The Alberta NDP isn’t the same party today it was yesterday.
Not after former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi’s crushing 86-per-cent victory in the race to replace former premier Rachel Notley as leader of the provincial NDP. That’s practically unanimous!
Consider the tally:
Naheed Nenshi – 62,746, 86%
Kathleen Ganley – 5,899, 8%
Sarah Hoffman – 3,063, 4%
Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse – 1,222, 2%
A total of 72,930 of the NDP’s recently expanded membership of 85,277 voted, a turnout of 85.6 per cent.
Say what you will, you just can’t argue with numbers like that.
So it really is just like those right-wing columnists kept warning New Democrats would happen!
But why did the pundits even care? It’s not as if many of them are going to vote NDP, is it? They cared, of course, because they see that an Alberta NDP led by Mr. Nenshi might just be able to beat the United Conservative Party – no matter who leads it.
That was something the old NDP, the one led by Rachel Notley until yesterday, was apparently no longer capable of doing.
Let’s face it, if Ms. Notley’s version of the NDP couldn’t defeat the UCP led in 2023 by Danielle Smith, a leader so irresponsible she is basically bonkers, what chance would it have had against any of Ms. Smith’s rivals to replace Jason Kenney after the party he founded turned on him?
Colourless Travis Toews would certainly have done better than Ms. Smith did. Brian Jean, the living definition of a spavined political hack, would probably have done better too. Even poor old Mr. Kenney himself, against whom the NDP had hoped and expected to campaign, likely could have improved on Ms. Smith’s shallow win.
Ms. Notley acknowledged as much when she announced on Jan. 16 she would step down as soon as a new leader was chosen.
So beating any Conservative leader – not just Ms. Smith – is important, because the UCP won’t hesitate to skid Ms. Smith, too, just like they skidded Jason Kenney, if she starts to look like a loser.
New Democrats obviously wanted to replace Ms. Notley with a leader with a track record – three fights against Conservative candidates for Calgary’s City Hall – and flexible enough to pivot to deal with any opponent.
And that was no doubt why the commentariat and the UCP have slyly tried to leave the impression with NDP voters that if they were real New Democrats they could never tolerate Mr. Nenshi, 52, who only recently joined the party and has a history of political non-partisanship.
He would change their party into something different, they warned. He might even, God forbid, sever their ties with the federal NDP of Jagmeet Singh!
Could be true, I guess. But did Alberta New Democrats care if Mr. Nenshi had a reputation as a centrist? Apparently not that much – as long as he was a centrist who displayed a willingness to fight the UCP.
Did they care if right-wing commentators yelled at them that the New Democratic Party is about to become Nenshi Democratic Party? Evidently they weren’t bothered by that either.
Did Alberta NDPers – old and new – live and die to be tied to the federal NDP, something Mr. Nenshi said he might reconsider? No to that one too.
Well, the UCP and its tame media are going to have to come up with something better if they want to split the NDP, Wildrose style, into factions.
With the level of unanimity demonstrated by the vote results published yesterday – ballots cast by new members and old-timey Dippers alike – there’s basically zero chance of an internal NDP rift until after the next general election.
Given that, under Premier Smith, the UCP may well instinctively switch back to screeching about Commies, the WEF, and COVID vaccine conspiracies until the professionals from the federal Conservatives return to Alberta in 2027 to try to pull the fat out of the fire for them like they did last year.
If Mr. Nenshi manages to lose it in 2027, of course, all bets are off. That said, he doesn’t seem like the type of guy who would stick around for long anyway in such circumstances.
Meanwhile, though, the Alberta NDP is his party for the foreseeable future, and he can adopt any strategy he sees fit to win the next election.
While Mr. Nenshi will say many kind things about Ms. Notley’s years at the head of the party – most of them well deserved – it’s unlikely he will stick with the oh-so-agreeably passive strategy and lack of message control that failed the NDP in 2019 in the face of the Jason Kenney juggernaut and failed it again in 2023 against the far less formidable Ms. Smith.
Obviously NDP members and many more NDP-leaning voters who didn’t participate in the leadership election have decided Premier Smith and all of her troubling baggage – Take Back Alberta, MAGA warrior David Parker, the UCP anti-vaccination caucus, COVID quackery, the would-be pension grab, health care privatization, outright separatism, and so on – are just too crazy ever to form a rational government.
