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.
UCP MLAs Brandon Lunty, Ron Wiebe, Justin Wright, Jackie Lovely and Searle Turton at the Premier’s K-Days BBQ in 2025. Wiebe, Wright, Lovely and Turton are among the 26 MLAs facing recall campaigns (source: United Conservative Caucus / Facebook)
Will any MLAs lose their jobs because of these direct democracy campaigns? (Probably not)
It was always going to be really hard.
Two of the 26 recall campaigns launched against United Conservative Party and New Democratic Party MLAs have been submitted to Elections Alberta and have fallen short of the number of signatures needed to force a recall vote in those ridings.
The law introduced by the UCP government in 2021 allows a recall election to happen in a riding where petitioners are able to gather the in-person signatures amounting to at least sixty-percent of the number of people who voted the riding in the last provincial election. They only have three months to do it.
That’s a lot of signatures and not a lot of time.
Overturning a free and fair democratic election isn’t something that should be easy to do and, regardless of how you feel about the current government or how MLAs have behaved or misbehaved, they won their election three years ago fair and square.
Liberal Party leader Laurence Decore at a press conference with University of Calgary Students’ Union President Naheed Nenshi in 1993 (source: Alberta Views Magazine)
It would be more than 50 years after William Aberhart repealled the recall law before more attempts were made to bring back recall in Alberta.
Riding the same wave of populism that Ernest’s son Preston Manning rode into Ottawa in the early 1990s, the Alberta Liberal Party led by Laurence Decore adopted recall as an official party policy in the 1993 election.
“Recall is vital for Albertans because it gives people an element of control over their politicians between elections,” Decore argued in the Edmonton Journal in June 1993. “It also gives MLAs the power to tell their leader they can’t vote for a bill because their constituents wouldn’t stand for it. This power will encourage more free votes in the house and loosen party discipline.”
It wasn’t until September 1937 that a formal application to start a recall petition against Premier William Aberhart in his Okotoks-High River riding was filed and submitted with the required $200 deposit (which is around $4,000 in current dollars).
“The said member, Hon. William Aberhart, has failed to implement promises and representations made by him to the electors prior to the election. He has supported government policies and enactment of statutes detrimental to the province and has lost the conference of the electorate of Okotoks-High River electoral division,” read the application submitted on September 20, 1937.
Premier William Aberhart usually gets credit for being the first Alberta MLA to face the threat recall but that honour actually belongs to St. Paul MLA Joseph Beaudry and Taber MLA James Hansen.
William Aberhart was Premier of Alberta from 1935 to 1943.
Social Credit’s recall law lasted 18 months on the books before it was repealed
A recent proliferation of MLA recall campaigns has fuelled speculation that Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government could repeal the law, just like Premier William Aberhart did when his party’s MLAs faced recall campaigns 88 years ago.
Aberhart’s Social Credit government passed a recall law in April 1936 and then repealed it in October 1937 after the Premier was targeted by voters in his own riding.
Also: Look who’s running in the UCP AGM board elections
An MLA Recall law championed by United Conservative Party MLAs four years ago is coming back to haunt some of those politicians today.
A second recall campaign launched this month aims to recall UCP MLA Angela Pitt in her suburban Airdrie-East riding north of Calgary. Pitt is the second MLA to face a recall effort in recent weeks with a similar campaign being launched by constituents of Calgary-Bow UCP MLA and Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides in October.
Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf speaks at a government press conference in Edmonton on April 10, 2025 (source: Alberta Government / Flickr)
I read all 197 submissions to Alberta’s Electoral Boundaries Commission so you don’t have to
The City of Lethbridge could be carved into four provincial ridings that sprawl into the surrounding rural areas if a local United Conservative Party MLA gets his wish. Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf submitted a written proposal to the Electoral Boundaries Commission calling for the southwest Alberta city to be reconfigured into “three or four complementary ridings that create a cohesive “agri-innovation corridor.”
Neudorf’s submission, which is one of 197 written submissions received by the commission and posted on its website, proposes a dramatic change in the electoral map he says would give “producers, processors, researches, and urban businesses a unified voice in the Legislature.”
Liberal Party leader Mark Carney on the campaign trail (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)
UCP MLA writes that Canada is broken and Team Canada is a “fake team”
Mark Carney has only been Prime Minister of Canada for 17 days but last week he may have made one of the most consequential statements by a Canadian political leader in recent memory.
