Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi formally joined the NDP leadership race yesterday.
This was not exactly a surprise, as Ms. Pancholi, an Edmonton lawyer before starting her career in politics, has made her interest in the province’s top political job quite clear for weeks.
First elected as part of the “Class of 2019,” as they say of MLAs elected to the Alberta Legislature, this gives Ms. Pancholi the right to claim to be enough of an outsider to appeal to voters who are not traditional NDP voters without being so much of an outsider she offends the party old-timers who right now seem to be clustered around former justice minister Kathleen Ganley.
Whether it matters more to have a little distance from the policies of Rachel Notley, who brought the Alberta NDP in from the wilderness after it had wandered around for most of the preceding 83 years, or to have cabinet experience, which Ms. Panchholi does not, remains to be seen.
Likewise, it also remains to be seen if not having a Calgary postal code – which will be said by backers of candidates who do have one to be essential to winning votes in Calgary, where nowadays Alberta political campaigns are won and lost – is really a requirement for victory.
As we have observed in some recent leadership races by another party that used to form governments in Alberta, third place or thereabouts isn’t necessarily the worst spot from which to start a campaign.
That said, the NDP isn’t one of those other parties, so it is uncertain if this is a law of political nature or just something that happened a couple of times once upon a time in Wild Rose Country.
Ms. Pancholi launched her campaign modestly by publishing an upbeat and polished campaign video on social media that was clearly designed both to speak to the way Albertans see themselves and undercut the current government’s approach to the same self-perception.
So, the candidate says in her voice-over, “there’s no challenge Alberta can’t take on,” and, in the next breath, “but the story the current government tells about Alberta is too small for such a big place!
“We see it in the choices they make, the fears they exploit, and they fights that they pick,” she added. “But that’s not the Alberta I know.”
It’s not particularly clear from her website or the video where she’s likely to stand on the spectrum of policies acceptable to NDP voters, but she was bold enough to tell media reporters after dropping her video that she’d consider replacing a consumer carbon tax with other measures to mitigate climate change.
“I know Albertans are absolutely committed to taking action on climate change and we know that there are lots of other things we can do,” she said in one interview.
It’ll be interesting to see if this degree of political realism can fly in the face of Alberta NDP orthodoxy at the end of the era of Rachel Notley.
It’s said here it’ll likely be a tough sell within party ranks, but could be a political necessity with rank and file voters.
So yesterday’s announcement puts Ms. Pancholi and Ms. Ganley officially in the race. Former health minister Sarah Hoffman is expected to announce her entry on the weekend, and David Shepherd, a member of the Class of 2015 but one who didn’t hold a cabinet post, is also likely to announce soon.
That leaves the interesting question of whether former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi will make a grab for the brass ring or if he’s just teasing us. Mr. Nenshi, a polarizing figure during his decade at Calgary City Hall, has passionate supporters and passionate detractors within the universe of NDP voters.
Nor can we completely rule out the possibility of one or two additional candidates emerging with enough cash to pay the $60,000 entry fee and enough bit left over for a respectable campaign.
Most of MLAs thought to have been pondering a bid, however, have shown up endorsing candidates already in the race, or all but in it.
Edmonton-Rutherford MLA Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, though, has been said for weeks to be seriously considering a run. She was first elected to the Legislature last year, but in 2021 campaigned for the position of national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, so she would have an experienced campaign team to help.
One thing this contest can reasonably said to be about to deliver is generational change.
Ms. Notley will be 60 on April 17. The oldest of the current list of candidates and putative candidates is Mr. Nenshi, a youthful 52. Mr. Shepherd is 50, Ms. Pancholi and Ms. Ganley are both about 45, and Ms. Hoffman is 43.
Candidates have until March 15 to make up their minds.
CORRECTION: Mr. Shepherd is 50, not 49 as was said in an earlier version of this story.
The carbon tax in Canada, happens to be a Conservative creation, which Ed Stelmach did give us in Alberta, in 2007. Major oil companies even support it. In any case, the NDP were the closest thing we had to Peter Lougheed’s Alberta PCs, with responsible governance. The UCP, are the closest thing to Ralph Klein, who was a big disaster, and his family members even opposed his time in politics, and he was also not well liked by Peter Lougheed.
Personally, if I wanted *that* kind of political realism, I’d vote CPC. What are you thinking? Is there any policy that the left will support in the face of relentless fascist propaganda attacks. If the answer is “none” then what are we even doing?
