Two more high-profile candidates said over the weekend they are joining the NDP leadership race: Edmonton-Rutherford MLA Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse and Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan.
Ms. Calahoo Stonehouse, 49, announced her campaign Saturday morning in an interview with The Canadian Press and later released a video on social media in which she said, “as a First Nations woman, I come from a value system where no one gets left behind and there is room for everyone in the circle.”
However, she warned in the video, “in Alberta, we are heading into some difficult times. We are going to be facing forest fires, drought; we are going to sit together and decide how it is as farmers, ranchers, industry, businesses and citizens, how we are going to make policy that insures each and every one of us have access to the water that we are going to need.”
Ms. Calahoo Stonehouse is the first First Nations woman and second Indigenous woman elected to the Alberta Legislature. A former member of the Michel First Nation Band Council, she campaigned in 2021 to become the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
Mr. McGowan, 56, made his intention to run clear in a series of direct social media messages to potential supporters the same day, saying “I haven’t officially announced yet, but I’m going to join the NDP leadership race. I think it’s time we have a worker leader leading the workers’ party.”
“Unlike other campaigns, mine will NOT be run by party insiders or self-styled strategy gurus with podcasts who too often look down their noses at ordinary working people – and who have never actually run for office themselves,” he said in a note to AlbertaPolitics.ca. He ran as an NDP candidate in the 2015 federal election in the Edmonton Centre riding, placing a respectable third in the race won by Liberal Randy Boissonnault.
Mr. McGowan has served 10 consecutive terms as president of the AFL, which represents 28 affiliated unions with about 170,000 unionized members in Alberta. In that role, he led union efforts to gain full independence for the province’s public-sector pension plans, a change granted by the NDP Government but withdrawn by the United Conservative Party under Jason Kenney.
He served as co-chair of the Notley NDP Government’s Energy Diversification Advisory Committee. The AFL recently launched a “Diversify Alberta” campaign that argues the province should “skate to where the puck is going” on energy policy.
In 2016, a “spitting angry” Mr. McGowan was harsh in his criticism of federal NDP activists who supported the Leap Manifesto, a document that called for significant changes to the Canadian economy to respond to climate change, at the party’s national convention that year in Edmonton.
“These downtown Toronto political dilettantes come to Alberta and track their garbage across our front lawn,” Mr. McGowan told local media at the time.
Ms. Calahoo Stonehouse and Mr. McGowan will join Calgary-Mountain View MLA and former justice minister Kathleen Ganley, Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi, and Edmonton-Glenora MLA and former health minister Sarah Hoffman in the race to succeed former premier Rachel Notley, who announced on Jan. 16 she would step down as soon as a new leader was chosen.
The winner of the leadership contest is expected to be named on June 22.
If there’s another shoe that hasn’t dropped in this campaign, it belongs to former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, who has been widely rumoured to be interested in running. But so far, he hasn’t revealed his plans, one way or the other. He has until March 15 to make up his mind.
While it’s heartening to see the field for the leadership of the ABNDP growing fuller and more diverse, what it really interesting right now (for me) is David Parker’s impressive meltdown.
Parker took to Twitter (now called X, but it’s still for twits) to declare some pretty red-hot allegations because Skippy Pollieve. One of the more tasty morsels presented was that Pollivere’s marriage is a sham and that he’s carrying on an affair with supposedly former-BFF and Loblaw’s lobbyist, Jenni Byrne. Parker said he intended to elaborate further on his allegations soon.
I have heard rumours of misbehaviour and strange personal conduct by CPC staffers during the 2015 election, which may have contributed to the collapse of the Harper campaign. So, maybe this is Parker about to air the dirty laundry?
Mo’ popcorn.
Just Me— More popcorn for sure. Canada’s version of game of thrones. In this corner Sovereign of Alberta vs Peter (the Humble) a “Polievre ” government…..only I can fix it for the unwashed masses aka the common people.
Parker has definitely thrown a cat in amongst the poor pigeons….deflect, distract, take some of the attention off of the Ranchman’s dinner ?? We will have to see if big papa chimes in with some tasty morsels.
follow up….might have to wait since big Papa is/was in India with Scott Moe on a “economic trip” ???
This should be very interesting. I’ll take the NDP any day, because they were the closest thing we ever had to the great government of Peter Lougheed. The UCP are a disaster.
Anonymous while senior UCP supporters continue to whine about Notley wasting $80 million of taxpayers money just like they have been taught to do by these Reformers I have been kicking myself , as a former Bank Manager, for not printing a copy of a financial statement I saw on the internet that proved that she didn’t waste any of our money like the former conservative MLAs knew she didn’t and that was why they considered her to be a lot more like Lougheed. You can bet the UCP under Kenney made certain it was removed to hide the truth. Now Poilievre has Mayors across Canada upset for calling them Gatekeepers and I hope that helps get him defeated. I have tried to get letters printed in eastern newspapers but their Conservative only attitude doesn’t help me.
