Tag: Nigel Logan

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Alberta Politics

Alberta is a pretty boring place to spend a federal election

Alberta is a pretty boring place to spend a federal election. Even as the polls shift nationally, there is a good chance the seat total could be the same as the 2019 election: 33 Conservative and one NDP.

It’s a quiet campaign.

Unlike the 2019 election, when Albertans were still riled up from that year’s April provincial election and federal campaign issues like pipelines and the carbon tax, this year feels sleepy. The majority of Albertans will surely cast their ballots again on September for the Conservative Party, but it might not be with the same level of enthusiasm and gusto as the last election.

But, if there is a chance that any seats could switch parties, here are a few of the ridings where it might happen:

Edmonton-Griesbach

Blake Desjarlais

Probably one of the only centres of electoral excitement in Alberta is where Conservative candidate Kerry Diotte is seeking re-election for his third-term against New Democrat Blake Desjarlais.

The NDP are hoping they can elect a second MP from Alberta and are putting that hope into Desjarlais’ campaign. Party leader Jagmeet Singh has visited the riding twice in the past month, spending an entire day campaigning in the district during the first week of the election, and pouring volunteer, financial and online advertising resources into the local campaign.

If the NDP are going to pick up a second seat in Alberta in this election, this is it. 

Even NDP MLAs, who shunned the federal party in 2019, have been campaigning with Desjarlais in his bid to unseat Diotte. Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood MLA Janis Irwin, Edmonton-Glenora MLA Sarah Hoffman, Edmonton-Rutherford MLA Richard Feehan, Edmonton-South MLA Thomas Dang, Edmonton-North West MLA David Eggen, and Edmonton-West Henday MLA Jon Carson have been spotted on the campaign trail in Edmonton-Griesbach. 

Full list of candidates in Edmonton-Griesbach:

  • Communist: Alex Boykowich
  • Conservative: Kerry Diotte
  • Green: Heather Lau
  • Liberal: Habiba Mohamud
  • Libertarian: Morgan Watson
  • Marxist-Leninist: Mary Joyce
  • NDP: Blake Desjarlais
  • People’s Party: Thomas Matty

Edmonton-Centre

Randy-Boissonnault Edmonton Centre Liberals
Randy Boissonnault

Conservative James Cumming and Liberal Randy Boissonnault are facing each other for the third time since 2015. Boissonnault won the first time they face each other in 2015 and Cumming unseated him in 2019. 

NDP candidate Heather MacKenzie, a former public school board trustee and past municipal candidate, is hoping to dislodge the Liberals as the main alternative to the Conservatives.

NDP vote has held firm over the past three elections, suggesting that Boissonnault’s win in 2015 and defeat in 2019 was more about voters switching between the Conservatives and Liberals than a split between the Liberals and NDP.

Toronto Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland stopped in the district at the beginning of the campaign to support Boissonnault’s bid for re-election.

Full list of candidates in Edmonton-Centre:

  • Conservative: James Cumming
  • Liberal: Randy Boissonnault
  • Libertarian: Valerie Keefe
  • Marxist-Leninist: Merryn Edwards
  • NDP: Heather Mackenzie
  • People’s Party: Brock Crocker

Edmonton-Mill Woods

Edmonton City Councillor Ben Henderson is running for the Liberal Party in Edmonton-Mill Woods
Edmonton City Councillor Ben Henderson is running for the Liberal Party in Edmonton-Mill Woods

Conservative Tim Uppal’s main challenger is city councillor Ben Henderson, who hopped south from his long-held municipal ward to run in his federal district.

While Uppal served as an MP for many terms, this is his first time running for re-election in Edmonton-Mill Woods. He was the MP for Edmonton-Sherwood Park from 2008 to 2015. 

The district was represented by Liberal MP Amarjeet Sohi from 2015 to 2019. Sohi is running for Mayor of Edmonton. 

