Justice Minister Mickey Amery voted Best Cabinet Minister of 2024
With all the votes counted, the winners of the Best of Alberta Politics 2024 Survey have been chosen. The eighth annual survey is all about celebrating the best in Alberta politics. The winners were selected from a week-long vote for the top two choices in each category nominated by Daveberta subscribers.
It’s hard to imagine the old PC Party getting bogged down by this debate
If I had walked into the Alberta Legislature ten years ago and told an MLA, staffer, or journalist that in 2024 the province’s political landscape would be a competitive two-party system, I probably would have been laughed out of the Rotunda. They might have even alerted a security guard if I’d been so out of my mind to predict that the New Democratic Party would be competing with the conservatives to form Alberta’s government.
Until that point ten years ago, only twice in the Progressive Conservative Party’s four decades of uninterrupted majority governments had the dynasty been seriously challenged in an election. The PC Party was unquestionably Alberta’s Natural Governing Party.
NDP’s Oscar-winning film inspired catch phrase captures the UCP moment in Alberta politics
“Danielle Smith wants to control everything, everywhere, all at once…”
In the middle of the weekly chaos of Alberta politics, a catch phrase inspired by an Academy Award winning film has captured one of the driving themes of Alberta politics today.
“Danielle Smith wants to control everything. Pensions, police, health care, schools, local councils. Any dollar spent anywhere in the province, and any decision made by anyone. Everything,” NDP MLA Kyle Kasawski first said in an April 29 press release.
Kasawski is the rookie MLA from Sherwood Park who became the opposition’s sole Municipal Affairs critic when co-critic Sarah Hoffman joined the NDP leadership race earlier this year.
While Municipal Affairs can sometimes be a sleepy file, on both the ministerial and critic side, it has been front and centre over the past month as Premier Danielle Smith and Minister Ric McIver rein in municipal and university funding agreements with the federal government and expand the provincial cabinet’s power to fire locally elected officials and overturn municipal bylaws.
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Changes will send chills through municipal councils and create a lot of grief for MLAs
One of my goals when I moved Daveberta over to this Substack newsletter in 2022 was to take a different approach to writing about Alberta politics. For 17 years I published, sometimes, almost daily commentary on Alberta politics. Now, being on this site gives me a chance to take a breath, observe, and not feel like I need to rush analysis of what’s happening on our province’s political scene.
With that in mind, it has been very interesting to watch over the past week how Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government has unrolled its suite of changes to municipal governance and local election laws, and responded to the loud backlash from municipal leaders.
The UCP has spent a lot of political capital and government resources in its ongoing jurisdictional fights with the federal Liberal government in Ottawa, but Smith’s sovereignty agenda isn’t limited to challenging the powers of the federal government. This week’s Bill 20, Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act and last month’s Bill 18, Provincial Priorities Act are aimed at removing decision making powers from Alberta’s locally elected leaders and increasing the powers of the provincial government.
The drastic changes to the Local Authorities Election Act and the Municipal Government Act introduced by Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver gives the provincial government sweeping powers to overturn municipal bylaws and increased powers to remove locally elected municipal mayors, councillors, and school board trustees.
Changes also include legalizing corporate and union donations to municipal candidates and introducing a formal structure for political parties in municipal elections in Calgary and Edmonton.
It’s hard to imagine how most of these changes would improve municipal government or municipal elections, or that there is even broad support for some of these changes (there isn’t).
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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.
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It was a historic election result for the Alberta NDP.
Rachel Notley’s NDP won 38 seats in last week’s election and will form the largest Official Opposition in the province’s history. The NDP got more votes in this election than it ever has before, including a historic high of 49% in Calgary. The party ran the most sophisticated, well-organized and best-funded campaign in its history.
But it fell short of its ultimate goal of forming government.
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There are four days left until Election Day in Alberta.
