I joined Éric Grenier of TheWrit.ca on his excellent podcast this week to discuss Alberta’s election and the candidates who will be on the ballot on May 29. Éric was generous enough to share the audio from that episode so I can share it with the lucky paid subscribers of the Daveberta Substack.
Thank you to Daveberta Podcast producer Adam Rozenhart for editing this so we can share it with you today.
The deadline has passed for candidates to get on the ballot for Alberta’s provincial election and, as was widely expected, only the United Conservative Party and the Alberta NDP have fielded a full slate of 87 candidates.
The Green Party has the third largest slate with 41 candidates and Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s Solidarity Movement of Alberta has 38.
The Independence Party (formerly led by Pawlowski) has 14 candidates and the Paul Hinman-led upstart Wildrose Loyalty Coalition also has 16.
The Alberta Party has nominated 19 candidates and the Liberal Party has 13.
There are 14 registered political parties and 349 nominated candidates.
I’ve been tracking candidate nominations for this election since March 2021 and it is always a bit of a bitter sweet ended when we reach deadline day. I want to thank everyone who reached out, emailed, DMed, texted and tweeted me with candidate updates over the past two years.
I’m sure it won’t be long before I start collecting nomination updates for the next Alberta election.
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi delivers his State of the City Address to the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce on May 9, 2023 (source: https://medium.com/mayorsohi)
Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and United Conservative Party leader Danielle Smith presented two very different approaches on Tuesday morning to address the challenges facing the capital city’s downtown core.
No one will deny that there are big social problems facing Edmonton’s downtown. You can take a walk down almost any street downtown and see people facing mental health or addictions challenges. It’s sad and troubling.
A map showing wildfires across Alberta on May 7, 2023 (source: Alberta Wildfire Status Dashboard)
A hot, dry, and windy spring has sparked dangerous wildfires across Alberta.
More than 25,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in communities including Brazeau County, Drayton Valley, Edson, Entwistle, Evansburg, and the County of Grande Prairie. In rural areas, this not only means that people need to get out quick but they also need to arrange the speedy transport of livestock caught in the paths of the fires.
Alberta’s provincial election is probably the last thing on the minds of most people impacted by these natural disasters, but the wildfires will certainly play a defining role in the second week of Alberta’s provincial election campaign.
Then-leader of the UCP Jason Kenney during the 2019 election. (Source: United Conservative Party/Facebook)
It’s amazing how much can change in four years.
The United Conservative Party won big in Alberta’s 2019 election, taking 63 seats in the Alberta Legislature and earning 54.8 per cent of the province-wide vote. The party racked up huge margins of victory in rural ridings and swept Calgary.
It was a juggernaut.
It also wasn’t clear on that election night if the Alberta NDP would be able to recover from their defeat. It felt unlikely.
That the UCP is now neck-and-neck with the NDP in most polls with only 24 days left until the next election says a lot about the UCP’s four years as government and the NDP’s time in opposition.
UCP leader Danielle Smith at her party’s Edmonton rally on April 29, 2023. Conservative MP Tim Uppal on the right. (source: @ABDanielleSmith on Twitter)
After a weekend of campaign kick-off rallies in Calgary and Edmonton, Premier Danielle Smith is expected to visit Lieutenant Governor Salma Lakhani today to ask that the Legislature be dissolved and a provincial election be held on May 29.
This will be Alberta’s 31st provincial general election since the province was formed in 1905, and it is also expected to be one of the most competitive in recent memory.
With three days left until Alberta’s provincial election begins, most parties are still filling their slates of candidates. The United Conservative Party is the only party currently with a full slate of 87 candidates. The Alberta NDP have named 84 candidates and are expected to complete their slate of 87 by Sunday, April 30.
The NDP have nominated Colleen Quintal in Cardston-Siksika. Quintal is President of the NDP constituency association in Lethbridge-East and works as a staff representative with CUPE in Lethbridge.
The NDP are expected to name candidates this weekend in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, Grande Prairie-Wapiti and Taber-Warner.
The Alberta Party has named Wayne Rufiange is as their candidate in Morinville-St. Albert. Rufiange sought the Alberta Party nomination in the riding in 2019, but was defeated by former St. Albert city councillor Neil Korotash. He instead ran in Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock in the last election.