Full list of candidates in Edmonton-Mill Woods:

  • Communist: Naomi Rankin
  • Conservative: Tim Uppal
  • Liberal: Ben Henderson
  • NDP: Nigel Logan
  • People’s Party: Paul McCormack

Calgary-Centre

Sabrina Grover Liberal Calgary-Centre
Sabrina Grover

It’s a long-shot but if the Liberals are able to salvage their national campaign in the next two weeks they could be in a position to pick up this district that Liberal Kent Hehr won in 2015. In this election Liberal Sabrina Grover is challenging first-term Conservative Greg McLean.

Full list of candidates in Calgary-Centre:

  • Christian Heritage Party: David Pawlowski
  • Conservative: Greg McLean
  • Green: Austin Mullins
  • Liberal: Sabrina Grover
  • NDP: Juan Estevez Moreno

Calgary-Skyview

Justin Trudeau and George Chahal (source: Twitter)

Conservative Jag Sahota is facing a challenge from city councillor George Chahal who is running for the Liberals in this northeast Calgary district. Chahal has been endorsed by Mayor Naheed Nenshi, and a handful of city councillors including mayoral election hopefuls Jyoti Gondek and Jeff Davison.

Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau’s plane touched down just long enough for him to appear at a rally in support of Chahal during the first week of the election.

Former MLA Darshan Kang was elected as the Liberal MP in 2015 but left the Liberal caucus after allegations of sexual harassment.

Full list of candidates in Calgary-Skyview:

  • Centrist Party: Nadeem Rana
  • Conservative: Jag Sahota
  • Green: Janna So
  • Independent: Lee Aquart
  • Liberal: George Chahal
  • Marxist-Leninist: Daniel Blanchard
  • NDP: Gurinder Singh Gill
  • People’s Party: Harry Dhillon

Banff-Airdire

Conservative candidate Blake Richards will probably safely coast to re-election on September 20, but the cast of conservative characters in this district make it interesting. Richards faces former Ontario Conseravtive MP Derek Sloan, who has relocated to Alberta in order to hold rallies for anti-mask and COVID conspiracy theorists, Maverick Party candidate and rodeo competitor Tariq Elnaga, People’s Party candidate Nadine Wellwood, and Independent separatist candidate Ron Voss. 

Full list of candidates in Banff-Airdire:

  • Conservative: Blake Richards
  • Green: Aidan Blum
  • Independent: Caroline O’Driscoll
  • Independent: Derek Sloan
  • Independent: Ron Voss
  • Liberal: David Gamble
  • Maverick: Tariq Elnaga
  • NDP: Sarah Zagoda
  • People’s Party: Nadine Wellwood

The smaller right-wing parties

It has yet to be seen what kind of impact two smaller right-wing parties will have in Alberta in this election.

People’s Party leader Maxime Bernier is in Alberta this week holding a series of rallies and it seems like the right-wing populist party is gaining support among disenchanted conservatives and anti-vaxxer crowds.

Wildrose Independence Party leader Paul Hinman has been spotted at People’s Party events and Bernier also met with Cypress-Medicine Hat Drew Barnes, who currently sits as an Independent MLA after being ejected from the United Conservative Party caucus earlier in the summer. It also appears as though outgoing Fort McMurray-Cold Lake Conservative MP David Yurdiga endorsed the local People’s Party candidate in a post on his personal Facebook account.

The separatist Maverick Party is only running candidates in districts they have determined are not likely to elect a Liberal or NDP MP, which is most of Alberta, but limiting themselves to running in Conservative strongholds has probably eliminated their chances of being relevant in this election.

Former talk radio host Dave Rutherford has been joining Maverick Party interim leader Jay Hill at candidate events across the province.

