Tag: Rachel Notley

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Alberta Politics

The Alberta-British Columbia election connection

It wouldn’t be an election in British Columbia if there weren’t people with Alberta connections involved.

Miriam Rycroft is the NDP candidate in the Kelowna-Mission riding in the Okanagan region of BC. Rycroft was a ministerial chief of staff during the Alberta NDP’s time in government and worked as Director of Tour and Scheduling in Premier Rachel Notley’s office. She was President of the Edmonton-Glenora NDP constituency association in 2024.

Politicos with prominent Alberta ties are leading the different parties campaigns.

  • BC NDP campaign chair Cheryl Oates was Executive Director of Communications and Planning for Premier Notley from 2015 to 2019 and worked as communications director for the NDP caucus during the its final years as a 4 MLA opposition.
  • BC Conservative Party campaign manager Katy Merrifield worked as communications director in Premier Jason Kenney’s office and was later the Executive Director of Communications and Engagement for the Alberta government’s Canadian Centre for Recovery Excellence.
  • BC Green Party communications chair Mike Hudema was a prominent environmental activist in Alberta in the 2000s, ran for the Alberta NDP in Edmonton-Meadowlark in the 2001 provincial election, and was elected president of the University of Alberta Students’ Union in 2002.
  • OneBC Party communications director Wyatt Claypool is currently running for the UCP nomination in Calgary-Currie and was a candidate for the federal Conservative nomination in Calgary Signal Hill in 2022.

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Alberta Politics

Michelle Mather nominated as UCP candidate in Calgary-Glenmore

Michelle Mather won the UCP nomination in Calgary-Glenmore (photo source: Michelle Mather / Facebook)
Michelle Mather won the UCP nomination in Calgary-Glenmore (photo source: Michelle Mather / Facebook)

Michelle Mather defeated Sanjeev Kad with 482 votes to 101 votes to win the UCP nomination in Calgary-Glenmore. Mather is co-founder of a number of companies, including Horizon6ix Capital Corp and DrillGear Oilfield Solutions Corporation, and co-founder of the Bridges Calgary Association. She also ran for the UCP nomination in Calgary-Lougheed ahead of the 2023 provincial election.

The riding is currently represented by NDP MLA Nagwan Al-Guneid, who won by a narrow 48 votes in 2023. Al-Guneid was a star candidate for Notley’s NDP in 2023, but she announced last month that she will not seek re-election in 2027.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

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Alberta Politics

Mark Carney, Naheed Nenshi, and Rachel Notley headline pro-Canada rallies days before Alberta referendum

Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Albertans at a Forever Canadian event in Banff in September 2026 (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)
Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Albertans at a Forever Canadian event in Banff in September 2026 (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)

We are in the final stretch of one of the strangest periods in Alberta’s political history, and a gauntlet of rallies are being held this week across the province.

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi and former premier Rachel Notley are sharing a stage at a Vote to Save Canada rally at the Polish Hall in Edmonton on October 14 and Prime Minister Mark Carney will be appearing with former Progressive Conservative politician Thomas Lukaszuk at Forever Canadian rallies at the BMO Centre in Calgary on October 15 and at the Expo Centre in Edmonton on October 16.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

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Alberta Politics

Rewind: Danielle Smith’s Alberta Sovereignty Act is all about creating a political crisis

Danielle Smith and Rob Anderson in 2010 (source: Dave Cournoyer)
Danielle Smith and Rob Anderson in 2010 (source: Dave Cournoyer)

So much about what is happening in Alberta right now can be traced back to the Free Alberta Strategy

I’m working on a few new columns and a book review that I am hoping to publish soon, so I thought I’d share a piece I wrote that I keep coming back to as I write about what’s happening in Alberta politics today. In fact, it’s the very first column I published on Substack when I shifted Daveberta to this platform in September 2022.

So much about what is happening in Alberta right now, days ahead of the October 19 separation referendum, can be traced back to the Free Alberta Strategy that Danielle Smith promoted before and during her campaign for the United Conservative Party leadership in 2022.

Here’s my column from September 29, 2022.