“The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” Carney said in response to American President Donald Trump’s almost daily threats against Canada.
Trump backed down on his threats last week to level 25 percent tariffs against the Canadian automobile manufacturing industry, probably temporarily, after Carney announced retaliatory tariffs, but this week could feature Trump’s next big intervention in a federal election campaign where he has become the biggest villain. April 2 is what the Trump is calling “Liberation Day.” It’s the day he says he plans to level more huge tariffs on products being imported into the US.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks to reporters in Washington DC on February 12, 2025. Standing behind her are Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford (screenshot CPAC)
When scandal threatens to envelop a government, the politicians spin hard
“Changing the channel” might be an outdated metaphor in a world where online streaming is how a lot of people now watch “television,” but it is a term that remains in use by politicians and political communicators to describe a strategy to draw attention away from something you don’t want to be on the top of people’s minds or the front pages of the news websites.
That’s exactly what Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government has been trying to do since Globe & Mail reporter Carrie Tait broke the Dodgy Contract Scandal last week.
The bombshell story revolves around allegations that senior political staff in the government were involved in a $600 million procurement scandal and that AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos was fired by the government two days before she was scheduled to meet with the Auditor General “to discuss her investigation into procurement contracts and deals for private surgical facilities.”
Note: Paid subscribers on the Daveberta Substack can keep scrolling and read all about the candidates running for the federal Conservative Party nominations in the Bow River and Red Deer ridings.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith with South Dakota Governor and Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)
More MAGA, Less Ottawa
With the impending electoral defeat of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeaugrowing more likely by the day, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has embarked on her own Team Alberta diplomatic charm offensive in the United States.
Just days after American President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods imported into his country, Smith jetted off to the Western Governors conference in Las Vegas. Smith held a handful of one-on-one meetings with Republican and Democratic governors as part of her pitch to US law-makers to exclude Canadian oil and gas from Trump’s tariff war.
“I am a fan of our biggest trading partner” Smith’s told a Fox News host when she was asked on-air if she was a fan of Trump. In response to Trump’s now frequently repeated threats that Canada should become America’s 51st state if Canadians don’t like the tariffs, Smith said he was “hilarious.”
The 2024 Best of Alberta Politics finalists. Janis Irwin, Searle Turton, Rakhi Pancholi, Mickey Amery, Todd Loewen, Kathleen Ganley, Jennifer Johnson, Kyle Kasawski (left to right)
Vote for this year’s best MLA, cabinet minister, MLA to watch, municipal leader and more
With hundreds of names submitted to the 2024 Best of Alberta Politics Survey, your nominations have been sorted and the top two choices have been identified in all seven categories.
Voting in the eighth annual survey is now open to the nearly 4,600 Daveberta subscribers (free and paid) until Sunday, December 1 at 8:00 p.m. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, December 3.
You shared your picks. It’s now time to vote for the top 3.
With more than a thousand submissions made in the annual Best of Alberta Politics survey, your choices have been sorted and you can now vote for the top 3 choices in each category.
Voting for the top 3 will be open until Dec. 17 at 8:00 p.m. and the winners will be announced on December 19.
This is the seventh annual edition of this survey and it is all about celebrating the best in Alberta politics, so if there is a person who doesn’t fit neatly into any of these categories who deserves some kudos, please send me an email and let me know.
Former Spruce Grove city councillor Chantal Saramaga-McKenzie defeated former Parkland County mayor Rod Shaigec to secure the NDP nomination in Spruce Grove-Stony Plain.
Chantal Saramaga-McKenzie
“My parents still live here in the same house they bought in 1969. This community is in my DNA, and I will ensure it has a strong voice in the legislature,” Saramaga-McKenzie said in a statement. “I will work to ensure this community will have access to quality healthcare, long-term job growth and opportunities for our children, housing for all – especially our seniors, and to tackle the affordability crisis head on. I am ready to get to work.”
Saramaga-McKenzie is an engineer and business owner and served on city council from 2017 to 2021.
The riding is currently represented by United Conservative Party MLA Searle Turton, who is also a former Spruce Grove city councillor. He currently serves as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Energy and as the private sector union liaison for the Ministry of Labour and Immigration. He is nominated to run in the next election.
Michaela Frey not running for re-election
Michael Frey
Brooks-Medicine Hat UCP MLA Michaela Frey announced that she will not seek re-election after serving one term in the Legislature. “I’ll continue to serve until an election is called, but my motivation is that ultimately there are some things in life that are too precious – having kids is one of them,” Frey, 29, told the Medicine Hat News. “I want to focus on that … I want to be at home in Medicine Hat to do that.”