Readers of the Daveberta will know I’ve been watching this Alberta election pretty closely and, while I’ve actually been watching all 87 ridings throughout the campaign, there are a few handfuls I’ve been keeping a close eye on.
Some of them will be close races and some will be won with landslides.
Here’s my list of 19 ridings I’ll be watching closely on Election Day.
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Election outcome doesn’t appear any clearer today than it did on Day 1
We’re midway through the final week of Alberta’s election campaign and while the most recent poll from Abacus Data points to Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party having an edge over Rachel Notley’s Alberta NDP, it will probably come down to ground game – who can get their voters out to the polls.
It feels like the closest election we’ve had in a long time.
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Before the collapse of the Progressive Conservative Party in 2015, being a PC Party member – or at least participating in PC Party events – was extremely normal. Normal to the point that it was barely political.
If you were a business or a non-profit that depended on government policy, you were a participator to some extent – you kind of had to be. As a decades-old political dynasty, it was the only game in town, and the political dynamic in Alberta showed it.
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The closest race in Alberta’s 2019 election is set to be a rematch in 2023.
United Conservative Party MLA Devinder Toor was nominated as his party’s candidate in Calgary-Falconridge last week, pitting him against second-time Alberta NDP challenger Parmeet Singh Boparai.
Toor beat Boparai in 2019 by narrow 91 votes.
Toor’s first term as a UCP backbencher was not short of controversy.
In June 2020, CBC reported that the owners of two popular food trucks claimed they were being bullied and harassed by residents who didn’t want them there, including Toor.
He was hit with a $15,000 fine from Elections Alberta in July 2021 for violating five sections of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act. And in September 2021, Alberta Health Services issued a closure order for a Gleichen hotel owned by Toor.
Toor was one of only a handful of UCP MLAs to support Danielle Smith in her bid to win the party’s leadership and he was rewarded in October 2022 with an appointment as Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism.
This is a riding the NDP believe they can flip. It is on my list to watch.
It looked like there might be six or seven candidates in the race but when the nomination papers were handed in, there were only four candidates contesting the ‘do-over‘ UCP nomination Livingstone-Macleod.
Tanya Clemens, Shauna Oseen, Chelsae Petrovic, and Don Whalen will be on the ballot when UCP members vote on March 9, 10 and 11.
Two candidates who previously announced their candidacies dropped out of the race. Christina Lee and Nanton town councillor Kevin Todd did not submit their nomination forms.
Todd posted about his withdrawing from the contest on his Facebook page:
This was an extremely difficult decision to make, and I didn’t make it lightly. However, after being involved more closely with the party, I found that some of my values, morals and ethics were just not aligning as much as they used to.
And tonight, Todd announced that he will instead be seeking the nomination to run as the Alberta Party candidate in Livingstone-Macleod.
Constituency office manager Lizette Tejada defeated four other candidates to win the NDP nomination in this hotly contested Calgary riding. This was the party’s second time holding a nomination contest in the riding. Brady Adkins, Angela McIntyre, Mattie McMillan and Laurie O’Neil were the other candidates in the race.
What’s one of the big questions being asked in Alberta political circles this week?
Will Finance Minister Travis Toews run for re-election?
The rancher-accountant and UCP leadership race runner-up has been silent on his plans for the next election and the party has not released any news about nominating a candidate in his Grande Prairie-Wapiti riding.
Will Toews bow out of provincial politics after tabling the spring budget? We’ll find out soon.
With just more than 100 days left until Election Day, the Alberta NDP have nominated candidates in 73 of Alberta’s 87 ridings. The United Conservative Party has candidates named in 58 ridings and the Green Party has 27 candidates. The Alberta Party has nominated 5 candidates and the Liberal Party has one.
Calgary-Bhullar-McCall: Sonya Virk joins Amanpreet Singh Gill in the UCP nomination race in this north east Calgary riding. Virk is a former member of the Alberta Party provincial board. A vote is scheduled for March 5.