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Alberta Politics

Mark Carney’s broad approval dwarfs Danielle Smith and Naheed Nenshi

Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Albertans at a Forever Canadian event in Banff in September 2026 (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)
Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Albertans at a Forever Canadian event in Banff in September 2026 (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)

There’s nothing like a Janet Brown poll to shake up Alberta politics

There’s a lot to unpack in the new Alberta politics poll by Janet Brown Opinion Research commissioned by CBC, but before I dive into what one of the province’s most well-respected pollsters has to say about support for Alberta’s political parties, separatism, and AI data centres it’s worth spending a moment reflecting on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s popularity in Alberta.

Carney’s popularity continues to dwarf Premier Danielle Smith and NDP leader Naheed Nenshi and he might be the most popular Liberal Prime Minister in Alberta since Sir Wilfrid Laurier more than 100 years ago.

According to Brown’s poll, 52 percent of Albertans surveyed said they were very impressed with Carney and only 26 percent said they were not at all impressed. Only 30 percent of Albertans surveyed said they were very impressed with Danielle Smith and 51 percent said they were not at all impressed with her job as Premier.

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Alberta Politics

Naheed Nenshi delivers NDP health care pitch days before Calgary-Shaw by-election

Calgary-Shaw NDP by-election candidate Kyle Campbell (centre) with NDP leader Naheed Nenshi (left) and Dr. Luanne Metz (right) announcing the party’s “Future of Health Care” policy (screenshot: Alberta NDP / YouTube)
Calgary-Shaw NDP by-election candidate Kyle Campbell (centre) with NDP leader Naheed Nenshi (left) and Dr. Luanne Metz (right) announcing the party’s “Future of Health Care” policy (screenshot: Alberta NDP / YouTube)

NDP pitches stability and investment over the UCP’s restructuring and privatization

With only days left before the September 14th by-election in Calgary-Shaw, Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi joined candidate Kyle Campbell to deliver his party’s health care pitch to voters with a pledge of stability and investment in a public system that has undergone massive bureaucratic restructuring and increased privatization since 2023.

Nenshi pledged that within three years of forming government after the 2027 election, the NDP would shorten emergency department wait times, cut surgical, diagnostic, and specialist wait times by 30 per cent, make sure every Albertan has access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner, and, a big one, re-form one single Ministry of Health.

Nenshi said the NDP would also launch a judiciary-led public inquiry into CorruptCare, a wide-ranging government corruption scandal that largely faded into the background over the summer.

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Alberta Politics

Alberta Referendum Day is 41 days away.

Elections Alberta issued a statement correcting a series of errors and confusing instructions included in Special Ballot packages that have been mailed to more than 200,000 Albertans ahead of the October 19 referendums. The elections authority also announced the deadline for applying for a mail-in Special Ballot is now September 25 instead of the previously announced October 9.

There has been no shortage of attention on the Alberta separation question that Albertans will be asked on October 19, but a cadre of former and current municipal and provincial politicians have written an op-ed warning of the divisions created by the five referendum questions that frame immigrants as scapegoats for the strain on Alberta’s health care and education systems.

The op-ed published in the province’s Postmedia newspaper was penned by former premier Rachel Notley, former Edmonton mayor Don Iveson, former Lethbridge mayor Chris Spearman former St. Albert mayor Cathy Heron, former Brooks mayor Barry Morishita, former Slave Lake mayor Karina Pillay, lawyer Avnish Nanda, and current High River Mayor Craig Snodgrass (Premier Smith lives in High River).

The immigration referendum questions were a hot topic at the Edmonton launch of Public Interest Alberta’s referendum campaign at the Beverly Heights Community Hall on September 3. The well-attended event in the packed community hall featured a handful of speakers including PIA executive director Brad Lafortune, comedian Henry Sir, Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan, and Senator Paula Simons (who recently wrote about the “Noxious Nine” in Alberta Views Magazine).

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Alberta Politics

Alberta’s separation referendum and the law of unintended consequences

Jason Kenney accepting the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party in March 2017
Jason Kenney accepting the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party in March 2017

Politics makes strange bedfellows. It’s amazing how much can change in 10 years.

I was recently reminded that it was only 10 years ago that Jason Kenney was campaigning for the leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party. With everything that has happened in Alberta politics since then, it feels like it might as well have been 20 years ago.

The longtime Calgary MP and former federal cabinet minister set his sights on “uniting the right” after the PC Party’s 43-year long streak as govermment was ended in spectacular fashion by Rachel Notley’s Alberta NDP in the 2015 election.

