Tag: Mark Carney

Nenshi’s NDP starts nominating candidates for next Alberta election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 10, 2026

Edmonton-Glenora MLA Sarah Hoffman and NDP leader Naheed Nenshi (source: Sarah Hoffman / Instagram)

Early March candidate meetings scheduled in Calgary and Edmonton ridings

With rumours of an early provincial election circulating since last year, the Alberta NDP looks like it will be the first political party out of the gate to nominate candidates ahead of the next vote.

The NDP website lists candidate nomination meetings scheduled in Edmonton-Glenora on March 3, Calgary-Elbow on March 4, Calgary-Klein on March 5, Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview on March 6 and Calgary-Edgemont on March 7.

All five of these ridings are represented by NDP MLAs who will be seeking re-election if they secure their party’s nominations.

Longtime Daveberta readers will know that I am keenly interested in tracking candidate nominations ahead of provincial and federal elections in Alberta, so I am pleased to share with you that I am continuing this tradition as we approach the next election.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta Election 2026, Alberta Election 2027, Alberta Election Candidate Nominations, Alberta NDP, Alberta Political Party Fundraising, Alberta Politics Substack, Alison Redford, Amarjeet Sohi, Calgary-Edgemont, Calgary-Elbow, Calgary-Klein, Calgary-Mountain View, Calgary-Shaw, Canada Election Substack, Chantelle de Jonge, Cole Sunderman, Corporate Donations, Dale Aalbers, Dale Nally, Dan Williams, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, David Eggen, Deron Bilous, Devin Dreeshen, Doug Schweitzer, Ed Ewasiuk, Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview, Edmonton-Glenora, Edmonton-Glenora-Riverview, Edmonton-Riverview, Grant Notley, Greg Clark, Jason Kenney, Jason Nixon, Jennifer Johnson, Jeremy Nixon, Jordan Walker, Joseph Schow, Julia Hayter, Justin Wright, Kathleen Ganley, Kyle Kasawski, Lizette Tejada, Luke Suvanto, Mark Carney, Mark Miller, Mike Burton, Money in Politics, Naheed Nenshi, Nate Glubish, Nolan Dyck, Peggy Wright, Peter Guthrie, Prasad Panda, Progressive Tory Party of Alberta, Rachel Notley, Ralph Klein, Ray Martin, Raymond Donnelly, Rebecca Schulz, Richard Sigurdson, Rosemarie Falk, Samir Kayande, Sarah Hoffman, Searle Turton, Shannon Stubbs, Sherwood Park, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 6, 2026

Alberta separatist leaders Dr. Dennis Modry (left) and Mitch Sylvestre (right) with Premier Danielle Smith (centre) at the UCP fundraising dinner in Bonnyville in May 2025 (source: Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP / Facebook)

The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

It’s still unclear who will lead the pro-Canada side in a referendum campaign that could happen as early as fall of this year. This is likely because a lot of prominent supporters of federalism in Alberta have had a hard time believing Albertans would vote in favour of separation or that a referendum will even be held in the first place.

Polls show support for Alberta leaving Canada sits at around 28 per cent and drops to 15 per cent when people are faced with the possible consequences, but this is not the time for Albertans who also count themselves as proud Canadians to be complacent.

In another time, the Premier of Alberta would be a strong voice against separatism, but Danielle Smith is now leading a party with an activist base deeply engaged in the separatist movement and she is not interested in upsetting that base of supporters.

Donald Trump is increasingly unstable, authoritarian, and expansionist

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date January 25, 2026

Increasing political and economic instability in the United States and President Trump’s threats to expand American military and political control over the western hemisphere could have dramatic effects on Canada. The breaking of the United States’ long-standing close relationship with democratic Europe and Trump’s continued threats to annex the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland and make Canada the 51st State could define world politics in 2026.

Just this week Trump posted a doctored photo on social media of him sitting in front of a map with the US flag superimposed over Canada, Greenland and Venezuela. The use of military force to remove Maduro and Trump’s freewheeling use of trade tariffs against countries who’s leaders he feels have personally insulted him suggests that Albertans and Canadians should take him very seriously.

Trump’s rambling, erratic behaviour and his embrace of authoritarianism is deeply troubling and will have a big impact on Albertans and our fellow Canadians across the country.

