Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi officially an MLA and the party has kept a hold of its Edmonton fortress

Edmonton Journal

9 hours ago

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Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi is officially an elected provincial politician after winning the Edmonton Strathcona seat by a landslide victory.
Monday's provincial byelections in two Edmonton ridings and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills paid off for Alberta's two major parties with Nenshi securing his seat in the legislature and the UCP taking the rural riding by a comfortable victory with little challenge from the separatist party.
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Speaking to reporters after his victory speech at the Delta Hotels Edmonton South Conference Centre, Nenshi said now that he'll be able to be in the legislature for the fall session, he's looking forward to going toe-to-toe with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
'We're seeing the Conservatives lose support. So if I'm the premier, I'm starting to think that, geez, maybe doing all these things that I didn't run on, all these things against what I promised, might not be the smartest idea,' Nenshi said.
'I think we're going to see that continuing erosion of trust in this premier.'
Unofficial results from Elections Alberta show Nenshi secured 7,952 votes with all 52 polls reported in Edmonton Strathcona. He took home 82.3 per cent of the vote in the riding, compared to UCP candidate Darby Crouch who received 13.6 per cent of the votes.
Colin Aitchison, Western Canada director at communications firm Enterprise Canada and a former UCP staffer, said the next six months will be crucial for Nenshi as a leader.
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'I think if he's able to demonstrate a return to that level of charisma and communication we saw as Calgary mayor, that really helps launch him into the NDP leadership and and really communicate, not just NDP ideological positions, but what are his policy priorities, and what is he going to do as the government,' Aitchison said.
Pointing to the NDP's decline in the polls, Aitchison said if Nenshi is able to respond in a way that appeals to Albertans as the alternative to the current government, it could level the playing field.
'So far to date, he hasn't really clearly articulated where he stands on issues other than opposing the government and that is going to be the real test for him.'
UCP unable to crack NDP fortress
The victory in Edmonton Strathcona was sweet for the former Calgary mayor who has been without a seat in the legislature since he was elected as the party leader late last June. But the riding to watch Monday evening was Edmonton Ellerslie which began as a tight race between the UCP and the Alberta NDP.
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Ultimately, Gurtej Singh Brar held the seat for the NDP, triumphing over former UCP MLA Naresh Bhardwaj who was hoping to get back to the legislature after choosing not to seek reelection in 2015.
According to Elections Alberta, Brar took home 4,327 votes with all 55 polls reported. He defeated Bhardwaj by 1,088 votes.
'We were confident from day one,' Brar said Monday evening.
'Every day at the doors we were listening to the same thing. Overcrowded schools (and) with health care, there are long, long wait times.'
Aitchison said the NDP receiving 50.8 per cent should be a 'wake-up call' for the party, pointing to the UCP making ground in the city and recent polling that shows a decline in NDP support. But he noted the unexpected can happen during byelections due to low voter turnout.
Rural Alberta votes UCP amid separatist movement
Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, where the Republican Party of Alberta has been looking to stoke the flames of separatism, was held by the UCP's Tara Sawyer who secured 9,363 votes with all 60 polling stations recorded. She defeated second-place candidate Bev Toews of the NDP by more than 6,000 votes, according to the unofficial results from Elections Alberta.
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Republican Party of Alberta Leader Cameron Davies, a longtime conservative operator who recently resigned his membership in the UCP, was sitting in third place Monday night with 2,705 votes.
Aitchison said while the RPA did garner some support, it wasn't nearly enough to challenge the UCP, nor was it unexpected.
'The fact that the New Democratic Party was able to hold onto that second place position in a rural Alberta riding, I think shows that the Republican Party doesn't have the level of organization or potentially broader support that they need to be a real threat to the United Conservative Party to pick up seats in the province,' he said.
Sawyer, a farmer from the Acme area who recently served as chair of the Grain Growers of Canada, was nominated after the seat was vacated by the departure of former Speaker Nathan Cooper, who resigned to become Alberta's trade representative in Washington, D.C.
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