Edmonton-Glenora: Shannon Berry and Amit Batra are seeking the UCP nomination. Batra previously ran as a Liberal candidate in Edmonton-Calder in 2015, was active in Wexit Alberta and, until recently, served as a director of the Wildrose Independence Party.
Edmonton-McClung: Daniel Heikkinen defeated Terry Vankka to win the UCP nomination. Heikkinen was a candidate for Edmonton City Council in October 2021.
Edmonton-Manning: Alberto Mazzocca and Jaspreet Saggu are seeking the UCP nomination. A nomination vote is scheduled for February 22, 2023.
Lethbridge-West: Rick Dempsey and Torry Tanner are seeking the UCP nomination. Dempsey ran for the nomination in 2018. Tanner was named in an unsuccessful lawsuit against former Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw challenging Alberta’s COVID-19 public health restrictions. A nomination vote is scheduled for March 14.
Lesser Slave Lake: Martine Carifelle, Jerrad Cunningham, Scott Sinclair, and Silas Yellowknee are seeking the UCP nomination. A vote is being held on February 25 and 26.
Calgary-Lougheed: Venkat Ravulaparthi and Kim Wagner are seeking the NDP nomination. A nomination vote is scheduled for March 14.
Drumheller-Stettler: Pharmacist Juliet Franklin was nominated as the NDP candidate. This was the only riding where the NDP candidate placed 4th in the 2019 election.
Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre: Fisheries biologist Vance Buchwald was nominated as the NDP candidate.
Julian Schulz has been nominated as the Green Party candidate in Edmonton-Glenora. Two of the party’s nominated candidates have withdrawn their candidacies: Brandy Kinkead in Calgary-Edgemont and Lucas Bevan in Sherwood Park.
Candidate nomination votes are currently scheduled for the following dates:
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Three months ago after the party cancelled a previous nomination contest it looked like almost nobody wanted to run for the United Conservative Party in Livingstone-Macleod. Now there are five candidates in the race to replace retiring MLA Roger Reid.
Town of Claresholm mayor Chelsae Petrovic is the fifth candidate to jump into the UCP nomination contest in the sprawling south west Alberta riding, joining Tanya Clemens, Christina Lee, Kevin Todd, and Don Whalen.
Petrovic was elected to her first 4-year term as mayor in October 2021 and appears to have already collected $1000 in online donations for her nomination run.
A date for the nomination vote hasn’t been set yet but this is actually the second time the UCP has had to hold a nomination race in Livingstone-Macleod.
With Reid announcing he would not run for re-election the day after the October 31, 2022 candidate entry deadline, former People’s Party candidate and Freedom Convoy-enthusiast Nadine Wellwood was left as the lone candidate in the race. Wellwood’s supporters claimed they sold more than 800 UCP memberships in the riding but her promotion of debunked COVID-19 treatments like ivermectin and comparisons of vaccine passports to policies enacted by the Nazi Germany led the UCP to reject her acclamation.
So the UCP was left without a candidate in what was a very safe riding in 2019.
Overshadowing all this is the Premier of Alberta, who actually lives in the riding but was elected in a by-election elsewhere.
Danielle Smith announced in March 2022 that she would challenge Reid for the UCP nomination but after she won the party leadership he gave no indication he was interested in resigning to let her run in a by-election. Instead, Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA Michaela Frey resigned to allow Smith to run in a by-election in that riding, which she won handily.
Smith has not been officially nominated to run in either riding in the next election but the crowded race in her home riding suggests she is sticking with Brooks-Medicine Hat.
The Alberta NDP have nominated well-known conservationist Kevin Van Tighem. The author and former superintendent of Banff National Park has been an outspoken opponent of open-pit coal mining in the Rocky Mountains, an issue that drew widespread opposition from municipal leaders and ranchers in the region.