Will Danielle Smith call an early election in Alberta?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date January 22, 2026

Minister of Hospital and Surgical Health Services Matt Jones and Premier Danielle Smith at a government press conference in December 2025 (source: Alberta Newsroom / Flickr)

After months of speculation, Premier Danielle Smith said during her 2025 year-end interviews that she isn’t planning to call an early election in 2026, but anyone who pays attention to politics knows: circumstances change.

The next provincial general election is scheduled to happen in October 2027 but there continues to be wide speculation that an early election could be called — and there are plenty of reasons to believe why.

Smith’s UCP remains ahead of Naheed Nenshi’s Alberta NDP in the polls and the governing party continues to raise large amounts of donations. And there is little doubt that Smith remains one of the most effective and shrewd political communicators in Alberta and in Canada’s conservative movement.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Abi Johnson, Abigail Johnson, Alberta Election 2026, Alberta Election 2027, Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission, Alberta Electoral Map, Alberta Health Services, Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Prosperity Project, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Athana Mentzelopoulos, Avi Lewis, Battle River-Crowfoot, Ben Shapiro, Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, Calgary-Bow, Calgary-Bow MLA Recall Campaign, Calgary-Shaw, Calgary-Shaw by-election, Canada as the 51st State, Canada Election Substack, Coal Mining, Coal Mining Referendum, Corb Lund, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Dawn Farrell, Demetrios Nicolaides, Dodgy Contracts Scandal, Donald Trump, Doug Wylie, Edmonton Riverbend by-election, Edmonton-Riverbend, Edmonton-Strathcona, Federal NDP leadership race 2026, Forever Canadian, Grant Hunter, Greenland, Heather McPherson, Major Projects Office, Mark Carney, Matt Jeneroux, Matt Jones, Mickey Amery, Minister of Hospital and Surgical Health Services, Mitch Sylvestre, MLA Recall in Alberta, Naheed Nenshi, Nathan Cooper, Nicholas Maduro, Pierre Poilievre, Rebecca Schulz, Recall Act, Rob Ashton, Taber-Warner, Tanille Johnston, Thomas Lukaszuk, Tony McQuail, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Top 10 Daveberta columns of 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 29, 2025

Alberta’s Legislature Building through the view of a broken glass panel in summer 2025 (credit: Dave Cournoyer)

It has been a big year in Alberta politics and a big year for Daveberta. Canada had a federal election, there was no shortage of news and (frequently troubling) political maneuvering in Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton elected new mayors, and I marked 20 years since launching my original blog and starting to write about Alberta politics online.

I’m taking it easy this week to enjoy the Christmas break with my family and friends but I did take a few moments to look at some of the top columns I published this year and wanted to share that list with you today.

Using Substack’s metrics, which combine traffic, likes and subscriptions generated, here are the top 10 columns I published in 2025.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Alberta separatism the biggest and most dangerous distraction of the year

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 21, 2025

The biggest distraction of the year is the fight over Alberta staying in Canada.

Premier Danielle Smith is walking a narrow line between Albertans who want a better deal with Ottawa and those who just want Alberta to outright leave Canada (or join the United States), though she has actively tipped the scales in favour of the separatists in her party.

The UCP has twice amended the Citizen Initiative Act this year. First to lower the number of signatures required to trigger a province-wide referendum and second to block the Chief Elections Officer from referring initiative questions to the courts to determine their constitutionality.

Alberta has long had a fringe separatist movement that has usually lived on the margins of the far-right, but today’s separatists are a deeply intrenched and active force inside Smith’s UCP. They showed their strength at the recent UCP AGM when Smith was booed after trumpeting her government’s memorandum of understanding about pipelines and the electrical grid with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government in Ottawa.

Danielle Smith hopes pipeline deal with Mark Carney will quell separatist sentiments

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 29, 2025

Premier Danielle Smith will be able to walk into the United Conservative Party AGM this weekend triumphant about her pipeline deal with Prime Minister Mark Carney, and maybe even confident enough to consider calling an early provincial election in 2026, but she may get more jeers than cheers from some sections of her party who will be unhappy she was willing to have truck and trade with Carney (though I can guarantee that Steven Guilbeault’s resignation will get cheers).

