Tag: Tara Sawyer

UCP MLAs treat Forever Canadian’s Thomas Lukaszuk like a hostile witness

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 21, 2026

Before Glubish’s motion and the UCP’s pre-mature press release, MLAs on the committee heard from former Progressive Conservative MLA Thomas Lukaszuk, who headed last year’s successful Forever Canadian citizen initiative petition.

The UCP MLAs on the committee aggressively questioned Lukaszuk as if he were a hostile witness. It was strange to watch.

Lukaszuk’s petition, which asked the question “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?” collected the signatures of more than 456,000 Albertans. But Lukaszuk and his legion of pro-Canada of volunteers clashed with the growing separatist-wing of the UCP.

What a gong show! MLA committee chaos crashes UCP separation referendum motion

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 20, 2026

Leduc-Beaumont UCP MLA and and Special Citizen Initiative Proposal Review Committee chair Brandon Lunty (screenshot from assembly.ab.ca)

Trigger-happy UCP misfires with Mission Accomplished press release

Brandon Lunty looked like he wanted to crawl out of his own skin when he found out that the United Conservative Party Caucus sent out a press release announcing the adoption of a motion that hadn’t even been voted on yet.

As chair of the Special Citizen Initiative Proposal Review Committee, Leduc-Beaumont UCP MLA Lunty had one job today: to steer a motion through the committee to recommend the adoption of a referendum question on Alberta separation from Canada.

Alberta Politics

Dan Williams’ Bill 28 aims to undermine public trust in public libraries and librarians

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 12, 2026

Minister of Municipal Affairs Dan Williams speaks to reporters on April 2, 2026 (screenshot: Government of Alberta / YouTube)

In the age of Artificial Intelligence, algorithms, easily spread misinformation, and privately owned social media platforms, who better is there to trust in our society than librarians? Like teachers and other educators, professional librarians and library staff are on the frontlines of the fight to preserve and protect credible public information and knowledge.

Public libraries are probably one of the last truly public spaces we have in our communities. They aren’t a private space that you have to pay to access by buying a ticket, membership, or a coffee. Public libraries are for everyone – and they offer much more than books. They provide programming for kids and adults, courses, resources, and a place for community gatherings.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

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

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 23, 2026

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.

Alberta Politics

Separation looms large among rural conservatives in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 26, 2025

This week’s by-elections were as clear an indication as any that the divisive debate over Alberta’s separation from Canada is mostly an issue among rural conservatives in and outside of Smith’s UCP.

UCP candidate Tara Sawyer won the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding with 61 percent, a drop of 14 points from the 2023 election, and most of that vote appears to have gone to the right-wing separatist Republican Party.

The Republicans had hoped their party leader, Cam Davies, could pull off a win inspired by separatist Gordon Kesler’s win in Olds-Didsbury in 1982 but when the votes were counted he placed third with 17 percent behind NDP candidate Bev Toews, who placed second with 20 percent.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Separation Referendum, Alberta Separatism, Bev Toews, Cameron Davies, Canada Election Substack, Daveberta Substack, Gordon Kesler, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election, Republican Party of Alberta, Tara Sawyer, United Conservative Party, Western Alientation, Western Canada Concept, Western Separation

Alberta Politics

Alberta is getting a bad deal and it’s always Ottawa’s fault

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 25, 2025

Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next Panel looks a lot like a UCP re-election tour

Alberta is getting a bad deal and it’s always Ottawa’s fault. That’s Premier Danielle Smith’s key message in a 6 minute and 26 second long video posted on her social media channels on Tuesday.

Less that 24 hours after the polls closed in three provincial by-elections that saw voters deliver one win for Smith’s United Conservative Party and two wins for Naheed Nenshi’s NDP, the premier was ready to announce a new panel to hear people’s grievances about Ottawa and views on the provincial government taking control of immigration, which immigrants should have access to social services, and creating a provincial tax collection agency, provincial pension plan and provincial police force.

Naheed Nenshi’s NDP win Edmonton-Ellerslie and Edmonton-Strathcona by-elections

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 24, 2025

NDP leader Naheed Nenshi shares a stage with NDP MLAs at his by-election victory party on June 23, 2025 (source: Alberta NDP / YouTube)

UCP wins Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills but fails to make gains in Edmonton

The ballots have been counted in the provincial by-elections held yesterday and the results are: Status quo ante bellum.