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Alberta Politics

NDP nominate 4 more federal election candidates in Alberta, Nigel Logan wins contested vote in Edmonton-Mill Woods

Edmonotn-Mill Woods NDP candidate Nigel Logan. (source: Facebook)
Edmonotn-Mill Woods NDP candidate Nigel Logan. (source: Facebook)

Another quick federal election candidate nomination update this morning:

  • Nigel Logan defeated Satbir Singh in a contested online nomination vote in Edmonton-Mill Woods. Logan was the NDP candidate in this district in the 2019 federal election and ran for city council in 2017.
  • Patrick King has been nominated as the NDP candidate in Calgary-Signal Hill. King was the NDP candidate in Calgary-Nose Hill in the 2019 federal election.
  • Sarah Zagoda has been nominated as the NDP candidate in Banff-Airdrie.
  • Tanya Heyden-Kaye has been nominated as the NDP candidate in Red Deer-Lacombe.
  • Joan Barnes is running as an Independent candidate in Red Deer-Lacombe.
  • Clayten Willington is running as an Independent candidate in Red Deer-Mountain View
  • Scott Fea is running for the Rhinoceros Party in Calgary-Centre.
  • Maverick Party candidate Fred Sirett has listed his name as Frederick Frederick on the ballot in Lakeland, according to his listing on the Elections Canada website.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me updates about new candidate nominations. I’ll be back on Monday with more nomination updates. Have a great weekend.

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Alberta Politics

Liberals nominate 3 new candidates in Alberta, NDP to hold contested nomination vote in Edmonton-Mill Woods

It’s been eight days since the federal election was called but most parties are still nominating candidates in Alberta, a province where barring a catastrophe (or a miracle – depending on your political inclinations) the Conservatives are expected to be elected in most of the electoral districts.

Here are the latest federal candidates to be nominated in Alberta:

  • The Liberal Party has nominated Abdifatah Abdiin in Fort McMurray-Cold Lake, Irene Walker in Sturgeon River-Parkland, and Sheila Schumacher in Yellowhead.
  • The federal NDP have a contested nomination race in Edmonton-Mill Woods. Nigel Logan and Satbir Singh will face an online vote of the local membership on August 25.
  • The Green Party has nominated Kerri Coombs in Red Deer-Lacombe and Sheldon Perris in Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan.
  • The People’s Party completed its slate of 34 candidates in Alberta with the nomination of Shawn McDonald in Fort McMurray-Cold Lake.
  • The Rhinoceros Party has nominated Vanessa Wang in Calgary-Nose Hill.

These new candidates have been added to the updated list of nominated federal election candidates in Alberta. Please drop a comment below if I am missing anyone. Thank you.

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Alberta Politics

Seven-term Calgary MP Deepak Obhrai dies. Former Alberta MLA running for the federal Conservatives on Vancouver Island

Deepak Obhrai, Calgary-Forest Lawn MP
Deepak Obhrai, Calgary-Forest Lawn MP

Seven-term Calgary-Forest Lawn MP Deepak Ohbrai died on August 2, 2019 after a ‘brief and aggressive’ liver cancer. Obhrai was Alberta’s longest serving MP, having first been elected to the House of Commons in 1997 as a Reform Party candidate and re-elected under the Canadian Alliance banner in 2000, and as a Conservative in the 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2015 elections.

Before entering federal politics, he was president of the India Canada Association of Calgary, ran for a City Council seat in a 1993 by-election and ran for the PC nomination in Calgary-Montrose in 1996.

He inserted himself into a contentious United Conservative Party nomination race in August 2018 when he held a press conference in his constituency office with a local radio and TV host who alleged he was threatened and then physically assaulted by a gang of men after publishing a Facebook post critical of a UCP nomination candidate.

Obhrai faced a brief nomination challenge from former Calgary-East PC MLA Moe Amery but he was eventually acclaimed as his party’s candidate in the October 2019 election. Amery’s son, Mickey, is now the UPC MLA for Calgary-Cross.

The Conservatives will need to select a new candidate to succeed Obhrai in the upcoming federal election.

Former Alberta MLA running for the federal Conservatives on Vancouver Island

Alana DeLong Alberta MLA Calgary-Bow
Alana DeLong

Former Alberta MLA Alana DeLong has been nominated to run in the upcoming federal election for the Conservative Party in the Vancouver Island district of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford. She will face New Democratic Party MP Alistair MacGregor, who was first elected in 2015 and currently serves as his party’s critic for Agriculture and Agri-Food.