D&G: I’m not endorsing any of these candidates – yet, anyway. I’m just trying to provide a little analysis. DJC
David, I was referring specifically to “replacing the consumer carbon tax” with some measures, as if other measures could not and would not be daemonised by new relentless campaign of lies. I think we need to stick to our guns on this.
I always wonder when I hear people make that kind of statement, that they want to dump the carbon tax and replace it with something else……what are they referring to? What other policy will do a (better) job of encouraging the public to make necessary changes in their lives? Or is this just Saturday arm-chair quarterbacking which means very little but is what the public wants to hear?
David is speaking of the upcoming leadership campaign for a provincial party in Alberta – you are referring to a federal party. Please try to stay on topic.
I fairly clearly criticizing any proposal by the PROVINCIAL NDP to dropa Carbon tax just because the Conservative is riled up to think that it is a) the most punitive tax in history of economies and b) has not has any effect on behaviour. In other words, the argument is entirely in bad faith, and it a huge own goal for a progressive party or even a centre leftish party to act as if there was some merit behind the fossul fuel industry’s organized campaign of lies.
I typed CPC rather than UCP out of error but if you think there is daylight between them, you are mistaken .
This will no doubt be an interesting race. There may be something to having an NDP leader from Calgary. Over the years it is obvious that Calgarians seem to rarely vote in a party whose leader is from Edmonton, eg. Klein – Calgary, Decore – Edmonton, Notley – Edmonton, Smith – Southern Alberta. The long standing rivalry between Edmonton and Calgary appears to be alive and well.
There was a time the carbon tax had the support of most of Canada’s largest provinces, four out of five Federal parties and the current Federal government campaigned and won two elections in which it was a major issue. And it has now been in place for several years. So you would have thought this issue was resolved.
I’m not sure whether the current faltering support for it is a sign of the how successful the one major Federal party, which consistently was against it, has been in its recent relentless campaign against it, or how badly concerns about affordability have squeezed low and middle income earners. Maybe it is also partly a sign of how detested a certain Federal leader, who seems to be overstaying his welcome and seems inept at defending his policies, has become as he is the one most associated with it. In any event, this is where we are now.
Of course, Alberta does not have a consumer carbon tax provincially. And lets not forget the party that campaigned against it was elected twice. So now may not be the time for any party that hopes to be elected to vigorously defend what seems to be becoming a toxic idea to more and more voters both in Alberta and elsewhere.
This does not mean being against measures to benefit the environment or reduce emissions, but perhaps looking at other ways to effectively do that.
I recall when a previous Federal government brought in the GST and argued it was the most effective way to tax consumption and that it was just replacing a hidden tax. This was true, but it was also very visible and over time became a political albatross for them. Well they stuck to their arguments and were rewarded by a defeat of historic proportions and eventually the end of their party. Politics can be harsh to those who do not pay close attention to the way the wind is blowing and accept it whether they like to or not.
A carbon tax is a “market mechanism.” I should have put that in ALL CAPS because we know market mechanisms are holy to the UCP/Free Enterprise Loon crowd. But isn’t it a fundamental NDP value that the economy must serve people, not the other way around, regardless of market mechanisms?
Consumers have a very limited ability to avoid producing carbon. Once you seal up and insulate your house, install a heat pump, and buy your electric car, those are the big consumer items. Not being able to afford those things hardly makes people environmental criminals.
On the other hand, a carbon tax on industry is useful because they do have options. Stelmach’s five buck carbon tax made coal fired electricity uneconomic and changed Alberta’s electrical grid for the better with lower-carbon electricity and the growth of the cheapest forms of electrical generation, renewables – at least until the UCP loons killed it.
If your headline is accurate, Ms. Pancholi may be bringing forward a more nuanced discussion about addressing how big business and a defective economy are killing the atmosphere. How about establishing “carbon budgets” as an alternative? Then we can ask useful policy questions like: “is food production more important than mining tar?” Or “Is fresh water more important than mining coal?”
In our industry-captured pseudo-democracy I guess we all know how those questions would be answered but it is still worth knowing where aspiring leaders stand, even if it is on a subject the UCP handed to Ottawa.
I was surprised that Shannon Philips didn’t throw her hat in the ring.
I would have thought that she would have been in the top 3 of likely successors (along with Hoffman and Ganley).
