What began as a race to choose a new leader for Alberta’s opposition NDP has sparked a broader existential debate about why a province’s orange color should automatically be associated with a federal brand. .
According to the party constitution, local NDP members are automatically members of the federal party.
The link caused headaches for Alberta’s NDP when it was in power from 2015 to 2019 and is seeking to wrest power from Premier Daniel Smith’s United Conservative Party in 2027. It continues to prove politically problematic.
With former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi joining the race earlier this month, the NDP’s profile has significantly increased, and the party’s membership is reported to have skyrocketed.
Rakhi Pancholi, a two-term Edmonton councilor and one of the leadership candidates, quickly withdrew from the race to support him.
Nenshi says it’s time for the Alberta NDP to hang up its apron strings.
“I think member states need to have a very serious conversation about their relationship with the federal NDP,” Nenshi said in an interview.
“I think our connection to the federal NDP is a vestige of a party that lacked self-confidence, a party that hadn’t grown up yet and relied on the big brother to take care of us.”
“This party is now a confident, modern force, and I don’t think we need it anymore.”
“The costs of allying with people over whom we have no control and whose values and ethics may not align with ours greatly outweigh the benefits.”
Nenshi is not the only one who has this idea. Pancholi began a now-abandoned campaign after questioning that connection.
“Membership of one political party should not require membership of another political party,” she said.
“Albertans who wish to join the Alberta NDP must decide whether they also want to be members of the federal NDP.”
Candidate Kathleen Ganley, a former Alberta justice minister and current Calgary councilor, said she has no intention of closing the door on the debate.
“I think the concerns of our members are very valid, especially as we hear them repeatedly,” Ganley said.
Alberta’s New Democratic Party, in partnership with the federal government, is forced to walk a tightrope over energy and environmental policy in the province, where jobs and billions of dollars in revenue are tied to non-renewable resources such as the oil sands.
In 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent billions of dollars to purchase the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion to ensure more Alberta oil reached the British Columbia coast, with the then-Notley government in 2018. As they celebrated what had happened, the two wings clashed openly.
The move infuriated environmental advocates, including within the NDP. Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called the deal a bad deal for everyone involved.
In last year’s provincial election, Smith’s UCP gleefully portrayed the Alberta NDP as either a fanatical co-conspirator or a helpless lackey in Trudeau and Singh’s federal power-sharing deal, and anti-Trudeau sentiment among voters. I happily harvested it.
History shared between parties
Former Alberta NDP Leader Ray Martin said in an interview that it would be wrong to abandon ties, adding there is strength and pride in shared history.
“Mr. Nenshi made some statements about the Federalists that were not well-received here,” Martin said.
“The reality is, if you look at the history of the party and the entire history of the party going back to Tommy Douglas, it’s been the NDP both provincially and federally.”
Douglas, a former premier of Saskatchewan, is widely known as the father of medicine. He also served as the first federal leader of his newly formed NDP, which changed its name from the Cooperative Federal Union in 1961.
Martin is supporting Edmonton MP and former deputy premier in the Notley government, Sarah Hoffman.
Hoffman said the party doesn’t need to cut ties to promote itself.
“I don’t think we need to try to trick people into voting for us. If we really tell them who we are and show them our values, they’ll vote for us. I think so,” she said. “I have never run away from our values, and I never will.”
“You’re not going to get a repackaged Liberal Party.”
Lori Williams, a political analyst and professor at Mount Royal University, said that while the severance may be controversial, the debate isn’t just coming from outsiders.
“What makes people angry is that [Nenshi] That’s what I’m saying. He’s not seen as an insider,” Williams said.
“But Pancholi said:” [and] Kathleen Ganley expressed openness to that. ”
Politician known for his ‘purple’ brand of politics is running as candidate to replace former leader Rachel Notley.
Williams said the move away from the federal NDP could also make the province’s party more palatable to those alienated by Alberta’s further move to the political right under the UCP. He said that there is.
“There are many former Progressive Conservatives who don’t see their conservatism in the current UCP government, but are reluctant to vote NDP,” she said.
Alberta’s new leader is expected to be announced on June 22nd.
The other two leadership candidates, Gil McGowan and Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, did not respond to requests for comment.