The PC Party’s loss and the NDP’s win was a shock to Alberta’s political system.

Decades of one-party dominance in Alberta (that even preceded the PCs) created a system centered around a PC Party with a big tent that spanned the political spectrum. The PC Party’s survival instincts and electoral success were matched only by the Liberal Party of Canada — another natural governing party that adapted and recreated itself again and again over the last century to get in front of the parade of public opinion.

And it worked like a charm for four decades.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

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Alberta Politics

Nenshi will run in Calgary, Trisha Estabrooks expected to run for NDP nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi and Trisha Estabrooks at the NDP’s annual Art Walk event on Whyte Avenue in July 2026 (source: Trisha Estabrooks / Facebook)
Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi and Trisha Estabrooks at the NDP’s annual Art Walk event on Whyte Avenue in July 2026 (source: Trisha Estabrooks / Facebook)

It was expected and NDP leader Naheed Nenshi has just confirmed it. Nenshi will run in a Calgary riding when the next provincial election is called. The NDP leader and former Calgary mayor won a by-election in Edmonton-Strathcona in June 2025 to replace former MLA and premier Rachel Notley but he had yet to officially announce his plans for the next election.

In a statement published on social media today, Nenshi said:

Today, I’m letting you know of a decision I’ve made. While I’ve been thrilled every day to serve as your MLA, I will be seeking election in a Calgary riding in the next general election.

This will open up Edmonton-Strathcona for a new representative from this beautiful community. I am informing you today so that the incredible constituency association in this riding has time for a healthy and robust nomination process to select a candidate and a future MLA worthy of representing you. Interested candidates can express their interest now and more details on the nomination process and dates will be coming soon.

Former school trustee Trisha Estabrooks is expected to announced her plans to run for the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona at a July 17 press conference at Frank’s Community Pub. The riding has been held by the NDP since 1997 and from 1986 to 1993 before that.

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Alberta Politics

Albertans give Danielle Smith a failing grade on separatism but would probably re-elect the UCP anyway

Danielle Smith speaking at the United Conservative Party Leaders Dinner in Calgary in 2026 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)
Danielle Smith speaking at the United Conservative Party Leaders Dinner in Calgary in 2026 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Only two Alberta premiers have finished a full term in office since the beginning of the 21st century.

Ralph Klein completed his third full-term as a Progressive Conservative premier from 2001 to 2004 and Rachel Notley led the New Democratic Party through the entirety of its historic one-term as government from 2015 to 2019 (Notley’s also defied historical expectations by leading her party to a near comeback in 2023).

Aside from Klein and Notley, the Premier’s Office has been a rotating door of short-term tenants who were forced out after election defeats, scandals, caucus and cabinet revolts, and raucous party memberships (the exception being Premier Dave Hancock, who served in the role for the six months between Alison Redford’s resignation and Jim Prentice’s win in the 2014 PC Party leadership race).

So the question on the minds of many political watchers today is whether the current occupant of the Premier’s Office, Danielle Smith, can survive a full-term in office to lead her party into the next election?

A month ago, I would have said absolutely and even today I would say probably, but Smith is now finding herself on increasingly shakier political ground after deciding to call a province-wide referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

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Alberta Politics

Alberta NDP’s path to victory still goes through Calgary

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley and former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi (source: Rachel Notley / Twitter)
Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley and former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi (source: Rachel Notley / Twitter)

Alberta NDP supporters are fond of saying their party would have won enough seats to form government if a few thousand votes had shifted their way in Calgary on May 29, 2023.

Putting aside that’s basically the same as saying “we would have won if more people voted for us,” it does reinforce just how big of a role that city’s voters played in the last provincial election — and how much they will matter again when Albertans go to the polls in 2027.

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Alberta Politics

The last Alberta election was pretty darn close

UCP leader Danielle Smith on election night in Calgary (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)
UCP leader Danielle Smith on election night in Calgary (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Alberta has a well-earned reputation as the land of historically large majority governments because every election since 1905 has resulted in a majority government — some of them huge. But the results of the last provincial election were pretty darn close in comparison.