“Danielle wanted lapdogs,” says influential separatist Jeffrey Rath

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 29, 2025

According to influential separatist Jeffrey Rath, one of the main spokespeople for the Alberta Prosperity Project, the UCP board of directors is to blame for blocking a separation debate at the AGM. Rath has openly criticized incumbent UCP President Rob Smith for casting the deciding vote against holding a debate about Alberta independence. A debate and vote on Alberta’s separation from Canada could have received overwhelming support from AGM delegates — making the UCP an official separatist party.

Quashing Alberta separatism debate could spark fireworks at UCP AGM

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 28, 2025

Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney in Calgary on November 27, 2025 (source: Government of Alberta / Flickr)

Danielle Smith’s pipeline deal with Mark Carney could get more jeers than cheers by some at the UCP AGM

The United Conservative Party’s most dedicated activists and supporters will gather in Edmonton on November 28, 29 and 30 to debate a swath of policy resolutions and elect members of its provincial board at the party’s annual general meeting.

Since the UCP was founded in 2017, the party’s AGM has become one of the most interesting and closely-watched political events of the year. It’s an annual reminder the delegates attending the meeting — the UCP’s most enthusiastic activists — are as a group among the most influential people in Alberta politics today.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Subtack

Tags Abigail Johnson, Adam Doyle, Al Biel, Albert Biel, Alberta Pipeline Memorandum of Understanding, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Prosperity Project, Alberta Separatism, An Injection of Truth, Andre Grondin, Battle River-Crowfoot, Benjamin Gill, Brian Golka, Brian Mulroney, Calgary-Lougheed, Canada Election Substack, Cardston-Siksika, Dan Harder, Danielle Smith, Darby Crouch, Darrell Komick, Daveberta Substack, David Eby, Donna Kennedy-Glans, Ed Vandenberg, Gordon Reynen, Heather Yourex-West, Helen Holder, Irma Roberts, Jaspreet Saggu, Jeff Rath, Jeffrey Rath, Jodie Gateman, Justin Trudeau, Mark Carney, National Energy Program, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Pamela Davidson, Peter Lougheed, Pierre Poilievre, Richard Asselin, Richard Mallett, Rob Smith, Samantha Steinke, Scott Payne, Stacey Vanderveen, United Conservative Party, United Conservative Party AGM, Vicki Kozmak-LeFrense

Alberta Politics

Not even close. Pierre Poilievre wins a landslide victory in Battle River-Crowfoot

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 19, 2025

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre posing with the Reynolds Raiders horse-mounted outlaw gang in Big Valley, which is part of the Alberta Prairie Railway tour (source: Pierre Poilievre / Instagram)

Independent Bonnie Critchley finishes a distant but respectable second

As was widely expected, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre had no problem winning yesterday’s federal by-election in the Conservative stronghold of Battle River—Crowfoot. Poilievre’s commanding lead was clear the moment the first poll was reported shortly after 8:30 p.m., which showed the party leader with 437 votes compared to a combined 49 votes for all the other candidates in the race.

After a long night of counting the write-in ballots, Elections Canada reported that Poilievre was elected with 40,548 votes — 80.4 percent of the total votes cast in the by-election. Poilievre’s landslide win is fell just short of the 82.8 percent earned by former and future MP Damien Kurek just a few months ago, but shows that Conservative Party support remains solid in this sprawling rural Alberta riding.

What’s at stake in the Battle River-Crowfoot by-election?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 15, 2025

Conservative Party candidate Pierre Poilievre in Carbon, Alberta (source: Pierre Poilievre / Facebook)

Pierre Poilievre is going to win. The only real question is: by how much?

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre will return to the House of Commons after he wins the federal by-election happening in the sprawling rural riding of Battle River-Crowfoot on Monday, August 18.

The by-election marking Poilievre’s return to Ottawa also marks a return to Alberta after he left his hometown of Calgary more than 20 years ago to work as a political staffer in Ottawa and run in a riding just outside the capital city. After spending 21 years as an Ottawa-area MP, Poilievre was defeated by Liberal Bruce Fanjoy in Carleton on April 28, which many believe was a result of his strong support of the anti-vaccine trucker convoy that harassed residents of the capital city in January and February 2022.

Top 10 closest Alberta races in Canada’s 2025 election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date August 7, 2025

It’s been just over three months since Election Day in Canada and, as the dust has settled, I’ve taken a closer look at the results in ridings across Alberta.