So if Mr. Nenshi is the only person who knows how to campaign against any party in Alberta that calls itself conservative, no matter how unconservative it may be, the vote shows decisively NDP members have concluded, so be it!
Yesterday afternoon in his victory speech in Calgary, Mr. Nenshi came out swinging.
The UCP vision of Alberta is a small one, he said. “… An Alberta that is so very, very small … where everyone is against us … where we need to fight outsiders all the time. An Alberta where we should be scared of change, instead of embracing and leading the future. That is not Alberta!”
“Danielle Smith and the UCP want us to be small,” he continued. “They want us to be small because they think small. They see Alberta as a fortress to be defended. But what Alberta has always been is a wide open door with a welcome mat, inviting the best people and the best ideas from every corner of this broken earth to live a great Alberta life right here!”
Then he turned to Premier Smith’s claim to be “the most freedom-loving politician in Canada.”
“She hasn’t done a blessed thing to protect anybody’s freedoms! In fact, what she does, is she systematically takes them away!” A long list followed.
“Albertans have shown over and over and over and over and over again that we are better than our premier,” Mr. Nenshi said. “That we are better than her government. And this extraordinary movement that we’ve created together is an example of what is possible when you stop thinking small!”
As for those angry Calgary sprawl caballers who Canada’s first Muslim big-city mayor defeated three times at City Hall but who boast they know all Mr. Nenshi’s weak spots, it sure sounds like they’re whistling past the graveyard.
We’ll see, I guess. In the meantime, though, Mr. Nenshi’s record in civic government would seem like a better angle of attack than calling a former business professor a commie, but it’s not for me to tell the UCP their business.
As for the NDP insiders and political technocrats who failed to eke out a victory last year, and who coalesced around the campaign of former justice minister Kathleen Ganley hoping to ensure more of the same, this is a crushing defeat.
For good or ill, with a vote like this there is no way that Ms. Notley’s former strategic brain trust can direct Mr. Nenshi as they might have been able to do with a former member of the former premier’s cabinet.
If Mr. Nenshi decides to keep any of the party’s previous political advisors around, it will be a strategic move to ensure peace in the valley, not an endorsement of their tactics.
Unlike the disgruntled base of the UCP grumbling that teachers, nurses, union members and other “infiltrators” stole the leadership from Ted Morton in 2011, no former NDP insider can moan that they were robbed in 2024.
As of last night, pretty well the entire party membership has gone over en masse and united behind Mr. Nenshi.
Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan, who dropped out of the race on May 13 pleading a lack of funds, now looks as if he made a prudent call.
So, what’s next?
Well, don’t expect Mr. Nenshi, the only candidate in the vote who was not a sitting MLA, to hurry to run in Lethbridge West, where a seat is about to be open thanks to former NDP environment minister Shannon Phillips’ planned resignation.
Remember, after winning the leadership of the UCP in October 2022, Ms. Smith could have chosen to run in Calgary-Elbow, left open a month earlier when her justice minister quit. Instead, she waited for a compliant MLA to step aside in Brooks Medicine Hat, so she could win easily in a rural seat safe for the UCP.
Mr. Nenshi will likely follow her example and wait until he can run in a safe Calgary riding and win by a decisive margin there too.
So job No. 1 for the NDP, starting tomorrow, will be figuring out who will lead the party in the Legislature while the new leader travels the province, schmoozing voters – although probably not in a big purple pickup truck.
Look for Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi, who dropped out of the race on March 26 and endorsed Mr. Nenshi, to capably fill a key role in the House.
I suspect Nenshi is not, nor should he be, in any rush to get into the Leg. While he finds the right riding, Queen Danielle will continue to run around in her Oilers jersey (Yes, Alberta. You likely bought her that jersey.) and attempt to hob knob with the governors of her favourite Red States, Texas and Florida. Rumour has it that Smith headed to Dallas for the first game of the WCF and attempted to fête Gov. Abbott, but he wasn’t having any of it. Ice hockey is a weird sport that real Americans don’t play, according to Abbott. Now, the NFL and random gun play is more like it. Smith sent Abbott an Alberta beef steak … wait a minute. Smith sent Abbott a steak, but it was the Oilers that won that round against Dallas? Something weird just happened here. Of course, the bet with Gov. DeSantis involves Alberta whisky (Never heard of it, btw.) in exchange for Florida rum. Florida rum? Okay, DeSantis is just making shite up now!
Alberta Springs is a good rye, comes in a nice wooden box.