The province-wide vote put Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party ahead of Rachel Notley’s NDP by 8 points, but that margin is deceiving. The UCP’s province-wide lead was largely a result of the party’s huge margins of victory in rural and small city ridings outside of Calgary and Edmonton. The vote results in that election’s twenty closest races — fifteen which were located in Calgary — were much, much closer.

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Alberta Politics

Worried about gerrymandering? Pay attention to the closest races from Alberta’s 2023 election

A map of the ridings with the closest races won by the UCP (blue) and NDP (orange) in the 2023 Alberta provincial election (map tool: CanadianPolling.ca)
A map of the ridings with the closest races won by the UCP (blue) and NDP (orange) in the 2023 Alberta provincial election (map tool: CanadianPolling.ca)

The United Conservative Party government has moved to take greater control of how the electoral boundaries for Alberta’s next provincial election will be drawn. Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government voted to toss out of majority report of the bipartisan Electoral Boundaries Commission this week and create a new process where an advisory panel reporting to an MLA committee will redraw Alberta’s new electoral map.

The Boundaries Commission report was disregarded by the government after the two UCP appointees to the commission released their own minority report that proposed drastically redrawing the proposed 89 ridings. It is difficult to look at the UCP commissioners proposal to slice the cities of Calgary, Lethbridge and Red Deer into huge rural-urban ridings without thinking it was proposed with the goal of cementing UCP majority government’s for the next decade.

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Daveberta Podcast

In Session: Danielle Smith charms rural leaders as secret Saudi side trip raises questions about loose ethics rules

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

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This is the third in a series of Daveberta Podcast episodes I’m calling Daveberta In Session. In these short episodes available to paid subscribers, I’ll sharing a few key things that I’m watching in Alberta politics this week and some other things that have caught my attention.

In today’s Daveberta Podcast episode, I discuss:

  • Premier Danielle Smith reluctantly admitted last week to taking jet flights and hotel stays from a Saudi Arabian prince that were not previously disclosed during her recent trip to the Middle East. The secret Saudi side trip is raising questions about loose ethics and disclosure rules.
  • Smith charmed rural municipal leaders at the recent Rural Municipalities of Alberta convention in Edmonton. A new report from a joint government working group acknowledges that unpaid property taxes from oil and gas companies are a sore spot for rural municipal governments and proposes solutions for the future, but not much hope that the already due back-taxes will ever get paid.
  • A new report from the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters highlights the importance of investing in transportation in rural communities in order to save lives and makes four recommendations.
  • The ongoing police investigation and expected Auditor General report into serious allegations of corruption and political interference involving hundreds of millions of dollars in medical supply procurement and private surgical contracts by the provincial government. MLAs will soon select a new Auditor General before Doug Wylie retires on April 28.
  • A few things I’ll be watching in Alberta politics in the week ahead, including the final report of the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission, Smith and energy minister Brian Jean’s trip to CERAWeek in Houston, Texas (federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson will be there too), and the federal NDP leadership vote next weekend.

I decided to test this podcast series during the spring session of the Alberta Legislature. I’m planning to do this for most weeks until the Assembly breaks for the summer — and then we’ll see where we go from there.

Thank you for subscribing and listening to this episode of the Daveberta Podcast. A sincere thank you to new paid subscribers, Selena, Megan, Sandeep, and Nate.

Share your feedback in the comments and if you enjoyed the podcast feel free to share it with a friend.

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Alberta Politics

Nate Horner’s big deficit budget — another year, another Alberta budget at the whim of oil and gas royalties

Alberta Minister of Finance Nate Horner in his pre-budget promotional video (source: Government of Alberta / YouTube)
Alberta Minister of Finance Nate Horner in his pre-budget promotional video (source: Government of Alberta / YouTube)

There’s a baked-in analysis in every Alberta provincial budget that is impossible to ignore: Alberta relies too much on revenues from oil and gas royalties to fund the daily operations of government.

The other baked-in part of the analysis is what Albertans want: well-funded public services without having to pay more taxes for them.

From a first glance, it sure looks like that’s what Albertans got in Minister of Finance Nate Horner’s budget tabled today in the Legislature.

The budget doesn’t appear to include any big spending cuts, but it does include something Conservatives in this province used to like saying they wouldn’t do: run a deficit. This budget runs a big deficit of $9.4 billion and projects deficits for the next two budgets.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

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