DeLong served as the Progressive Conservative MLA for Calgary-Bow from 2001 to 2015 and as Parliamentary Assistant for Seniors from 2011 to 2012. She briefly mounted a campaign for the leadership of the PC Party in 2006. She ran as a Liberal Party candidate in Nanaimo-North Cowichan in the 2017 BC election, where she placed second with 28 percent behind NDP MLA Doug Routley.

She travelled to Alberta during the 2019 provincial election to campaign for Calgary-Bow UCP candidate Demetrios Nicolaides.

DeLong is not the first former Alberta politician to try their hand at federal politics west of the Rockies.

George Ernest Hansell
George Ernest Hansell

Former provincial treasurer Stockwell Day is perhaps the most recognizable example of former Alberta politician jumping into federal politics in British Columbia, but he is not alone. Former Edmonton mayor Vincent Dantzer served as the MP for Okanagan-North from 1980 to 1988, former Slave Lake mayor Val Meredith served as MP for Surrey-White Rock-South Langley from 1993 to 2004, and Werner Schmidt, who led Alberta’s Social Credit Party from 1973 to 1975, later served as the MP for Okanagan-Centre and Kelowna from 1993 to 2006.

Perhaps the strangest case of an Alberta politician intruding in a British Columbia provincial election was in 1952, when Alberta MP Ernest George Hansell led the BC Social Credit Party to win its first of many elections.

Hansell was handpicked by Alberta Premier Ernest Manning to lead the BC wing of the Social Credit Party, but he did not become Premier of BC. Instead, the Social Credit MLAs elected to the BC Legislature chose W.A.C. Bennett, who would remain premier of that province until 1972. A similar political invasion of Saskatchewan 14 years earlier was unsuccessful.

Other nomination updates

Here are other updates to the list of candidates running for nominations ahead of the October 21, 2019 federal election:

  • Todd Kathol was nominated as the Liberal candidate in Calgary-Rocky Ridge. Kathol previously ran for the Liberal nomination in Calgary-Confederation. He is a partner with Field Law.
  • Jagdish Anand is seeking the Liberal nomination in Calgary-Skyview. Anand is an Ophthalmologist and Retina Surgeon with a practice in Sunridge Professional Centre and is also attached with Rockyview General Hospital. The district is currently represented by Independent MP Darshan Kang, who was elected as a Liberal in 2015 and left the governing caucus in 2017 following allegations of sexual harassment while he was an MLA.
  • Katherine Swampy was nominated as the NDP candidate in Edmonton-Centre. Swampy is a councillor with the Samson Cree Nation, member of the board of directors for Peace Hills Trust, and previously ran for the NDP in the 2015 provincial and federal elections.
  • Nigel Logan was nomination as the NDP candidate in Edmonton-Mill Woods. Logan previously ran for Edmonton City Council and has worked as a constituency assistant for Edmonton-Strathcona NDP MP Linda Duncan.
  • Patrick Steuber has been nominated as the NDP candidate in Edmonton-West.
  • Lito Velasco is seeking the Liberal nomination in Edmonton-Wetaskiwin. He is the editor of the Alberta Filipino Journal.
  • Artist and motivational speaker Jesse Lipscombe is seeking the Liberal nomination in St. Albert- Edmonton. Lipscombe is well known for his work with the #MakeItAwkward campaign and is the grandson of Edmonton Eskimos star player Rollie Miles. 

Please contact me at david.cournoyer@gmail.com for additions or updates related to candidate nominations in Alberta and I will add them to the list. Thank you!

