Tag: Sarah Hoffman

Categories
Alberta Politics Daveberta Podcast

Why Naheed Nenshi is running for the Alberta NDP leadership

Naheed Nenshi speaks to supporters in Calgary on the day he launched his campaign (source: Naheed Nenshi / Facebook)
Naheed Nenshi speaks to supporters in Calgary on the day he launched his campaign (source: Naheed Nenshi / Facebook)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Nenshi shares his thoughts on Rakhi Pancholi’s endorsement and what it means to be NDP in 2024

He’s a household name in Calgary, Alberta, and across Canada, and now he’s running to become the next leader of the Alberta NDP. Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi joins the Daveberta Podcast to share why he jumped into the race to replace Rachel Notley.

Since Nenshi entered the race on March 11, the NDP has seen the size of its membership double from around 16,000 to more than 30,000, a factor that likely played a big role in convincing rising political star Rakhi Pancholi to bow out of the race and endorse Nenshi.

“We must move forward to offer a positive alternative to the UCP that Albertans can enthusiastically support in the next election. And I believe that means uniting behind the next leader, Naheed Nenshi,” Pancholi said in her surprise endorsement of the now perceived frontrunner.

In this episode of the Daveberta Podcast, we sit down with Nenshi to discuss Pancholi’s endorsement, what it means to be an Alberta New Democrat in 2024, his time as mayor of Calgary, growing up in Red Deer, empathy in politics and much more.

The Daveberta Podcast is hosted by Dave Cournoyer and produced by Adam Rozenhart. This episode was recorded on March 26, 2024. The Daveberta Podcast was the 2020 winner in the Outstanding News & Current Affairs Series category in the Canadian Podcast Awards.

The full interview with Naheed Nenshi is available to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack.

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

What Danielle Smith said she wouldn’t campaign for in the 2023 election

Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean and Premier Danielle Smith during their trip to Texas last week. (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)
Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean and Premier Danielle Smith during their trip to Texas last week. (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Smith said she wouldn’t campaign on an Alberta Pension Plan and police force, but it looks like that’s what we’re getting.

I want to focus on the lede from this widely shared Canadian Press story published on March 5, 2023:

United Conservative Leader Danielle Smith says she won’t be campaigning on some of her party’s more contentious ideas — sovereignty legislation, a provincial police force and an Alberta pension plan — ahead of the May 29 election.

The reason why this story is notable is because of how much of the re-elected UCP’s political agenda today focuses on those three things Smith specifically didn’t want to talk about during the campaign.

Daveberta is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

It’s not unusual for parties that form government to back away from campaign promises or even implement policies they didn’t campaign on at all. But it feels a little more unusual for a party leader to implement policies she said she didn’t want to talk about during a 28-day election campaign that happened less than a year ago.

It was a shameless and cynical move, because despite Smith saying she didn’t want to campaign on those issues during the election, it was clear the UCP was going to move forward on pensions, police and sovereignty if they were re-elected.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

If you want full access to all Daveberta columns and episodes of the Daveberta Podcast, please consider signing up for a paid subscription

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Here comes Naheed Nenshi

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley and former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi during the May 2023 election (source: Rachel Notley / Twitter)
Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley and former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi during the May 2023 election (source: Rachel Notley / Twitter)

He’s the candidate NDP activists will loathe and NDP voters will love.

The countdown is on.

Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi is set to enter the Alberta NDP leadership race on Monday, March 11.

Nenshi hasn’t publicly said he’s interested in the race. He’s been busy promoting the novel Denison Avenue by Christina Wong and Daniel Innes on CBC Radio’s Canada Reads 2024 this week. Instead, his intentions are being telegraphed through political back channels.

Nenshi left office in 2021 after 11 years as mayor of Alberta’s largest city and barely skipped a beat before jumping back into the punditry that helped vault him into the mayor’s office in the first place. He’s thoughtful, well-spoken, entertaining, and thrives in the political fray. He’s a champion of civic engagement and was named the World’s Best Mayor in 2014.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

If you want full access to all Daveberta columns and episodes of the Daveberta Podcast, please consider signing up for a paid subscription.

Email
Categories
Daveberta Podcast

Why Sarah Hoffman is running for the Alberta NDP leadership

Edmonton-Glenora MLA Sarah Hoffman launches her campaign for the Alberta NDP leadership (source: Sarah Hoffman / Facebook)
Edmonton-Glenora MLA Sarah Hoffman launches her campaign for the Alberta NDP leadership (source: Sarah Hoffman / Facebook)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

The former health minister shares her plans for health, climate, and housing

NDP MLA Sarah Hoffman joins the Daveberta Podcast to talk about why she is running for the Alberta NDP leadership and her plans for health care, climate, and housing.