Robert: And the box doesn’t leak? DJC
As one who believes that imbibing in alcohol is a CON obsession, leave me.oit of this.
Oilers suck. Panthers will crush them.
This is a very good development. The Postmedia columnists who are basically parrots for the UCP, are going to be cringing, because Danielle Smith is no match for Naheed Nenshi. He will eat her alive in any debates, and she won’t be able to do anything about it. Danielle Smith’s political demise is probably going to be sooner, because of all her gaffes are too much to take.
There are three things that strike me here politically: leadership, baggage and timing.
First of all, in recent decades, politics has become more about leadership. So who the leader is and how voters at large feel about them matters more than the party when they vote. We’ve seen this Federally where someone exciting took a struggling third place party and vaulted it ahead of two other parties with more with more lackluster but capable leaders into power. So Smith and crew should be very worried about the enthusiasm of support already shown for Nenshi here.
They should be even more worried about the baggage that can weigh those in power down. One of Notley’s regrets was Bill 6 on farm safety that seemed to turn rural voters against her. Had she recovered some rural support as she did in Calgary that would probably have relegated the UCP to the opposition in the last election. Of course, Smith is now accumulating her own baggage, like her predecessor Kenney also did. The supposed, former self proclaimed Libertarian Smith has been very heavy handed in dealing with municipal leaders and others under the provinces control. She is divisive even within her own party so I suspect many from the previous UCP Kenney regime will be glad to see her go if voters start to turn on her more.
Lastly there is the issue of timing. Smith was fortunate to run when near record oil prices allowed her to spend a lot just in advance of an election without going into deficit. She also constantly campaigns against a now very unpopular Federal government with its own baggage and the other Federal party that supports it. Well those record oil prices quickly ended and if all the polls over the last year can be believed she will lose her handy Federal opponent soon too. Voters across Canada are very cranky and in the mood now to get rid of incumbents. Fortunately for Nenshi his term as mayor ended a bit before this sour mood took hold.
I don’t think Nenshi needs to quickly get a seat in the Legislature to raise his profile. It would be wise to wait for the right opportunity for a while, travel across Alberta and connect with people in the meantime. The NDP has a number of competent people who can hold things down in the Legislature while he does so, with both a solid mix of experience and newer.
Conservatives had a formidable opponent in Notley and now have another likely even more so in Nenshi. The ground has now shifted in Alberta politics and will likely shift even more.
Dave: While Bill 6 was a blunder that could have been largely avoided if the NDP had spoken with its own rural (non-MLA) caucus, I think the impact of the bill has been exaggerated by the UCP narrative machine. What Bill 6 taught the far right of the Conservative movement was the the NDP would back down and apologize about anything if they created a big enough, dishonest enough stink. Unfortunately, such tactics work, especially when unchallenged by a better narrative. DJC
Yet while working in Rural Alberta with farmers for 24 years I constantly heard that they were upset that the government hadn’t protected their workers with Workmen’s compensation like in other provinces. In fact I knew of one case where a worker was killed on a farm, his family sued and he lost his farm. I think Notley was as shocked as I was that so many rejected her help. Some told me they were disgusted by their fellow farmers for not at least talking to her about what they didn’t like about it and what they wanted changed.
Alan K. Spiller: It truly is mind-boggling how these people let these phony Conservatives and Reformers walk all over them, and treat them like garbage. Ralph Klein was like that. Closed down rural hospitals, gave the American owned meat packing plants the $400 million in relief money that was intended for farmers and ranchers, and caused them other problems. Danielle Smith and the UCP are much the same way. Healthcare is an issue in rural Alberta, property taxes are climbing because oil companies were allowed to get away with not paying their taxes, and open pit coal mining is being pursued. These people don’t care. Where’s the intelligence in that?
My crystal ball sees a purple plug-in hybrid coming soon to a riding near you. Maybe some orange hubcaps.
Do you have any spare Nenshis you could send to Ontario? Our NDP leaders have been like the Blue Jays’ batting lineup, too many automatic outs.
In Postmedia newspapers, the comments sections are full of people whose heads are exploding, because they can’t accept the prospects of Naheed Nenshi taking the UCP down, which he is going to do, and very easily.
When all they have known for years is to support phony Conservatives and Reformers who didn’t do the good things that Peter Lougheed did to help this province, all they know is to defend the indefensible. There are usual foolish responses, such as communists, socialists, and other tripe, but it is very far from reality. All mouth and no brains. Rachel Notley was the closest thing we ever saw to Peter Lougheed, but these people don’t know that either.