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Alberta Politics

Trudeau campaigns with Sohi in Edmonton-Mill Woods, Conservatives fill a full slate of candidates in Alberta

Amarjeet Sohi Justin Trudeau in Edmonton Mill Woods

With less than 100 days until Canada’s federal election, the political parties are continuing to nominate candidates in Alberta ahead of the October 21, 2019 vote. The Conservative Party has now nominated candidates in all of the province’s 34 electoral districts, and other main parties, the Liberal Party, New Democratic Party, and Green Party are slowly beginning to fill their slates. The right-wing People’s Party of Canada has chosen candidates in all of the province’s federal electoral districts.

And here are some of the latest updates to this list of candidates nominated and running for nominations ahead of the October 2019 federal election:

Battle River-Crowfoot: Damien Kurek defeated former Ontario MP Jeff Watson and teacher Jefferson McClung to win the Conservative Party nomination in the sprawling east central rural Alberta district of Battle River-Crowfoot. Kurek works as a constituency assistant in retiring MP Kevin Sorenson‘s office and previously worked as a researcher for the Saskatchewan Party Caucus in Regina. Previous to this bid, Watson served as the Conservative MP for Essex from 2004 to 2015 before moving to Alberta and running for the United Conservative Party nomination in Calgary-Peigan in 2018.

Calgary-Confederation: Jordan Stein defeated Todd Kathol and Larry Ottewell to secure the Liberal Party nomination in Calgary-Confederation. Stein was the provincial NDP candidate in Calgary-Glenmore in the recent provincial election where she earned 32 percent of the vote and placed second behind UCP candidate Whitney Issik. Calgary-Confederation was the home of the Liberal Party’s highest vote total in the 2015 federal election, with then-candidate Matt Grant earning 29,083 votes to Conservative candidate Len Webber’s 30,669 votes.

Calgary-Forest Lawn: William Carnegie has been nominated as the Green Party candidate in this east Calgary district. Carnegie is the president of the Forest Lawn Community Association and ran for the provincial Green Party in 2019 in Calgary-East, earning 2.3 percent of the vote.

Edmonton-Centre: Katherine Swampy is expected to be nominated as the NDP candidate in Edmonton-Centre on July 22, 2019. Swampy is a councillor with the Samson Cree Nation, member of the board of directors for Peace Hills Trust, and previously ran for the NDP in the 2015 provincial election in Drayton Valley-Devon and the 2015 federal election in Battle River-Crowfoot. She endorsed Niki Ashton in the federal NDP’s 2017 leadership race.

Edmonton-Greisbach: Well-known youth worker and social advocate Mark Cherrington and business-owner Victoria Stevens are seeking the NDP nomination in this east Edmonton district. The NDP had their second strongest showing in Alberta in this district in 2015, with Janis Irwin earning 34 percent to Conservative candidate Kerry Diotte‘s 39 percent. Irwin was elected as the MLA for Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood in the 2019 provincial election.

Brian Gold has announced his plan to seek the yet to be scheduled Liberal Party nomination in this district. Gold earned 21.6 percent of the vote as  the Liberal Party candidate in Edmonton-Greisbach in 2015, and he later earned 12 percent of the vote in the 2017 Sturgeon River-Parkland by-election.

Edmonton-Mill Woods: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Edmonton last week to speak at the nomination meeting acclaiming MP Amarjeet Sohi as the Liberal Party candidate in the upcoming election. Sohi was first elected in 2015 and currently serves as Minister of Natural Resources. Before his jump into federal politics, Sohi served on Edmonton City Council from 2007 to 2015.

NDP organizer Nigel Logan seeking his party’s in Edmonton-Mill Woods at a meeting expected to be held on July 24, 2019. Logan was a candidate for Edmonton City Council in Ward 12 during the 2017 municipal election, where he earned 11.4 percent of the vote. Logan currently works as a constituency assistant to Edmonton-Strathcona NDP MP Linda Duncan.

The previous NDP candidate in this district, Jasvir Deol, was elected as the NDP MLA for Edmonton-Meadows in April 2015.

Edmonton-Strathcona: Sam Lilly defeated Julia Bareman to secure the Conservative Party nomination. Lilly was endorsed by Diotte and former Edmonton-Gold Bar MLA David Dorward. Activist and owner of the Earth’s General Store Michael Kalmanovitch has been nominated as the Green Party candidate.