The Conservative Party continued its decades-long streak of electoral dominance in federal elections in Alberta as it saw its support jump to 63.5 percent from 55.4 percent in 2021 (though it is still lower than the 69 percent the Conservatives earned in Alberta in 2019). The Conservatives had strong showings in every part of the province, but especially in rural Alberta where the party’s candidates were elected with huge margins of victory.

Alberta’s two largest cities, Calgary and Edmonton, were home to the most interesting and most competitive races of the federal election in our province. The races with the narrowest margins of victory were in the cities, and the three closest races were in Calgary, which not long ago was considered a Conservative stronghold.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Get ready for a big fight over Alberta’s separation referendum

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date July 31, 2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery in April 2025 announcing changes to Alberta’s citizen initiative referendums (Photo: Government of Alberta/Flickr).

It’s going to be messy but the Chief Electoral Officer needs to hold his ground – and his independence.

Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer was publicly rebuked by Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Justice Mickey Amery after a petition aimed at triggering a province-wide referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada was referred to the courts to determine if it is legal.

Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure announced earlier this week that a citizen initiative petition request submitted by separatist Alberta Prosperity Project CEO Mitch Sylvestre was being referred to the Court of King’s Bench to determine whether it conforms with the requirements of sections 2 (4) of the Citizen Initiative Act. That section specifically states that “an initiative petition proposal must not contravene sections 1 to 35.1 of the Constitution Act, 1982.”

Smith and Amery took to social media to call on McClure to withdraw the court reference and allow the Alberta separation petition to move forward.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

To celebrate 20 years of Daveberta, I’m happy to offer free subscribers a 20 percent discount on an annual paid subscription ($40/year down from the regular $50/year). Paid subscribers get full access to all Daveberta newsletters and columns, full episodes of the Daveberta Podcast and a shout out on the podcast, and special Alberta politics extras. Thank you to everyone who has already upgraded their subscription through this offer.

Tags Alberta Chief Electoral Officer, Alberta NDP, Alberta Next Panel, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Prosperity Project, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Andy Sims, Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, Canada Election Substack, Commonwealth of Alberta Delegation to Washington, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Dennis Modry, Elections Alberta, Elections Alberta Financial Disclosures, Forever Canadian, Gordon McClure, Jason Stephan, Jeff Rath, Jeffrey Rath, Ken Chapman, King Charles III, Mark Carney, Mickey Amery, Mitch Sylvestre, Money and Politics, Naheed Nenshi, Rakhi Pancholi, Red Deer-South, Scott Cyr, Subst, Thomas Luksazuk, United Conservative Party, Vladimir Putin, Western Alienation, Western Separation

Alberta Politics

Alberta is getting a bad deal and it’s always Ottawa’s fault

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 25, 2025

Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next Panel looks a lot like a UCP re-election tour

Alberta is getting a bad deal and it’s always Ottawa’s fault. That’s Premier Danielle Smith’s key message in a 6 minute and 26 second long video posted on her social media channels on Tuesday.

Less that 24 hours after the polls closed in three provincial by-elections that saw voters deliver one win for Smith’s United Conservative Party and two wins for Naheed Nenshi’s NDP, the premier was ready to announce a new panel to hear people’s grievances about Ottawa and views on the provincial government taking control of immigration, which immigrants should have access to social services, and creating a provincial tax collection agency, provincial pension plan and provincial police force.

Where is Nenshi? Should we take the separatists seriously?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 18, 2025

The Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton (credit: Dave Cournoyer)

Big questions about Alberta politics on The Line Podcast

Any day I get to talk about Alberta politics is a good day, so I was thrilled to join freelance writer and The Line co-founder Jen Gerson on the latest episode of the The Line Podcast to talk about what’s happening in Alberta politics.

In the hour and ten minute long discussion, we dove into the growing undercurrent of separatist sentiment inside the United Conservative Party, the burgeoning Dodgy Contracts Scandal dogging Premier Danielle Smith’s government, the upcoming by-elections in Edmonton-Ellerslie, Edmonton-Strathcona and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, and a big question many political watchers have been asking: where is NDP leader Naheed Nenshi?

Listen to the episode on The Line or find it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe to the Daveberta Substack