We discuss Hoffman’s experiences as Minister of Health and chair of the Edmonton Public School Board, the NDP’s challenges in rural Alberta, the party’s focus on Calgary and it’s relationship with the federal NDP. We also chat a bit about the possibility of former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi entering the race to replace Rachel Notley.

The Daveberta Podcast is hosted by Dave Cournoyer and produced by Adam Rozenhart. This episode was recorded on March 1, 2024.

New and recent episodes of the podcast are available to paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack. Sign up for an annual or monthly subscription to listen to the entire episode.

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

How the Heritage Fund was launched

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith delivers a pre-budget televised address on February 21, 2024 (source: YourAlberta / YouTube)
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith delivers a pre-budget televised address on February 21, 2024 (source: YourAlberta / YouTube)

It was 1975 and Lougheed’s PCs were swimming in oil money like Scrooge McDuck

The Heritage Savings Trust Fund was front and centre in Premier Danielle Smith‘s pre-budget televised speech last week, so there’s a good chance Albertans are going to hear a lot about it when Finance Minister Nate Horner rises in the Legislative Assembly this afternoon to table the provincial government’s annual budget.

In her 8-minute address to Albertans, Smith said she wants to funnel oil and gas royalty revenues into the Heritage Savings Trust Fund to increase it to between $250 and $400 billion by 2050. A report to the Standing Committee on the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund reported the fund had a market value of $21.6 billion in 2023.

Many Albertans know the patriotic version of the Heritage Savings Trust Fund story – a visionary rainy day bank account created in the 1970s by former premier Peter Lougheed meant to preserve Alberta’s oil wealth for future generations. But like many political stories that reach legendary status it is missing a lot of relevant historical context.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras.

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Alberta NDP leadership candidates consider splitting from the federal NDP

NDP leadership Rakhi Pancholi (photo source: Rakhi Pancholi / Facebook)
NDP leadership Rakhi Pancholi (photo source: Rakhi Pancholi / Facebook)

NDP members should remember there is no easy fix. Just ask the Alberta Liberals.

“This action reflects the isolationist politics of Alberta, but more importantly it is the result of the deep, deep malaise at the top end of the federal party. There is the little Toronto power group which throws the ball back and fourth to each other – they feed off each other.”

That was a quote from an Alberta Liberal activist attending the party’s convention in Calgary where members of the seatless party voted two-to-one to break ties and declare provincial independence from the Liberal Party of Canada led by Prime Minister Trudeau.

That was in February 1977.

Fast forward to today and, although the circumstances are different, you might hear something similar come from the mouth of an Alberta NDP member when talking about the provincial party’s relationship with the federal NDP in Ottawa.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras.

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith’s transgender youth policy isn’t really about parental rights

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (source: Government of Alberta / Flickr)
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (source: Government of Alberta / Flickr)

“Parental rights” has a long history in Alberta and it’s not what it sounds like

When you write about politics for long enough you begin to notice certain themes and issues that pop up perennially year to year.

So when Premier Danielle Smith’s office released a 7-minute video last week laden with messages about parental rights, my mind immediately wandered back to the first time I heard that term in 2006.

Those were heady days to be a political writer in Alberta. The Ralph Klein era was coming to an end and there was a whiff of change in the air.

From the Progressive Conservative backbenches came a private members’ bill that, under the guise of parents rights, would force schools to notify parents anytime school material included a mention of same-sex marriage and that no student be required to attend or teacher be required to teach that part of the course. This was less than one year after same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras.

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Alberta NDP announces pre-Calgary Stampede leadership vote

Edmonton-Glenora MLA Sarah Hoffman resigned as the party’s deputy leader and is expected to join the race to replace Rachel Notley as leader of the Alberta NDP (source: Sarah Hoffman / Facebook)
Edmonton-Glenora MLA Sarah Hoffman resigned as the party’s deputy leader and is expected to join the race to replace Rachel Notley as leader of the Alberta NDP (source: Sarah Hoffman / Facebook)

Race to replace Rachel Notley starts on Feb. 5, new leader to be named on June 22. Yahoo!

If you had told me ten years ago, on January 30, 2014, that the perceived frontrunners for the Alberta NDP leadership race in 2024 would be the MLAs for Calgary-Mountain View, Edmonton-Glenora and Edmonton-Whitemud, I probably would have laughed. Ten years ago today, Rachel Notley was nine months away from becoming NDP leader and none of these ridings would have even been on that party’s radar as winnable at that point.

Probably the most believable prediction from a decade ago might have been that then-Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith would be Premier in 2024, but there’s no way anyone back then could have predicted her path to the Premier’s Office today.