Brad Friesen is running for the Alberta Party in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo.
The Independence Party has nominated Rodney Bowen as their candidate in Central Peace-Notley.
The Wildrose Independence Party has nominated interim party leader Jeevan Mangat in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake and Mike Lorusso in Highwood.
Supporters of disqualified UCP candidate Zulkifl Mujahid are planning to protest outside a UCP fundraising event in Fort McMurray. Premier Danielle Smith is expected to attend the event. Mujahid is expected to run as an Independent candidate against appointed UCP candidate Tany Yao. (h/t Alberta Elections Tracker).
Daveberta Podcast host Dave Cournoyer and Edmonton Public School Board chairperson Trisha Estabrooks
Edmonton Public School Board trustee and chairperson Trisha Estabrooks joins the Daveberta Podcast for a broad discussion about education, provincial funding, curriculum, charter schools, student mental health and what the 2023 provincial election means for public education in Alberta.
The Daveberta Podcast is hosted by Dave Cournoyer and produced by Adam Rozenhart. This episode was recorded on April 26, 2023.
Although their nomination meetings are still scheduled on the NDP website, Elections Alberta’s website shows the NDP have endorsed Tanika Chaisson in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, Kevin McLean in Grande Prairie, Harry Singh in Drayton Valley-Devon and Jessica Hallam in Highwood.
The NDP is expected to have candidates nominated in Cardston-Siksika, Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, Grande Prairie-Wapiti and Taber-Warner by April 30. The four are all considered extremely safe UCP ridings, which is probably why the NDP is in no rush to fill those spots.
Meanwhile, some of the smaller parties are continuing to name candidates.
The Alberta Party now has a slate of 16 with the addition of three more candidates to its roster:
Jason Avramenko is running in Calgary-Currie. He ran for the Alberta Party in Chestermere-Strathmore in the 2019 election.
Glenn Andersen is running in Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul. Anderson was mayor of St. Paul from 2007 to 2017 and ran for the Alberta Party in the same riding in 2019. He also ran for the PC Party nomination in the former Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills riding in 2015.
Braham Luddu is running in Lethbridge-West. He ran for the Alberta Party in Calgary-Cross in the last election.
The Liberal Party is now up to 11 candidates after naming Zarnab Zafar in Calgary-Beddington, Leila Keith in Calgary-Currie, and Dylin Hauser in Livingstone-Macleod. Keith ran in Calgary-South East and Hauser ran in Livingstone-Macleod in 2019.
The Buffalo Party has nominated Andrew Jacobson in Edmonton-Strathcona. Jacobson is the first candidate nominated to run in an election under the Buffalo banner since the party’s creation in February 2022.
Brooklyn Biegel has been named as the Independence Party candidate in Grande Prairie-Wapiti.
Conrad Nunweiler is running as an Independent separatist candidate in Peace River.
Most of my writing during the election will be accessible to all subscribers but to get full access to election extras (like this and this) and future episodes of the Daveberta Podcast (like the new episode coming out soon where I talk about public education with Edmonton Public School Board chairperson Trisha Estabrooks) please consider signing up for a paid subscription. Thank you!
Recently printed Daveberta stickers. More coming soon.
“Hey, you’re the candidate nominations guy!”
It’s not what people usually call me when I meet them for the first time, but it’s what a longtime daveberta.ca reader said when I met them for the first time a few weeks ago.
But I guess it’s true.
I started tracking the names of people running for nominations to become party candidates in elections 16 years ago and have since done it for every provincial and federal election in Alberta and municipal election in Edmonton. By my count that’s 15 elections.
Premier Danielle Smith and then-UCP candidate Zulkifl Mujahid (source: Zulkifl Mujahid / Facebook)
Rebuking a decision by the United Conservative Party to disqualify candidate Zulkifl Mujahid, the board of directors of the UCP constituency association in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo has voted to continue supporting him as their candidate. The motion was passed at a meeting on April 18.
Here’s the motion:
“Zulkifl Mujhid is the UCP Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo Constituency preferred candidate. He is democratically elected.”
The nomination vote followed another contentious annual general meeting that saw a slate of new candidates elected to the local constituency board of directors.