This south central Edmonton district has been represented by NDP MP Linda Duncan since 2008. Duncan is not seeking re-election.

Lethbridge: Shandi Bleiken defeated Sheldon Krul to win the NDP nomination in this southern Alberta district. Bleiken is a community activist and former president of OUTreach Southern Alberta. The NDP candidate in the 2015 federal election placed second with 20.5 percent of the vote.

Banff-Airdrie: Jaro Giesbrecht has announced his intention to seek the Liberal Party nomination in Banff-Airdrie, which has not yet been scheduled. Giesbrecht recently ran for the provincial Liberal Party in Calgary-Peigan, earning 1.9 percent of the vote.

Peace River-Westlock: Julie Asterisk and Peter Nygaard are seeking the Green Party nomination in this north west Alberta district, scheduled for August 3.

Asterisk works in communications and fund development with the Keepers of the Athabasca organization and was the program coordinator with the Slave Lake Native Friendship Centre. She was the Green candidate in Fort McMurray-Athabasca in the 2011 election, where she earned 4.5 percent of the vote.

Nygaard is owner and operator of a plumbing and gas fitting business in Joussar. He and his wife, Shahla, wrote the book Decade of Discovery which chronicles their decade-long bike trip through Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America.

Please contact me at david.cournoyer@gmail.com for additions or updates related to candidate nominations in Alberta and I will add them to the list.

Daveberta on the CBC Pollcast

I was thrilled to join Eric Grenier on the CBC Pollcast podcast this week to discuss Alberta’s political landscape ahead of the October 2019 federal election, with a specific focus on Calgary-Centre, Calgary-Confederation, Calgary-Skyview, Edmonton-Centre, Edmonton-Greisbach, Edmonton-Mill Woods, and Edmonton-Strathcona.

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Alberta Politics

Edmonton Election Update: 137 days to go.

Kris Andreychuk launches his campaign for Edmonton City Council in Ward 7.
Kris Andreychuk launches his campaign for Edmonton City Council in Ward 7.

Photo: Kris Andreychuk launches his campaign for city council in Ward 7.

We are now 137 days away from the October 2017 municipal elections in Edmonton. Here are some of the latest updates to the list of candidates running in Edmonton’s municipal election for City Council, the Edmonton Public School Board and the Edmonton Catholic School District.

Edmonton City Council

  • Kris Andreychuk launched his campaign for Edmonton City Council in Ward 7. Andreychuk is a Supervisor of Community Safety with the City of Edmonton. He was introduced and endorsed at his launch event by Ward 6 Councillor Scott McKeen. Andreychuk is challenging incumbent Councillor Tony Caterina.
  • Nafisa Bowen is running in Ward 5. Bowan works as a fundraiser for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation and is Vice-President Elect at the Cultural Connections Institute – The Learning Exchange.
  • Lenore Dilts is running in Ward 8.
  • Nigel Logan is running in Ward 12. Logan is the former constituency manager for Edmonton-Mill Creek MLA Denise Woollard.

Edmonton Public School Board

  • Ken Gibson is running for re-election in Ward E. Gibson served as trustee for this ward from 2004 to 2010 and again since 2013.
  • Nathan Ip is running for re-election in Ward H. He was first elected in 2013.
  • Sajida Asghar is running in Ward I.

Edmonton Catholic School District

  • Nancy Robb is running in Ward 71.
  • Dan Posa is running in Ward 72.
  • Glen Argan is running in Ward 75. Argan was the editor of the Western Catholic Reporter for nearly 30 years and ran as the Green Party candidate in Edmonton-Mill Creek in the 2008 provincial election.
  • Lisa Turchansky is running in Ward 76. She was chairperson of the St. Mary Elementary School student advisory council.

If you know any other candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for Mayor, Council, or School Board and are not on this list, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them. Thank you!

 

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