Marlin Schmidt voted MLA with Best Sense of Humour and Brooks Arcand-Paul is the MLA to watch in 2026
After a week of fierce campaigning, all the votes have been counted and the winners of the ninth annual Daveberta Best of Alberta Politics Survey have been chosen.
The annual survey is all about celebrating the best in Alberta politics and the winners were nominated and voted for by politically-savvy Daveberta subscribers.
Congratulations to this year’s winners.
Has Thomas Lukaszuk’s pro-Canada petition boxed in Danielle Smith on Alberta separatism?
If there is one big takeaway from last weekend’s United Conservative Party annual general meeting it’s that the separatist movement in Alberta is deeply intrenched in the governing party.
From jeers and cheers to at least half the board candidates endorsed by the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project getting elected, the weekend gathering was a showcase of how influential Alberta’s most prominent separatists are in Premier Danielle Smith‘s UCP.
Smith’s unwillingness to challenge the burgeoning separatist-wing she helped inflame and instead accept them as key players in her party leaves the Premier in a precarious position after yesterday’s news that Chief Elections Officer Gordon McClure has validated and approved a pro-Canada citizen initiative petition asking the question “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?”
The Forever Canadian campaign was spearheaded by former Progressive Conservative MLA Thomas Lukaszuk, who represented Edmonton-Castle Downs in the Legislature from 2001 to 2015 and launched the citizen initiative in response to the separatist movement showing momentum earlier this year.
Premier Danielle Smith will be able to walk into the United Conservative Party AGM this weekend triumphant about her pipeline deal with Prime Minister Mark Carney, and maybe even confident enough to consider calling an early provincial election in 2026, but she may get more jeers than cheers from some sections of her party who will be unhappy she was willing to have truck and trade with Carney (though I can guarantee that Steven Guilbeault’s resignation will get cheers).
According to influential separatist Jeffrey Rath, one of the main spokespeople for the Alberta Prosperity Project, the UCP board of directors is to blame for blocking a separation debate at the AGM. Rath has openly criticized incumbent UCP President Rob Smith for casting the deciding vote against holding a debate about Alberta independence. A debate and vote on Alberta’s separation from Canada could have received overwhelming support from AGM delegates — making the UCP an official separatist party.
Danielle Smith’s pipeline deal with Mark Carney could get more jeers than cheers by some at the UCP AGM
The United Conservative Party’s most dedicated activists and supporters will gather in Edmonton on November 28, 29 and 30 to debate a swath of policy resolutions and elect members of its provincial board at the party’s annual general meeting.
Since the UCP was founded in 2017, the party’s AGM has become one of the most interesting and closely-watched political events of the year. It’s an annual reminder the delegates attending the meeting — the UCP’s most enthusiastic activists — are as a group among the most influential people in Alberta politics today.
Voting is now open for this year’s best MLA, best cabinet minister, most effective opposition MLA, best public speaker, and more.
With hundreds of names submitted to the ninth annual Best of Alberta Politics Survey, your nominations have been sorted and the top choices have been identified in all nine categories.
Voting in the 2025 survey is now open to the nearly 8,000 Daveberta subscribers until Tuesday, December 2 at 8:00 p.m. The results will be announced on Thursday, December 4.
MLA Dale Nally lashed out at constituent organizing recall effort in Morinville-St. Albert
And then there were nine.
Elections Alberta approved the start of six additional MLA recall campaigns yesterday, adding to the list of three already ongoing recall efforts against United Conservative Party MLAs Demetrios Nicolaides in Calgary-Bow, Angela Pitt in Airdrie-East, and Nolan Dyck in Grande Prairie.
The local organizers now have until February 22, 2026 to collect in-person signatures to recall UCP MLAs Myles McDougall in Calgary-Fish Creek, Ric McIver in Calgary-Hays, Muhammad Yaseen in Calgary-North, Rajan Sawhney in Calgary-North West, RJ Sigurdson in Highwood, and Dale Nally in Morinville-St. Albert.
Nominate your picks for this year’s best MLA, best cabinet minister, most effective opposition MLA, and more
It’s that time of year again. I am thrilled to launch the ninth annual Daveberta’s Best of Alberta Politics Survey. There is never a dull moment in Alberta politics so I am excited to hear from you about the big political players of 2025.
I have changed up the categories this year to recognize not just the best MLAs but the work they do in the Legislature and in their constituencies.
Flashy new NDP ad gives a glimpse into what the NDP wants to fight for in the next election
Naheed Nenshi is ready. That’s the main message of a new campaign ad released by the Alberta New Democrats last week. The video reintroduces Nenshi to Albertans and tries to lay out some clear contrasts between his party and Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party.
The new ad is reportedly the result of the Alberta NDP’s new relationship with the US-based Fight Agency, the political consultants behind Zohran Mamdani’s wildly successful campaign to become the next Mayor of New York City. And it’s an impressive ad.
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.
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.
The United Conservative Party’s board elections are happening at its AGM at the end of November and the rhetoric is heating up from the party’s bustling separatist wing.
Alberta Prosperity Project co-founder Jeffrey Rath took to the internet to accuse “Danielle Smith’s Death Star team” of abusing their access to party membership lists to purge the party board of separatists.
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.