Former Newell County councillor Mara Nesbitt has already announced her plans to seek the UCP nomination. The NDP have nominated retired teacher Gwendoline Dirk. And Alberta Party leader and former Brooks mayor Barry Morishita is hoping he can reclaim a seat in the Legislature as the candidate in this riding.
Four running for NDP nomination in Sherwood Park
Four candidates are running for the NDP nomination in Sherwood Park. Strathcona County Councillor Katie Berghofer, renewable energy entrepreneur Kyle Kasawski, teacher Jeff Manchak , and former MLA Annie McKitrick will be on the ballot at a nomination vote on September 28.
The NDP have now nominated candidates in 50 of Alberta’s 87 electoral districts. The United Conservative Party has 36 nominated candidates and the Alberta Party has three.
Despite running for the United Conservative Party leadership in 2017, Schweitzer bowed out of this year’s race after endorsing Premier Jason Kenney in the June leadership review. He announced soon after that he would not seek re-election as MLA but his sudden resignation announcement at least eight months ahead of the next election comes as a surprise – and opens the possibility of a by-election in Calgary-Elbow before the next general election.
It would be the third by-election in Calgary-Elbow in the last 16 years – the others being held because of the resignations of former MLAs (and premiers) Ralph Klein in 2007 and Alison Redford in 2014.
The 2007 by-election shocked political watchers when Liberal Craig Cheffins won, and in 2014, Alberta Party leader Greg Clark narrowly lost to Calgary school trustee and former Saskatchewan MLA Gordon Dirks. Clark defeated Dirks in the election the following year but was defeated by Schweitzer in 2019.
Already seen as a possible pick-up in the next election, the Alberta NDP nominated energy analyst Samir Kayande and have poured resources and volunteers into the riding to support his bid.
The Alberta Party has chosen lawyer and former Liberal Party leadership candidate Kerry Cundal to carry their banner, and her candidacy will be a test of how much of the party’s support in 2015 was a credit to Greg Clark’s personal popularity.
Mark Calgary-Elbow down on your list of ridings to watch.
Former Mayor running for NDP nomination in Spruce Grove-Stony Plain
Former Parkland County Mayor Rod Shaigec is the second candidate to enter the NDP nomination contest in Spruce Grove-Stony Plain. Shaigec joins former Spruce Grove City Councillor and mayoral candidate Chantal Saramaga-McKenzie in the race.
“We need responsible and accountable government that puts Albertans and communities first. We need an honest, hard-working leader whose integrity is beyond reproach – that leader is @RachelNotley,” Shaigec wrote on Twitter.
Shaigec served three-terms as Mayor of Parkland County from 2010 to 2021, and chose not to run for re-election last year to give himself time to recover from a traumatic tractor accident in 2020.
Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage releases the final report of the Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns.
Sonya Savage has been acclaimed as the UCP candidate in Calgary-North West. Savage was first elected in 2019, succeeding NDP MLA Sandra Jansen, who was elected as a Progressive Conservative in 2012 and 2015 but crossed the floor to the NDP in 2017 and became Minister of Infrastructure. Jansen did not run for re-election in 2019.
Savage has served as Minister of Energy since 2019 and is co-chair of Travis Toews’ leadership campaign.
Before her election, Savage was known as a lawyer and lobbyist for the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association but many years before that she was a PC Party activist.
“The philosophy we’re looking for is somebody who’s very conservative, less government, more individual responsibility, but also somebody who is progressive who’s backing the unity deal. We want to hear how they’re going to renew and urbanize the party,” said Savage, then known as Sonya Nerland, to Calgary Herald reporter Joan Crockatt on Sept. 19, 1992.
Savage ended up backing Energy Minister Rick Orman in the 1992 leadership race, along with future premier Jim Prentice, who was Orman’s campaign chair.
Orman placed third in the race and dropped out before the Dec. 2, 1992 second ballot to endorse Nancy Betkowski.
Savage would later co-chair Orman’s second campaign for the PC Party leadership in 2011. Orman dropped out after placing fifth on the first ballot and endorsed Gary Mar, who was then defeated by Alison Redford (who was the PC Party Youth President ten years before Savage).
(Am I the only one who’s starting to feel like Alberta politics is just a rotating cast of 20 characters?)