Lorne Gunter, Rick Bell, David Staples, and any of the other usual water carriers for the UCP will have a hard time when Naheed Nenshi continues to take Danielle Smith and the UCP down, for their very pricey boondoogles, gaffes and missteps. This is going to be an exciting new chapter in provincial politics in Alberta. The UCP are going to be finished. How else are they going to rebrand themselves and regroup?
I love the comment: “because the UCP won’t hesitate to skid Ms. Smith, too, just like they skidded Jason Kenney, if she starts to look like a loser.” I think we are way past the point of Ms. Smith looking like a loser, rather it is perfectly clear she is a loser. The outcome of this leadership race has certainly made Provincial politics a whole bunch more interesting.
So looking forward to Nenshi reminding Smith about the math. Smith had to go to the 6th ballot to get 53% (about 45,000) . Nenshi got 86 % ( 62,746) on first ballot. So already MORE Albertans have voted for Nenshi over Smith.
I have to admit, as a longtime New Democrat, I was very much doubtful about Mr Nenshi when he announced he was going to run. Throughout his entire career in municipal politics he has been openly disdainful of party politics.
But in my view, he telegraphed that he might step into the fray when he made that impassioned speech in a Calgary plaza on February 3rd at a protest rally against Daniellezebub’s announcement about new policies hostile to the 2SLGBTQIA++ community. I watched that speech, and was impressed at his oratory as well as his passion on the subject. He’s the kind of captivating speaker that we so lack in politics today. Politics in a democracy is about persuasion, and dull, uninspiring politicians can’t persuade anyone.
I watched all three of the official leadership debates online, and attended an all-candidates forum put on by my local constituency associations, and my doubts about Mr Nenshi began to ease. But they weren’t completely assuaged until yesterday, after I saw the massive membership numbers, the record voting turnout, and the magnitude of his victory, followed by that rousing speech.
I think the Alberta NDP is in good hands, and the people of Alberta will once again have reason to hope.
Too true. I read Rick Bell’s pathetic excuse of an opinion piece the other day. It was nothing more than an attempt to divide the NDP. The UCP would like nothing more than the ANDP to remain the party of very polite and gracious losers.
Is that the one where in his first sentence he alleged that no one cared if Nenshi was a died in the wool NDPer, which was in fact the CENTRAL issue of his candidacy?
It’s a good thing he writes at a sixth grade level because the only way I can digest such drivel is by speed reading it, and his monosyllabic sentence paragraphs really make that easy.
Mouthbreathing hack that he is.
There are two immediate priorities in the post-leadership phase. One, win the Lethbridge West by election by fielding a credible and high profile local candidate. Two, improve party fundraising where the NDP has fallen badly behind the UCP since the election. Not all of the new members will have the time or desire to become party activists. But they can still make a valuable contribution by becoming regular party donors.
“Let’s face it, if Ms. Notley’s version of the NDP couldn’t defeat the UCP led in 2023 by Danielle Smith, a leader so irresponsible she is basically bonkers, what chance would it have had against any of Ms. Smith’s rivals to replace Jason Kenney after the party he founded turned on him?”
That’s what I said:
“Danielle Smith was the only reason the last election was close.”
“Despite Notley’s shift to the right, the NDP still lost.
“Is chasing the UCP to the right a winning strategy?”
“Not sure what the new party stands for, except defeating D. Smith and the UCP.
“But what if they don’t?
“If a Notley sell-out and Nenshi takeover of the party is the only way to dislodge Smith, the UCP, and the TBA mob… Maybe it is a chance worth taking.
“But the arithmetic is not promising. Danielle Smith was the only reason the last election was close. Against a half-sensible leader like Travis Toews, the UCP would have won by a landslide. Nenshi has no pull in rural Alberta. If the polls get too close, the UCP can trade Smith for a blue fencepost and still win.
“If Nenshi fails to win seats in small-city Alberta and the Edmonton ‘doughnut’, Notley will have sold out her party for nothing.
“As the Alberta NDP morphs into PC-lite, Alberta progressives are left without representation. No one left to defend social democratic principles and science-based, progressive policy.
“The upshot? Our political parties — now run by lobbyists, with the grassroots kept at a distance — stray from the public interest and increasingly cater to corporate interests. That goes for both the NDP and UCP.”
