Tag: Naheed Nenshi

Alberta’s Separation Referendum — Who’s Going to Stand Up for Canada?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 14, 2026

An Alberta politics deep dive on Craft Politics (originally published on the Daveberta Substack)

I recently joined Joseph Lavoie and Andrew Percy on Craft Politics for a deep dive discussion about Alberta separatism and how it’s shaping Alberta politics in 2026.

We had a broad-ranging discussion about Alberta politics, the current separatist movement’s roots in the COVID-19 pandemic and how its supporters became key players inside the United Conservative Party, and who might lead the pro-Canada campaign in a possible separation referendum later this year.

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.

Coming soon: A referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 5, 2026

If Albertans aren’t sent to the polls to vote in a provincial election in 2026 they will almost certainly be asked to vote in a province-wide referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada.

Former Progressive Conservative MLA Thomas Lukaszuk was the first to spear-head a successful citizen initiative petition when his Forever Canadian campaign collected more than 456,000 signatures by asking Albertans if they wanted their province to remain in Canada.

The wildly successful Forever Canadian petition campaign is being countered by the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project’s flipped citizen initiative question asking Albertans if they want to leave Canada.

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.

Lower international price of oil will hit Alberta’s 2026 budget hard

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date January 25, 2026

Oil production in our province is at a record high but, as Albertans have learned time and time again, we have absolutely no control over the international price of oil that makes or breaks our local economy.

Forecasts for oil prices are not encouraging for 2026. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has projected that the price of West Texas Intermediate oil could average around $50 to $52 per barrel and, with a glut of oil on the international market, Goldman Sachs expects WTI to average $53 per barrel in 2026.

This is trouble for the Government of Alberta, which relies heavily on revenues from oil and gas royalties to fund the daily operations of public services like heath care and education. The Alberta government’s 2025 budget projected WTI at $68 per barrel but as of the second quarter update in November the average price was $61.50 per barrel. Each $1 change in the price of WTI has an estimated $750-million impact on provincial government revenue.

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

Naheed Nenshi voted the Best Public Speaker of 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 31, 2025

NDP leader Naheed Nenshi (source: Alberta NDP / Facebook)

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi thrives in front of a crowd or TV camera, which is why he’s the winner in this year’s Best Public Speaker category.

Nenshi’s energy in front of a crowd propelled him to win a landslide victory in the NDP leadership race last year and is why his party sent him out on round of town hall meetings across the province almost immediately after he was finally elected to the Legislature in June 2025.

Now as the MLA for Edmonton-Strathcona, the former Calgary mayor has a seat in the Legislature and appears to be enjoying the daily cut and thrust of Question Period and legislative debate.

It’s fitting that Nenshi faced Premier Danielle Smith in this category, as both party leaders with their different styles of public speaking — Nenshi being more professorial and Smith as a former talk-show host — have proven they are most comfortable in front of an audience.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Alberta Politics Substack, Best of Alberta Politics 2025, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Edmonton-Strathcona, Naheed Nenshi, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Rakhi Pancholi voted the Most Effective Opposition MLA and Best Question Period Performer of 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 31, 2025

Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi (source: Rakhi Pancholi / Facebook)

Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi was voted Most Effective Opposition MLA for a second year in a row and this year took the Best Question Period Performer category.

Pancholi has been a rising star in the opposition benches since she was first elected in 2019 and now as deputy leader of the NDP official opposition she has been given an opportunity to shine by demonstrating her political skills and talents.

Pancholi’s diligent prosecutorial-style of asking questions and quick-on-her-feet responses to the government has made her one of the most effective critics in the opposition benches in the Alberta Legislature.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Best of Alberta Politics 2025, Daveberta Substack, Edmonton-Whitemud, Naheed Nenshi, Rakhi Pancholi, 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

UCP direct democracy tools give Albertans a way to fight back

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 21, 2025

Albertans unhappy with the government are used to protests outside the Legislature in the deep and dark winter months but direct democracy tools introduced by the UCP a few years ago have given people new avenues to express their discontent.