The UCP announced last week that it had disqualified Mujahid after court records revealed he is being sued for defamation by Sultan Zamman, the vice-president of fundraising for the riding’s constituency association. Zamman is seeking $250,000 in damages and a further $50,000 in special damages.
The UCP is expected to appoint a candidate to replace Mujahid before the election is officially called on May 1. But the board’s motion and the former UCP candidate’s continued posting on social media as if he is still a candidate could create some difficulty for whoever the is appointed candidate by the party.
There has been some speculation that the UCP could appoint Yao as the candidate. He is a long-time friend of the MLA from the neighbouring Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche riding, Brian Jean, and endorsed him in the 2022 UCP leadership race.
Yao appears to have spent most of the past week canvassing door-to-door with UCP MLAs running for re-election in Calgary ridings.
The election in this otherwise safe UCP riding in northern Alberta could also be made even more interesting by the entry of Wood Buffalo Municipal Councillor Funky Banjoko, who is running as an Independent candidate in the riding. Banjoko earned more votes than any other candidate running for municipal council in 2021.
Suncor laboratory technician and Unifor organizer Tanika Chaisson is expected to be nominated as the Alberta NDP candidate.
There are 37 days left until Alberta’s May 29 provincial election.
UPDATE: The UCP has appointed Tany Yao as the party’s candidate in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo. With his appointment, the UCP once again have 87 candidates nominated to run in the next election (see the full list of candidates).
A tweet from the United Conservative Party announcing that Tany Yao has been appointed in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo.
Subscribe to the Daveberta Substack
If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the Daveberta Substack. I am planning to share most of my writing for the upcoming Alberta election on Substack.
Most of my writing during the election will be accessible to all subscribers but to get full access to election extras and future episodes of the Daveberta Podcast, please consider signing up for a paid subscription. Thanks!
NDP leader Rachel Notley at a press conference in Calgary (source: Rachel Notley / Facebook)
With 39 days left until Albertans elect a new government, we are getting a pretty good sense of how the two main political parties are trying to define their opponents in the minds of voters.
To no one’s surprise, both the United Conservative Party and the Alberta NDP are trying to play to their own strengths and their opponents weaknesses.
The UCP announced today that Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo candidate Zulkifl Mujahid was disqualified after court records revealed he is being sued for defamation by Sultan Zamman, the vice-president of fundraising for the riding’s constituency association. Zamman is seeking $250,000 in damages and a further $50,000 in special damages.
Mujahid defeated two-term MLA Tany Yao and Fort McMurray Construction Association President Keith Plowman in the UCP nomination in December 2022.
The UCP is expected to appoint a candidate to replace Mujahid before the election is officially called on May 1.
Wood Buffalo municipal councillor Funky Banjoko is running as an Independent candidate in the northern Alberta riding. Suncor laboratory technician and Unifor organizer Tanika Chaisson is running for the NDP nomination.
More nomination updates
The Green Party has nominated Robin George in Edmonton-Riverview and Cameron Jefferies in St. Albert.
Chitra Bakshi has withdrawn as the Green Party candidate in Edmonton-Mill Woods.
Nick Kalynchuk (source: Alex Kalynchuk / Facebook)
The United Conservative Party has filled their slate of 87 candidates with the nomination of Nick Kalynchuk as their candidate in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood.
Kalynchuk is a staffer in Premier Danielle Smith‘s office and was Vice-President of the United Conservative Club at the University of Alberta. He started working in the Premier’s office during Jason Kenney‘s time as Premier and previously worked for the UCP Caucus.
Kalynchuk will face Alberta NDP MLA Janis Irwin, Green Party candidate Kristine Kowalchuk and Communist Party leader Naomi Rankin.
Irwin was elected in 2019 with 63.4 per cent of the vote. The NDP have held the riding since it was created in 2004.
NDP slate to be filled by April 30
NDP leader Rachel Notley announced today that her party would have their full slate of 87 candidates nominated by April 30.
Also announced today: Harry Singh will be nominated as the party’s candidate in Drayton Valley-Devon on April 30.
If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the Daveberta Substack. I am planning to share most of my writing for the upcoming Alberta election on Substack.
Most of my writing during the election will be accessible to all subscribers but to get full access to election extras and future episodes of the Daveberta Podcast, please consider signing up for a paid subscription. Thanks!