“The big winners of Notley’s shift to the right? Former Liberal, Alberta Party, and red Tory PCs, who stand to inherit the NDP, after their own parties bit the dust.
“By shifting right, Notley effectively sold out a once-progressive NDP to centrist voters, supporters of dead or dying political parties: red PCs, the Alberta Party, and the AB Liberals. All hail, King Nenshi!
“It will not be Jason Kenney or Danielle Smith who erode and finally erase the progressive party in Alberta. It will be the NDP. A coup for the centre-right. Engineered by the AB NDP brain trust.
“That failed strategy leaves progressives and greens with no representation under the dome. The PC party is now resurrected under a new name and management.”
*
Ironically, Notley rejects Nenshi’s proposal to sever ties with the federal party. Makes no sense. She is the one who decided to turn the NDP into a big-tent party.
Of course, the new party will seek a divorce. After that, it will rebrand itself.
The Alberta LibConDP. United by their desperate desire to send Danielle Smith back to talk radio.
If Nenshi does not win in 2027, all will be for naught.
To win the doughnut ridings around the two big cities, the NDP must swing so far to the right that the left disappears. And still it may not win. The NDP will have given away their party for nothing.
If the New Democrats become the new PCs, what have they gained? All the NDP has done is sideline progressives and erase the last vestiges of political representation on the left.
Congrats, Rachel! You just deep-sixed your own party.
Danielle Smith’s decision to take the Canada Pension Plan away from Albertans likely had something to do with the Alberta NDP becoming the largest provincial political party in Canada.
Despite her TBA advisor’s recent social media post blaming “boomers” for all of Alberta’s ills, and proclaiming that this statement will not backfire, because said “boomers” will be dead soon anyways, it seems that targeting “boomers” for their CPP savings has indeed backfired, spectacularly.
Of course, there are countless other egregious policies put forward by TBA and wholeheartedly adopted by the UCP to drag Albertans kicking and screaming into the 19th century. Now people of all ages from across the province who don’t want what the UCP is selling have a voice. They’re organizing and they’ll fight back.
The next three years until the provincial election are going to be bumpy. It was probably a joke when someone posted yesterday on social media that Smith will postpone the next election until 2050, but we can’t be sure. Maybe Danielle Smith will retaliate by tearing down some iconic pieces of architecture in Calgary? Oh, sorry, wrong province. She’s nothing if not spiteful, so I would say the obvious target is withholding money for Calgary’s water infrastructure repairs. That would add fuel to the existing outdoor fire ban in Alberta’s biggest city, but it sounds about right.
Enough is enough. It’s time to build back Alberta instead of tearing it down. It’s time for a vision of Alberta that moves forward into the future instead backwards into the past. One person cannot do this. It will take all of us. Time to get started. And so it begins…
Good for Nenshi and good for the NDP. But let’s not count our chickens before they hatch. Nenshi does not have experience in the big leagues of party politics…Smith does, and a lot. I wish him the best but I need to be convinced he has the true grit that the party needs.
“My response was that I don’t think the arsonist is allowed to call the fire department.” From the specific to the general; where, safe leadership choices mean that:
The majority, if not all politicians in today’s world belong to the pro-growth lobby and Mr. Nenshi belongs in that category as well even as human dominance of the biosphere and all that is in it means environmental degradation, habitat loss and ongoing extinction of both flora and fauna.
More growth as a solution to the growing list of problem(s) means simply more of the same results (environmental degradation, habitat loss and ongoing extinction of both flora and fauna); where, the received wisdom or dogma for the human animal continues to be one of “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it”.
Finally, it is somewhat interesting, but wholly unsurprising that the standards applied to other species are not also applied to the human animal itself, that is, perhaps the “great chain of being” does not allow for such insight, consistency, or honesty:
“Parks Canada says the work is necessary to protect the island’s ecosystem, which has been devastated by the invasive population.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/10185169/sidney-island-deer-cull-cost/
Finally the NDP has woken up. IMO.. stake out the centre…. rid themselves of the boat anchor Federal NDP and fixate on Affordability, Health care and Education. And always remember collaboration goes a lot further than conflict.
As a longtime New Democrat member, it wasn’t what I wanted because I voted and supported Sarah Hoffman. Having said it is clear that many are willing to gamble with Nenshi and we will see if that pays off with victory. My concern will be when they win they won’t have more to offer than the UCP. This is the many people have with the possibility of Labour becoming the government in the UK. We need bold change to tackle the problems we face. I will work with the new leader and I wait to see who he will put in cabinet and what policies will be adopted.