Instead she seems content at this point to ride shotgun for Ganley – maybe she’s timing her run at the leadership for a future date where greater success might be more likely (once the unwashed masses have been burned a few more times by the UCP).
https://lethbridgenewsnow.com/2024/02/06/shannon-phillips-to-co-chair-kathleen-ganleys-ndp-leadership-campaign/
Observing the quality of the two declared candidates so far, I may be considering a climb down from my earlier Nenshi-for-leader enthusiasm.
Both women candidates show poise, steel and imagination. We’re already guaranteed an engaging race.
You have mentioned the two big-city mayors who ran for the leadership of Alberta political parties — Ralph Klein with the Tories, and Laurence Decore with the Libs.
Well, there’s a another successful mayor of Calgary who ran for leadership of a provincial party, and who turned into a political disaster. Three-time civic winner Rod Sykes was elected leader of the old Alberta Social Credit Party in 1980. As Nenshi would if he ran, Sykes created an initial bump of excitement after his victory. But, it quickly became obvious that a former mayor, not required in that role to be a team builder, and not necessarily skilled at delegating responsibilities to others, could be poison. Let me say, I was there and witnessed this destruction of a party. To be fair, Sykes inherited a Social Credit Party much weaker than the modern NDP.
But, while quite different in character than Sykes, Nenshi was successful in a political role that allowed him to be a maverick and a freelancer. As mayor, he could make things up on the fly. These are not necessarily good qualifications or background for a provincial leader.
I can’t wait for this race to really get going!
This is likely smart politics on Rakhi Pancholi’s part even if it is bad policy. The Alberta NDP was able to duck the consumer carbon tax issue during the 2023 campaign because of the existence of the federal carbon pricing backstop. If Poilievre wins next year and axes the federal carbon backstop, the Alberta NDP would immediately be attacked by the UCP for having a secret plan to reimpose a provincial consumer carbon tax in 2027.
Call me a pessimist, but my reading of environmental and climate issues is that the cost of the carbon tax is going to be the least of the crises facing Albertans and Canadians in the near and mid-term futures. So why even consider this distraction, which is playing out in the federal field? If you are looking for my vote as leader, please find something more meaningful and relevant to champion. As an NDP donor, the party solicited my opinion on issues of concern and the state of the party. To date I have not seen or heard anything about the findings. Presumably, leader candidates have some access. To me, this failure to follow-up is typical of the party’s administrative and communication vacuum that a future leader needs to address well before the next election. For example, emails on how to increase my donations do not get a response, meaning no one is monitoring the party’s published email Inbox. Or my attempt to join the party via the online application link did not allow me to Submit on my ipad, indicating a less than thorough technical solution to what should be a major initiative at this time. But then what can one expect? I am just a donor and voter supporter – the party appears much more concerned with keeping tight central control and allowing a group of energy lobbyists (according to The Breach) to direct strategy. Also, they are fixated on sending at least two emails a week, asking for donations – a major turn-off if there ever was one. For now the NDP has my support because there is no alternative to the UCP reign of terror. But as soon as there is a viable alternative, I will be looking at it. As for leader candidates so far, no one has grabbed my attention as a possible winner. And apparently, I am not alone in this. A recent poll showed UCP support holding steady since the election, but NDP support falling since Notley’s resignation. Just saying – NDP leader candidates, wake up and smell the coffee before it is too late!
How is the fact that having a provincial carbon tax on the books means that arch nemesis Ottawa doesn’t get to take the hard earned money away from Albertans with their own. It’s been settled in court, unless of course they owe some layers a lot of favours. How is denying Ottawa Albertan money not even a strategy considered? Provincial = not Federal?
I think the demise of Alberta’s own consumer-level price on carbon, and the impending end to the federal one after the next election (if not sooner), illustrate all too well the principal issue with taking action on climate change: Canadians, by and large, want their governments to work to reduce GHG emissions — but aren’t willing to pay anything to get there.
A little bit more specificity of what would be the policy on carbon would probably go a long way to making the leadership race interesting to follow.
The noise coming out of the premier’s mouth and office seems to say, “We can do all the things we want to do and have to do to mitigate climate change! Now that’s said, let’s burn all the carbon we want, aim for the stars, accomplish nothing and be done with it.” The prime minister may be riding the same bus, he is just acting happier to be there.
Here is a by-the-dollars, 10,000-foot analysis of mitigation methods and (spoiler alert!) capturing carbon is tougher and more expensive than anything else on the list. And there are things that we have ignored or are doing tepidly, that cost no money and provide a lot of return.
https://youtu.be/1dRgCsZ1q7g?si=h0jsvt2ITWChMLuo