Naheed Nenshi’s NDP held suburban Edmonton-Ellerslie and urban Edmonton-Strathcona, and Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party held rural Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills.

What’s at stake in Alberta’s mid-term by-elections

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 19, 2025

Then-leader of the Wildrose Party Danielle Smith at a press conference during the 2014 Edmonton-Whitemud by-election. (source: Dave Cournoyer)

Deciphering what happens in Edmonton-Ellerslie, Edmonton-Strathcona, and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills could be interesting

The three by-elections happening on June 23 could have a big impact on Alberta politics, but maybe not in the way you might think. The results of the mid-term by-elections in urban Edmonton-Strathcona, suburban Edmonton-Ellerslie, and rural Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills are an important test for Alberta’s political leaders and the results could impact provincial politics in our province in different ways.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Alberta Party, Alberta Pension Plan, Alberta Separatism, Battle River-Crowfoot, Battle River-Crowfoot by-election, Bev Toews, Brandon Lunty, Cameron Davies, Caroline Currie, Chris Gallaway, Christy Clark, Corey Hogan, Damien Kurek, Danielle Smith, Darby Crouch, Darby-rae Crouch, Edmonton-Ellerslie, Edmonton-Ellerslie by-election, Edmonton-Strathcona, Edmonton-Strathcona by-election, Enyinnah Okere, Fred Munn, Gordon Kesler, Gurtej Singh Brar, Mike Ellis, Naheed Nenshi, Naresh Bhardwaj, Nathan Cooper, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election, Patrick Lennox, Paul Hinman, Pierre Poilievre, Republican Party of Alberta, Ryan Hastman, Tara Sawyer, United Conservative Party, Western Canada Concept, Wildrose Loyalty Coalition, Yonathan Sumamo

Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith’s mid-term by-elections

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 29, 2025

Premier Danielle Smith with UCP candidate Tara Sawyer and supporters in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills on May 24, 2025 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

By-elections in Edmonton-Ellerslie, Edmonton-Strathcona, and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills on June 23

It was two years ago today that Premier Danielle Smith led the United Conservative Party to re-election in Alberta. It was a close election by Alberta standards, with former premier Rachel Notley’s NDP making big gains in Calgary but not enough to block a conservative re-election.

Despite implementing a political agenda much more radical than anything that was promised on May 29, 2023 and being dogged by controversial scandals and allegations of corruption, Smith’s UCP continues to hold it’s support in the province.

Smith is a deeply divisive figure in Alberta but she is a shrewd politician and skilled communicator who knows how to appeal to and govern with her party’s voters exclusively in mind, even if it sometimes puts her offside with most Albertans.

Upcoming by-elections in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Edmonton-Ellerslie and Edmonton-Strathcona

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 26, 2025

The Alberta NDP are scheduled to nominate a candidate in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election on June 14, but rumours are circulating that Premier Danielle Smith could call that by-election along with two others in Edmonton-Ellerslie and Edmonton-Strathcona very soon.

The UCP announced last week that Alberta Grains chairperson Tara Sawyer had been appointed as the party’s candidate in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. Sawyer’s appointment happened without an open nomination race, which is likely an indication the UCP was concerned a pro-separatist candidate could possibly create a messy nomination contest in that rural central Alberta riding.

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Redrawing Alberta’s electoral map

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 22, 2025

Voters only getting 2 more MLAs despite huge population boom

Alberta will have a new electoral map when the next provincial election is called. An Electoral Boundaries Commission has been named and will begin travelling the province next week to collect feedback from Albertans about how new riding boundaries should be drawn to reflect population changes since the last time the map was redrawn in 2017.

Ten big questions about Alberta separatism in 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 16, 2025

The Alberta Prosperity Project’s Jeffrey Rath shows off the separatist group’s proposed referendum question in Calgary (source: Facebook).

Is Premier Danielle Smith a separatist? Is the UCP a separatist party?

The biggest difference between today’s Alberta separatist push and past efforts is that today’s most vocal separatists are operating within the governing UCP. Premier Danielle Smith gave her tacit public support for these groups in an online video address earlier this month and she knows that any direct effort to try to stop it would turn those groups, which included some of the UCP’s most enthusiastic activists, against her.

Many of those enthusiastic separatists inside the UCP helped topple former Premier Jason Kenney in 2022 and propel Smith to victory in the leadership race that followed. Writer Jen Gerson cleverly described Smith’s situation through one rule of politics: you get ate by the dragon you ride in on.