A citizen initiative launched by former Edmonton-Castle Downs PC MLA Thomas Lukaszuk calling on Alberta to remain in Canada collected more than 456,000 signatures, blowing way past the required threshold of 293,000 signatures. The amazing organizational feat of the Forever Canadian campaign inspired citizen initiatives calling for a referendum question about ending government funding of private schools and banning coal mining in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

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.

Health care chaos the most underreported Alberta politics story of the year

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 20, 2025

The complete dismantling of Alberta Health Services, which is almost certainly a vendetta for the role the organization played in implementing public health measures meant to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, is one of the most underreported stories of the year.

The province-wide health authority that was created by Premier Ed Stelmach’s Progressive Conservative government in 2008 is being carved into five or six different administrative silos (depending how you count) which will have a real impact on hospitals and health centres from big cities to small rural communities — and health ministers like Adriana LaGrange and Matt Jones haven’t been able to clearly answer the question of how this will make patient care better for Albertans.

Danielle Smith’s wild ride. What to make of Alberta politics in 2025?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 20, 2025

Premier Danielle Smith speaks at the Canada Strong & Free Networking Conference (formerly known as the Manning Centre) (source: Danielle Smith / Instagram)

As 2025 comes to an end, it’s hard to describe the past twelve months in Alberta politics, but Edmonton-Whitemud NDP MLA Rakhi Pancholi summed it up well in the opposition’s year-end press conference by describing it a “wild ride.”

It has been a chaotic 12 months in Alberta politics. Even for someone who pays very close attention to provincial politics, the pace of the past year was so fast and frantic that it has been hard to keep track. The recently ended fall session of the Legislature might have been one of the most chaotic in recent memory.

It’s clear that Premier Danielle Smith’s governing United Conservative Party is using a “flood the zone” strategy but there were many times when it looked like the government was just flying by the seat of its pants and no one was really in control of the political agenda.

And if it’s hard for political watchers to keep track, that means it’s probably almost impossible for normal Albertans to figure out what’s going on — and that’s the point. The strategy keeps the opposition off balance and doesn’t give them time to respond before the next big announcement or political controversy steals the attention of shrinking newsrooms and a fast paced social media eco-system.

Anyone familiar with the chaos of American politics will recognize this strategy because it’s employed almost hourly by President Donald Trump.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Adriana LaGrange, Airdrie-Cochrane, Alanna Smith, Alberta Coal Policy, Alberta Health Services, Alberta NDP, Alberta Party, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Prosperity Project, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Ben Shapiro, Best of Alberta Politics 2025, Cameron Davies, Canada Election Substack, Carrie Tait, Corb Lund, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Donald Trump, Edmonton-Castle Downs, Edmonton-Ellerslie, Edmonton-Strathcona, Edmonton-Whitemud, Flood the Zone, Forever Canadian, Janis Irwin, Jeff Rath, Jeffrey Rath, Jordan Peterson, Matt Jones, Mickey Amery, Mitch Sylvestre, Naheed Nenshi, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Peter Guthrie, Progressive Tory Party of Alberta, Rakhi Pancholi, Real Talk, Republican Party of Alberta, Ryan Jespersen, Thomas Lukaszuk, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Janis Irwin, Peter Guthrie, and Rakhi Pancholi big winners in Best of Alberta Politics 2025 Survey

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 4, 2025

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

Marlin Schmidt voted MLA with Best Sense of Humour and Brooks Arcand-Paul is the MLA to watch in 2026

After a week of fierce campaigning, all the votes have been counted and the winners of the ninth annual Daveberta Best of Alberta Politics Survey have been chosen.

The annual survey is all about celebrating the best in Alberta politics and the winners were nominated and voted for by politically-savvy Daveberta subscribers.

Congratulations to this year’s winners.

Alberta Belongs in Canada