Here are some of the latest updates to the list of Alberta election nomination candidates:
Calgary-Fish Creek: The United Conservative Party will hold a nomination vote on February 23. Three candidates have entered the race: Dave Guenter, Myles McDougall, and Christina Steed. Steed has been endorsed by outgoing UCP MLA Richard Gotfried and Guenter has an endorsement from Grande Prairie-Mackenzie Conservative MP Chris Warkentin.
Calgary-Lougheed: Michelle Mather is the third candidate to enter the UCP nomination contest in this south west Calgary riding formerly represented by newly hired Bennett Jones employee Jason Kenney. Max DeGroat and Mark Fieslier are already in the race.
Calgary-Varsity: The Alberta Party will announce its candidate in this north west Calgary riding at an event on February 12.
Cypress-Medicine Hat: Cypress County Councillor Robin Kurpjuweit has dropped out of UCP nomination contest. James Finkbeiner and Justin Wright are the two candidates left in the race.
Edmonton-McClung: Past city council candidate Daniel Heikkinen and oral surgeon Terry Vankka are seeking the UCP nomination in this south west Edmonton riding. A nomination meeting is scheduled for February 10.
Edmonton-North West: Tyler Beaulac has been nominated as the Green Party candidate.
Edmonton-Whitemud: UCP Caucus staffer Varun Chandrasekar will challenge former Liberal Party leader Raj Sherman for the UCP nomination. Sherman attempted to run for the UCP leadership in 2022 but was not granted a waiver to join the race when he did not meeting the membership requirements.
Red Deer-North: Heather Morigeau is running for the Green Party. Morigeau was previously nominated as the party’s candidate in Calgary-Buffalo but withdrew from the nomination in that riding last month.
Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre: Carrie Tait has a report about the Take Back Alberta-backed revolt against embattled MLA and former finance minister Jason Nixon and the right-wing group’s effort to overturn his nomination as the UCP candidate in the riding.
Sherwood Park: Sue Timanson is the Alberta Party candidate in this suburban riding just east of Edmonton. Timanson was the party’s candidate in 2019, when she earned 13.1 per cent of the vote.
Candidate nomination votes are currently scheduled for the following dates:
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With thousands of submissions made to the sixth annual Best of Alberta Politics 2022 survey, your choices have been sorted and you can now vote for the top 3 choices in each category. Voting is open until Dec. 22, 2022 at 8:00 pm and the winners will be announced shortly after at daveberta.ca. Thank you to everyone who voted.
Here are the top choices in each category:
1. Who was the best Alberta MLA of 2022? – VOTE
Honourable mentions to runners-up Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi and Central Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen.
2. Who was the best Alberta cabinet minister of 2022? – VOTE
Honourable mention to runner-up Minister of Health Jason Copping.
3. Who was the best opposition MLA of 2022? – VOTE
Honourable mention to runners-up Edmonton-City Centre MLA David Shepherd and Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi.
4. Who is the up and coming MLA to watch in 2023? – VOTE
Honourable mentions to runners-up Calgary-Shaw MLA Rebecca Schulz.
5. Who is the candidate to watch in the 2023 election? – VOTE
Honourable mentions to Edmonton-South NDP candidate Rhiannon Hoyle and Edmonton-Rutherford Green Party candidate Jordan Wilkie.
6. What was the biggest issue of 2022? – VOTE
7. What was the biggest political play of 2022 in Alberta? – VOTE
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Today’s by-election in Brooks-Medicine Hat will determine if Premier Danielle Smith will have a seat in the Alberta Legislature, but ahead of that vote here are the latest candidate nomination updates.
Days after he withdrew from the United Conservative Party’s nomination contest in Livingstone-Macleod, MLA Roger Reid told Globe & Mail reporter Carrie Tait that he would not vote for Nadine Wellwood if she succeeds him as the UCP candidate. Now, Wellwood’s controversial nomination has been rejected by the party.
