse into what the NDP wants to fight for in the next election

Naheed Nenshi is ready. That’s the main message of a new campaign ad released by the Alberta New Democrats last week. The video reintroduces Nenshi to Albertans and tries to lay out some clear contrasts between his party and Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party.

The new ad is reportedly the result of the Alberta NDP’s new relationship with the US-based Fight Agency, the political consultants behind Zohran Mamdani’s wildly successful campaign to become the next Mayor of New York City. And it’s an impressive ad.

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

Where is Nenshi? He’s in the Legislature.

One of the biggest questions I get asked about Alberta politics these days is “where is Nenshi?”

Well, former mayor of Calgary and current Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi now has a seat in the Assembly and will be spending some time getting acquainted with what levers of the legislative process are available to opposition leaders.

While there will be a temptation to put extra effort into sparring with Smith and scoring points in Question Period, the NDP need to reintroduce a curiously absent Nenshi to Albertans and figure out what their pitch is to the province’s voters — and then get out there and sell it.

Nenshi’s decision to shuffle Sherwood Park MLA Kyle Kasawski into the role of Shadow Minister for Affordability and Utilities this week is a good start.

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

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Alberta Politics

Evasive maneuvers! Alberta politics on a collision course!

A large rally of around 30,000 striking teachers gathered outside the Legislature to welcome MLAs back for the fall session on October 23 (source: @atalocal8 / Instagram)
A large rally of around 30,000 striking teachers gathered outside the Legislature to welcome MLAs back for the fall session on October 23 (source: @atalocal8 / Instagram)

A loud crowd of 30,000 teachers and their supporters welcomed MLAs back to the Legislature

When MLAs returned to the Legislature yesterday for the Speech from the Throne and the start of the fall session they were welcomed back by a very large and very loud crowd of around 30,000 Alberta teachers.

More than 51,000 teachers from public, Catholic, and Francophone schools across the province have been on strike since October 6 with workload challenges being their biggest issue, namely class sizes and per-student funding.

Instead of getting back to the bargaining table to negotiate a deal that could satisfy both the government and teachers, Premier Danielle Smith has signalled her government’s plans to fasttrack back to work legislation — and there is wide speculation that it could use the constitutional sledgehammer known as the Notwithstanding Clause to block any court challenges of the law.

The Order Papers for next week shows that Minister of Finance Nate Horner will soon introduce Bill 2: Back to School Act along with motions to severely limit debate at all stages of reading. With a 6 vote majority in the Legislature, UCP MLAs should have no problem pushing it through swiftly, though the opposition NDP can be expected to try its best to delay the passage of the bill.

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Alberta Politics

UCP and NDP Presidents Rob Smith and Bill Tonita running in municipal elections

Bill Tonita (centre) with fellow NDP candidates Chantal Saramaga-McKenzie (left) and Karen Shaw (right) during the 2023 provincial election. (source: Bill Tonita / Facebook)
Bill Tonita (centre) with fellow NDP candidates Chantal Saramaga-McKenzie (left) and Karen Shaw (right) during the 2023 provincial election. (source: Bill Tonita / Facebook)

The introduction of municipal political parties in Calgary and Edmonton has generated a lot of confusion and consternation in this election but lost in the noise of the big city debate is that the presidents of Alberta’s two main provincial political parties are on ballots in county elections outside urban centres.

United Conservative Party President Rob Smith is running as a candidate in Mountain View County council’s Division 6 and Alberta NDP President Bill Tonita is running for re-election in Strathcona County’s Ward 4.

Also, big city mayoral candidates Andrew Knack and Jeromy Farkas got the gift every election candidate in Alberta dreams of in the final stretch of the campaign: a Janet Brown poll showing you’re in the lead.