David: I think this is a legitimate fear. In the present crisis, however, most Alberta New Democrats obviously concluded that simply replacing the government with one that isn’t openly batshit is a higher priority than advocating legislation that is closer to perfect. In other words, they concluded that the perfect can be the enemy of the good. DJC
“perfect can be the enemy of the good”
That’s tied with “adults in the room” for first place in the ranking of Lame Centrist Red Flags!
“Perfect” can be fatal. The perfect election campaign would feature civil debates among mutually respectful candidates, no lying, baiting, name-calling, or fear-mongering.
But reaching for that ideal is what lost the BC NDP the 2013 election when the leader’s “positive politics” edict forced NDP candidates to turn the other cheek and ignore their rival’s taunts, insults, and smears—and blow a 20-point lead going into the campaign, eventually losing an election the NDP should have and could have won.
The result was catastrophic: BC Liberal premier Christy Clark —who won with an inane, preposterous, single-slogan campaign— thence added about $30 billion to a huge public debt accumulated over the full 16-year BC Liberal regime—to somewhere north of $110 billion—while any number of real policy needs were ignored.
Surely the next few generations of British Columbians will be paying more than they would have otherwise for services supplied by Crown Corps that the BC Liberal government used to hide “deferred debts” in (both to make its annual budgets look balanced and to hobble Crown Corps in order to rationalize their privatization). We will pay more for hydro, more for car insurance, &c, just to retire these massive debts the BC Liberal government charged to BC citizens to cook their public books, bankrupt their public enterprises, to favour its insider cronies during planned privatizations, and to garner a steady stream of pay-to-play lucre to buy re-elections.
The perfect ideal didn’t work here on earth.
Scotty: As someone, I cannot recall who, said of the difference between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, “The difference is marginal, but people live and die in that margin.” DJC
As a long-time Alberta NDP member and contributor, I can appreciate your apprehension of the uncertainties which may result with the installation of a new leader. However, in the present circumstances, the removal of Smith and her cabal is of the utmost importance and whomever the NDP installs in their place could only be described as a massive improvement.
Agreed David that bold change is needed, but if that’s not possible incremental change can be a positive thing and I guess some of the the AB NDP feel the same which DJC has pointed out. It’s different if you’re of the “You have to hit rock-bottom before you can recover” opinion – an outlook I have some sympathy for, but Ms Smith and the TBA/UCP are not quite to the “Storm the barricades” bad.
FWIW I also like Sarah Hoffman…
It was a very difficult decision to choose which of the four very good candidates to vote for. Ultimately Naheed Nenshi was not my first choice, but I am happy that he won as I believe he will prove himself to be a formidable campaigner and a very effective foil to Ms Smith.
The next three years (or less) will be very interesting.
Marlaina on X–
” Congratulations @nenshi on your victory.
Serving as opposition leader is a great honor (*) and I look forward to the dialogue we will have on how best to serve Albertans…..
(*) Meow !!
methinks that the Alberta Princess is doing some territorial marking there….
To me,it sounds like she’s telling Naheed to be happy with this achievement–just don’t expect anything furthur opportunities.
But hey I could be wrong! I guess it all depends whom put together the Xeet (x- tweet.
Yet the fools who continue to follow Smith can’t understand that it was mainly conservatives who elected Nenshi. Knowing that these Reformers have got to be stopped.
They think that if you call yourself a conservative you have to be dumb enough to vote conservative only and ignore what they are doing to us thats how ignorant they are. It’s never a case of realizing that they might be the ones who are wrong, that isn’t possible.
Alan K. Spiller: It’s good to see that there are people who know all about the real Conservatives, not the phony ones we see, who just use the name Conservative, yet show they are the exact opposite.
We know that Rachel Notley was compared to Peter Lougheed, by cabinet ministers of his. It’s because she was doing the right things that he did.
Ralph Klein was a Liberal turned into a Reformer. Danielle Smith and Pierre Poilievre are Reformers too.
They will only destroy jobs, increase poverty rates, make crime rates go up, not care for the environment, destroy public services, so they can be privatized, and just cause more hardship.
Naheed Nenshi’s leadership race results show that there are Albertans who want genuine Conservatives, who care about the well being of everyone, not just their rich friends.