It’s hard to imagine a modern NDP in this province without Notley at its helm. She took the party from the fourth place fringe to government and solidified it as a political force in Alberta. As the NDP prepares to choose her successor, it’s even hard to compare the current version of the NDP to its pre-Notley version.

That’s a reality that NDP members from across Alberta are having to come to terms with after debating and discussing the leadership race at Red Deer Polytechnic last weekend.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras.

Thank you.

Thank you to everyone who has read, subscribed and shared my Daveberta Alberta politics columns.

I truly appreciate the support and feedback I’ve received from readers and subscribers since I first started publishing my Alberta politics column on Substack last year.

I’m excited to announce that we will be launching Season 7 of the Daveberta Podcast in the next few weeks with some exciting guests. I’m looking forward to returning the podcast to a regular monthly schedule in 2024.

And, in case you missed it, be sure to read my recent columns about the 10 things I’m watching in Alberta politics in 2024 and how Rachel Notley made the NDP relevant in Alberta politics.

Thanks again,

Dave

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

10 things I’m watching in Alberta politics in 2024

Premier Danielle Smith (centre) at a November 27, 2023 press conference with Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz (left) and Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf (right). (source: Alberta Newsroom / Flickr)
Premier Danielle Smith (centre) at a November 27, 2023 press conference with Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz (left) and Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf (right). (source: Alberta Newsroom / Flickr)

From the price of oil to the influence of right-wing populist groups to the NDP leadership race and more

January is usually a quiet month in politics, making it a good time to look ahead at what to expect in the year to come. Here are ten things I will be watching that could have a big impact on Alberta politics in 2024:

1. Price of oil

Alberta is probably the only province where the international price of oil is at the top of the Premier’s daily briefing notes. The price of oil not only has a big impact on a lot of Albertans’ jobs, but also the provincial government’s revenue stream.

Relying heavily on the price of oil to pay for the day to day operations of public services, the Alberta government’s 2023/2024 budget projected as much as 25 percent of its revenue will come from oil and gas royalties.

“If we go into this coming fiscal year starting April 1 with $72 per barrel, that might put the government into a situation where they either have to revise their spending plans or face a modest deficit,” University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe told CBC.

In Alberta, governments live and die by the price of oil.

2. Influence of right-wing populist and separatist groups

Without a doubt the influence of populist and separatist groups has grown in Alberta politics in recent years. Nowhere is this more pronounced than inside the governing United Conservative Party since Danielle Smith became Premier in October 2022 after riding the wave of populist discontent that pushed out former premier Jason Kenney.

In the closing months of 2023, newly elected UCP President Rob Smith spent nearly two hours on a livestream hosted by Alberta Prosperity Project CEO Chris Scott and past Independence Party of Alberta candidate Kerry Lambert.

The APP has advocated for the creation of a Republic of Alberta and is currently calling for a referendum on Alberta’s independence from Canada. Scott gained notoriety in conservative circles during the COVID-19 pandemic when his restaurant in the central Alberta hamlet of Mirror remained open in contravention of public health rules.

Also, in the final days of 2023, the UCP highlighted an endorsement from University of Calgary professor Barry Cooper in its year-end fundraising pitch on social media. Cooper has compared Alberta to pre-revolutionary colonial America in 1775 and has called for a referendum on separation from Canada. He is also a co-founder of the Free Alberta Strategy, an autonomist documentchampioned by Premier Smith’s Chief of Staff Rob Anderson.

And, on January 24, Smith will host and interview American media personality and conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson at an event in Calgary that has been promoted by the APP and other influential right-wing groups like Alberta Proud, and Take Back Alberta (which is reported to be under investigation by Elections Alberta).

3. The race to replace Rachel Notley

It is hard to imagine the modern Alberta NDP without Rachel Notley, but she announced last week that she will not lead the NDP into the 2027 election and will step down as leader when her successor is chosen, likely later this year.

The leadership race jockeying has already begun, with at least five MLAs sending signals that they plan to run: Calgary-Mountain View MLA Kathleen Ganley, Edmonton-Glenora MLA Sarah Hoffman, Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi, Edmonton-City Centre MLA David Shepherd, and Edmonton-Rutherford MLA Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse.

The NDP Provincial Council will meet on January 27 to discuss timelines and rules for the leadership race. The winner of the race will lead the 38-MLA NDP Caucus into 2025 and the party into the 2027 provincial election.

I am planning to write a lot more about this leadership race in the weeks and months to come.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras.