The climate crisis and public service labor negotiations are two urgent issues about to take centre stage in Alberta this spring. These two candidates will change the dynamics of the NDP leadership race in a good way. I don’t think either one will put up with garbage from the UCP/TBA mouthpiece on X.
When you reference climate change and how these two candidates will change the dynamics of the NDP in a good way, I’m a little confused. McGowan sounds more interested in labour (which is a good thing) but imminently disinterested in addressing climate change. In the past as Energy Diversification minister under Notley, he said ‘“These downtown Toronto political dilettantes come to Alberta and track their garbage across our front lawn,….They didn’t give any credit for the work the Alberta government has been doing on climate change … the best climate change policies in the country, bar none.” talking about the federal NDP’s who had recently voted on making haste with the transition away from oil/gas.
While to her credit Notley did move the province away from coal and instituted a provincial carbon tax (that Kenney ditched as soon as he could), as far as I can tell, that’s as far as it went. Alberta has a hysterical bias even against electric cars! It’s changing a bit but not because of anything government here is doing or saying. Seven years ago, we wanted to take a look at some EV’s just to see what they were like to drive, and we couldn’t find one on a lot anywhere in Calgary. But why would we, when the message from the government here (whether NDP or TBA/UCP) is less than inspirational when it comes to encouraging the public to look for ways to protect our planet.
We know today from independent studies that the oil and gas industries have abdicated their responsibility to clean up their used up wells (unless the tax payers pay them even more money!!!) and they’ve been ‘lying/under estimating’ their level of emissions by 30-60%!!! Notley didn’t do anything to rein in that lying and cheating the system. And since then, Smith has decided not to modernize building requirements with a view to conserving energy, she’s also decided to pay the oil and gas industry to clean up ‘a few’ of their abandoned oil/gas wells, and she seems to be attempting to chase away investments in renewables altogether. So I guess my question is, overall, what are these ‘best efforts’ in the country, to protect our environment?
Alberta still has the worst air quality in Canada, and it took nine months for the people of the northern region to find out that Imperial oil was poisoning the water table (the water that’s disappearing because of climate change!!!) as a result of seepage from their tailings pond.
At least Ms. Stonehouse has a focus on the water situation specifically, while McGowan seems more interested in the entire problem of the environment, just going away.
Gil never was an MLA, and of course wasn’t a minister in Rachel’s cabinet. I really don’t think we had an Energy Diversification portfolio either. Sounds good though.
Anne: He was the co-chair of Premier Notley’s Energy Diversification Committee. DJC
It would be so cool to have co leadership of Jodi and Gil representing diversity of persons, urgent issues and leadership styles. A trend in progressive parties. Roll over fed Greens, check out the new style of inclusive leadership at the NDP. Who says Yay?
Nice scoop David.
I see that Minister LaGrange has already spouted that Alberta will not go along with a national Pharmacare program. It amazes me and makes my blood boil that the STUPID UCP at every turn refuses to take money from Ottawa.
You would think that the choice between the NDP and the David Parker lead UCP would be a no brainer. However, like a dog returning to its vomit, the majority of voters keep going back to the UCP. Parker has recently insulted Hoffman and Nenshi on X and is now baiting the Poilievres. Why does Smith refuse to separate herself from this abusive individual? Is it Stockholm Syndrome?
She must be afraid of Parker deciding to ‘un-elect’ her. So she’s going to just do whatever she’s told.
Memories, light the corners of my mind.
“Upon Meany’s retirement, his longtime lieutenant Lane Kirkland became president of the AFL-CIO. Like his predecessor, Kirkland was a hardline anticommunist. Groomed to be a diplomat at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, he was a close personal friend of Henry Kissinger, spending every Thanksgiving with him.
Under Kirkland, the AFL-CIO applauded the Reagan administration’s aggressive foreign policy aimed at reigniting the Cold War, even as Reagan ushered in a new era of union busting by firing 11,000 air traffic controllers in 1981. At the AFL-CIO’s urging, Reagan oversaw the creation of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in 1983, a government-funded grant-making foundation to disburse monies to the same kinds of overseas anticommunist organizations previously funded covertly by the CIA. With Kirkland serving on NED’s board of directors, AIFLD and the AFL-CIO’s other foreign institutes became core grant recipients.
Kirkland backed Reagan’s Central America policy of arming repressive state security forces in El Salvador and terroristic counterrevolutionaries in Nicaragua. AIFLD was especially active in El Salvador in the 1980s, playing a critical role in the development and implementation of an agrarian reform program meant to undercut rural support for the leftist revolutionary movement. El Salvador’s counterinsurgency government — entirely propped up by generous US military aid — combined the agrarian reform with a state of siege that saw thousands of campesinos brutally murdered in a wave of massacres.”
https://jacobin.com/2020/01/afl-cio-cold-war-imperialism-solidarity
Murphy: This is interesting, but are you sure you’re replying to the right post? DJC