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Alberta Politics

Janis Irwin voted Best Alberta MLA for fifth year in a row

Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood MLA Janis Irwin (source: Janis Irwin / Facebook)
Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood MLA Janis Irwin (source: Janis Irwin / Facebook)

Justice Minister Mickey Amery voted Best Cabinet Minister of 2024

With all the votes counted, the winners of the Best of Alberta Politics 2024 Survey have been chosen. The eighth annual survey is all about celebrating the best in Alberta politics. The winners were selected from a week-long vote for the top two choices in each category nominated by Daveberta subscribers.

Read all about the winners on the Daveberta Substack.

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Alberta Politics

Vote for the Best of Alberta Politics in 2024!

The 2024 Best of Alberta Politics finalists. Janis Irwin, Searle Turton, Rakhi Pancholi, Mickey Amery, Todd Loewen, Kathleen Ganley, Jennifer Johnson, Kyle Kasawski (left to right)
The 2024 Best of Alberta Politics finalists. Janis Irwin, Searle Turton, Rakhi Pancholi, Mickey Amery, Todd Loewen, Kathleen Ganley, Jennifer Johnson, Kyle Kasawski (left to right)

Vote for this year’s best MLA, cabinet minister, MLA to watch, municipal leader and more

With hundreds of names submitted to the 2024 Best of Alberta Politics Survey, your nominations have been sorted and the top two choices have been identified in all seven categories.

Voting in the eighth annual survey is now open to the nearly 4,600 Daveberta subscribers (free and paid) until Sunday, December 1 at 8:00 p.m. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, December 3.

Vote in the 2024 Best of Alberta Politics Survey

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Alberta Politics

Controlling Everything Everywhere All At Once

Sherwood Park MLA Kyle Kasawski (source: Kyle Kasawski / Facebook)
Sherwood Park MLA Kyle Kasawski (source: Kyle Kasawski / Facebook)

NDP’s Oscar-winning film inspired catch phrase captures the UCP moment in Alberta politics

“Danielle Smith wants to control everything, everywhere, all at once…”

In the middle of the weekly chaos of Alberta politics, a catch phrase inspired by an Academy Award winning film has captured one of the driving themes of Alberta politics today.

“Danielle Smith wants to control everything. Pensions, police, health care, schools, local councils. Any dollar spent anywhere in the province, and any decision made by anyone. Everything,” NDP MLA Kyle Kasawski first said in an April 29 press release.

Kasawski is the rookie MLA from Sherwood Park who became the opposition’s sole Municipal Affairs critic when co-critic Sarah Hoffman joined the NDP leadership race earlier this year.

While Municipal Affairs can sometimes be a sleepy file, on both the ministerial and critic side, it has been front and centre over the past month as Premier Danielle Smith and Minister Ric McIver rein in municipal and university funding agreements with the federal government and expand the provincial cabinet’s power to fire locally elected officials and overturn municipal bylaws.

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Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith’s UCP comes down hard on Alberta’s municipalities

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith

Changes will send chills through municipal councils and create a lot of grief for MLAs

One of my goals when I moved Daveberta over to this Substack newsletter in 2022 was to take a different approach to writing about Alberta politics. For 17 years I published, sometimes, almost daily commentary on Alberta politics. Now, being on this site gives me a chance to take a breath, observe, and not feel like I need to rush analysis of what’s happening on our province’s political scene.

With that in mind, it has been very interesting to watch over the past week how Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government has unrolled its suite of changes to municipal governance and local election laws, and responded to the loud backlash from municipal leaders.

The UCP has spent a lot of political capital and government resources in its ongoing jurisdictional fights with the federal Liberal government in Ottawa, but Smith’s sovereignty agenda isn’t limited to challenging the powers of the federal government. This week’s Bill 20, Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act and last month’s Bill 18, Provincial Priorities Act are aimed at removing decision making powers from Alberta’s locally elected leaders and increasing the powers of the provincial government.

The drastic changes to the Local Authorities Election Act and the Municipal Government Act introduced by Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver gives the provincial government sweeping powers to overturn municipal bylaws and increased powers to remove locally elected municipal mayors, councillors, and school board trustees.