Here’s what Reid told the Globe & Mail:
Wellwood has a long history of posts on social media in which she has compared vaccine passports to Nazi Germany, promoted ivermectin as a cure for COVID-19, and spread the conspiracy theory that U.S. President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election from former president Donald Trump.
“I think her focus is not where the people of Livingstone-Macleod are focused,” Mr. Reid said in an interview when asked if he would support Ms. Wellwood. “What she has been posting and what she’s been speaking to is not addressing the broad concerns of most of the residents of this riding.”
Ms. Wellwood said she did not have time to respond to questions on Thursday.
Wellwood blamed the “party elite” in a statement saying she would appeal her disqualification.
Her appeal will be a first test of the new UCP board, which is now about half controlled by supporters of the Take Back Alberta PAC slate, which swept the elections at the recent UCP AGM. Supporters of that PAC have called for the reopening of nominations in Cardston-Sikiska and Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, where challengers to the incumbent MLAs were disqualified earlier this year for making controversial statements on social media.
Former Wildrose MLA Scott Cyr joins former MD of Bonnyville Reeve Greg Sawchuck in challenging MLA David Hanson for the UCP nomination in Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul.
Cyr was first elected in 2015 and did not run for re-election in 2019 after his Bonnyville-Cold Lake and Hanson’s Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills ridings were merged in the electoral boundaries redistribution. Cyr endorsed Hanson in 2018.
He was openly critical of UCP MLA’s caught up in the Aloha-gate scandal in December 2021, telling CTV that the vacations were a “slap in the face” for his family and the average Albertan.”
The UCP has now opened nominations in Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, as well as Central Peace-Notley, Chestermere-Strathmore, Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview, and Edmonton-Mill Woods.
And it looks like a UCP candidate who came close to winning in the last election probably won’t be running again in the next election. Former UCP candidate Karri Flatla, who ran for the party in Lethbridge-West in 2019, levelled some pretty harsh criticism at Smith on her Facebook page.
The NDP have nominated candidates in 62 of Alberta’s 87 ridings. The UCP have candidates named in 36 ridings and the Green Party has 18 candidates. The Alberta Party has nominated 3 candidates and the Liberal Party has one.
Here are the scheduled upcoming nominations:
I am maintaining a list of candidates running for party nominations, so if you are seeking a nomination and would like you name added to the list please let me know. Thanks!
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Kyle Kasawski defeated County Councillor Katie Berghofer, former MLA Annie McKitrick, and teacher Jeff Manchak to win the Alberta NDP nomination in Sherwood Park.
“I am very grateful that the members of this community have trusted me to be their representative in the next provincial election,” said Kasawski. “I believe in the vision that Rachel Notley has for Alberta, and I am excited to be joining her team to bring that vision to life.”
Kasawski is a renewable energy expert who taught at NAIT’s Alternative Energy Technology Program from 2017 to 2021.
The suburban riding located just east of Edmonton is currently represented by United Conservative Party MLA Jordan Walker. He was first elected in 2019 with 45 per cent of the vote.
McKitrick represented the riding as an NDP MLA from 2015 to 2019.
The riding is expected to be hotly contested by the UCP and NDP in the next election and is a critical pickup for the NDP if they are to form government.
Today the NDP are expected to nominate Calgary Transit operator Raj Jessel as their candidate in Chestermere-Strathmore. Jessel was the federal NDP candidate in Calgary-Shepard in the 2021 election.
Cheryl Hunter Loewen is expected to be nominated as the NDP candidate in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills on October 1.
And on October 5, former Red Deer City Manager Craig Curtis and past school board candidate Jaelene Tweedle will be on the ballot as NDP members in Red Deer-North choose their next candidate.
The NDP have now nominated candidates in 51 of Alberta’s 87 electoral districts, with seven additional nomination meetings scheduled in the coming weeks.
The UCP has 36 nominated candidates and appears to have halted nominating new candidates until after the October 6 leadership vote. The Alberta Party has three candidates nominated.
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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.
“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.
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 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.