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Rachel Notley made the NDP relevant in Alberta

Rachel Notley (centre), with her husband, Lou Arab (left), and daughter Sophie (right), announces she will not lead the Alberta NDP into the next election. Notley leads the 38 MLA Official Opposition in the Legislature. (source: Rachel Notley / Facebook)
Rachel Notley (centre), with her husband, Lou Arab (left), and daughter Sophie (right), announces she will not lead the Alberta NDP into the next election. Notley leads the 38 MLA Official Opposition in the Legislature. (source: Rachel Notley / Facebook)

Notley announces she won’t lead the NDP into the next election, kicking off a leadership race

It’s the end of an era in Alberta politics. Former premier Rachel Notley announced today that she will not lead the Alberta NDP into the next election.

Alberta politics hasn’t been the same since Notley won the leadership of the NDP almost ten years ago.

When the 3,589 votes were counted on October 18, 2014, Notley won 70 percent of the vote and assumed the leadership of a party that was in fourth place with 4 MLAs and hadn’t won a seat outside of Edmonton in 25 years.

That all changed in Spring 2015, when Notley and her NDP slayed the 44-year old Progressive Conservative dynasty and shattered the mould of Alberta politics.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras.

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

The race to replace Rachel Notley as leader of the Alberta NDP

Potential NDP leadership contenders (clockwise): Nagwan Al-Guneid, Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, Joe Ceci, Kathleen Ganley, Christina Gray, Sarah Hoffman, Janis Irwin, Samir Kayande, Rakhi Pancholi, Shannon Phillips, Irfan Sabir, and David Shepherd (source: Legislative Assembly of Alberta)
Potential NDP leadership contenders (clockwise): Nagwan Al-Guneid, Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, Joe Ceci, Kathleen Ganley, Christina Gray, Sarah Hoffman, Janis Irwin, Samir Kayande, Rakhi Pancholi, Shannon Phillips, Irfan Sabir, and David Shepherd (source: Legislative Assembly of Alberta)

Choose wisely. Notley’s successor could be the next Premier of Alberta

Rachel Notley has been one of the Alberta NDP’s greatest assets since she took up the reins of the party in 2014. Under Notley’s leadership, the NDP went from a small and scrappy opposition party to form government in 2015 and then solidify itself as a viable political force and the singular opposition to the United Conservative Party after 2019.

And after 9 years as the helm of the Alberta NDP she helped transform, it’s likely she will not lead them into the 2027 election.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Alberta NDP name change pushed by group led by former MLA

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley during the 2023 election (source: Alberta NDP / Facebook)
Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley during the 2023 election (source: Alberta NDP / Facebook)

Alberta’s Progressive Future calls for Alberta NDP to distance itself from the Ottawa NDP

When I worked for the Alberta Liberal Party back in the 2000s, we had an inside joke that the Liberals could run Jesus Christ as a candidate in Wainwright and still lose. It was funny because it was probably true (the last time voters in Wainwright elected a Liberal MLA was in 1909) and was a reflection of how cynical we were that the party had any chance of actually winning any seats in rural Alberta.

I imagine more than a few Alberta NDP supporters felt the same when the results of the 2023 election started rolling in on May 29, 2023. Despite making big gains in Calgary and winning 38 seats province-wide, the party’s hopes of forming government were dashed at the city limits.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Net-zero a no-go for Alberta’s UCP government

A billboard van spotted in downtown Ottawa (source: Dan Woynillowicz / Twitter)
A billboard van spotted in downtown Ottawa (source: Dan Woynillowicz / Twitter)

Never a dull week in Alberta politics

Fresh from launching a pro-Alberta Pension Plan advertising campaign, the Alberta government has launched another advertising campaign asking Canadians to email their Member of Parliament to encourage them to oppose the federal government’s draft Clean Electricity Regulations (most Alberta MPs are Conservatives, so they are probably already opposing it).

The government’s “Tell the Feds” ad campaign warns that electricity prices could quadruple and Albertans could face blackouts during -30C temperatures if the draft federal regulations are adopted.

Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz, MLA for Calgary-Shaw and 2022 UCP leadership race candidate, has been the government’s point-person in opposing the draft federal regulations.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcastand special Alberta politics extras.

Email
Categories
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.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras.

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith is no fan of wind and solar power

Danielle Smith and Rob Anderson in the Media Room at the Alberta Legislature in 2010 (Source: Dave Cournoyer)..
Danielle Smith and Rob Anderson in the Media Room at the Alberta Legislature in 2010 (Source: Dave Cournoyer).

As a columnist, Smith was a harsh critic of “unreliable” renewable energy

The United Conservative Party government’s decision to impose an immediate 7-month moratorium on all new major wind and solar energy projects in Alberta came as a surprise to many political watchers.

The drastic decision was sudden and it wasn’t featured in any of the UCP’s campaign promises in the election held only 75 days ago. But anyone who has paid close attention to now-Premier Danielle Smith’s newspaper and radio commentary knows she has not hidden her deeply critical and skeptical views of wind and solar power.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get access to the Daveberta Podcast and special Alberta politics extras.

Email