Changes also include legalizing corporate and union donations to municipal candidates and introducing a formal structure for political parties in municipal elections in Calgary and Edmonton.

It’s hard to imagine how most of these changes would improve municipal government or municipal elections, or that there is even broad support for some of these changes (there isn’t).

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Alberta Politics

Vote for the Best of Alberta Politics in 2023

You shared your picks. It’s now time to vote for the top 3.

With more than a thousand submissions made in the annual Best of Alberta Politics survey, your choices have been sorted and you can now vote for the top 3 choices in each category.

Voting for the top 3 will be open until Dec. 17 at 8:00 p.m. and the winners will be announced on December 19.

This is the seventh annual edition of this survey and it is all about celebrating the best in Alberta politics, so if there is a person who doesn’t fit neatly into any of these categories who deserves some kudos, please send me an email and let me know.

Thank you and good luck.

Dave

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Alberta Politics

Nate Horner’s hooked on a pension feeling

Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner (photography by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta)
Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner (photography by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta)

More confusing messaging about the Alberta Pension Plan

As Alberta’s United Conservative Party government continues its big $7 million advertising push to convince Albertans to leave the Canada Pension Plan and start a separate Alberta Pension Plan, Finance Minister Nate Horner told CTV’s Vassy Kapelos that the province’s decision on whether or not to hold a referendum on leaving the CPP will be based on a “high level feeling from many sources.”

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Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith enjoys a honeymoon summer

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith at the Taber Corn Fest in August 2023 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith at the Taber Corn Fest in August 2023 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

It’s been a quiet, but not boring, post-election summer in Alberta

Conventional wisdom tells us that the summer months are a quiet and boring time in politics, but not so in Alberta. It’s not often there is an actual quiet and boring political summer in this province.

Two summers ago was the Best Summer Ever disaster and the summer before that was the first COVID-19 summer. Before that was the Summer of Repeal.

And last summer, one of the most unexpected political comebacks happened right before our eyes. Former Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith, who had been written off by most political watchers after her disastrous decision to cross the floor in 2014, defined the summer of 2022 and the United Conservative Party leadership vote that followed.

But this year’s political summer was a fairly quiet, albeit incredibly smoky, affair.

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Daveberta Podcast

Ask Me Anything about Alberta politics episode

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You shared your Alberta politics questions and we answered them in our annual Ask Me Anything episode of the Daveberta Podcast.

New and recent episodes of the Daveberta Podcast are available to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack. In case you missed them, you can catch up on recent Daveberta Podcast episodes with Edmonton Public School Board chairperson Trisha Estabrooks, thewrit.ca publisher Éric Grenier, and strategist Chris Henderson.

The Daveberta Podcast is hosted by Dave Cournoyer and produced by Adam Rozenhart. This episode was recorded on July 12, 2023.

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Alberta Politics

Find your buddy: NDP pairs veteran and rookie MLAs in energy, finance, health and municipal affairs critic roles

The Alberta NDP Caucus released the list of critic roles that its roster of 38 Official Opposition MLAs have been tasked to fill.

Every NDP MLA has been assigned a role as a critic or in the caucus leadership, which is not unusual for provincial oppositions in Alberta. But, because of the unusually large size of the opposition caucus, there are more critics than cabinet ministers to shadow.

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Alberta Politics

The election aftermath for Alberta’s NDP

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley at an Edmonton rally on May 28, 2023 (source: Rachel Notley / Facebook)
Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley at an Edmonton rally on May 28, 2023 (source: Rachel Notley / Facebook)
Victory was within sight but out of reach for Notley’s party

It was a historic election result for the Alberta NDP.

Rachel Notley’s NDP won 38 seats in last week’s election and will form the largest Official Opposition in the province’s history. The NDP got more votes in this election than it ever has before, including a historic high of 49% in Calgary. The party ran the most sophisticated, well-organized and best-funded campaign in its history.

But it fell short of its ultimate goal of forming government.

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