Latest news with #WildroseLoyaltyCoalition
24-06-2025
- Politics
Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi heading for legislature after byelection win
Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has won a byelection in Edmonton-Strathcona, according to unofficial results posted online by Elections Alberta. With all polls reporting, Nenshi's party colleague Gurtej Singh Brar was also leading in the Edmonton-Ellerslie race. And in central Alberta, the United Conservative Party hung onto a seat in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. With all polls in Edmonton-Strathcona reporting, Nenshi had 7,952 of the 9,665 votes counted, or about 82 per cent of the ballots. The UCP candidate Darby Crouch earned 14 per cent of the vote. This is your result, your victory, Nenshi told supporters gathered at a south Edmonton hotel for a victory party. It's your inroads you made tonight. Nenshi defeated five other candidates who ran for the UCP, Liberal Party, Alberta Party, Republican Party of Alberta and the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition. Political newcomer Tara Sawyer of the UCP is poised to be the next MLA for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, staving off a threat from the Opposition and an invigorated separatist party. WATCH | Alberta byelections keep status quo: Début du widget Widget. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Widget. Retourner au début du widget ? Alberta byelections keep status quo NDP leader Naheed Nenshi gets a seat in the legislature, UCP candidate holds off separatist challenger in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. With all polls reporting, Sawyer had 61 per cent, or 9,363 of the 15,318 votes tallied. NDP candidate Bev Toews came in second place with 20 per cent of the vote, and Republican Party of Alberta leader Cam Davies was in third, with 18 per cent of the vote. Wildrose Loyalty Coalition candidate Bill Tufts was in a distant fourth place. Sawyer told supporters gathered at a hotel in Olds, which is 96 kilometres north of Calgary, she feels honoured voters recognized she was the right person for the job. She told reporters the intrigue with a separatist candidate shows how frustrated rural Albertans are with the federal government, and that it's time the Liberal government take Alberta's interests more seriously. Sawyer said citizens told her this while she was door knocking during the campaign. What I kept telling them, and what they clearly recognized, is we didn't need a divisive party, Sawyer said. We need to remain strong, and we already have a government that's working every day on all the issues that are frustrating them. The seat was vacated by former legislature Speaker and longtime UCP MLA Nathan Cooper, who resigned last month to become Alberta's representative in Washington, D.C. Cooper was at Sawyer's victory party in Olds on Monday night, and congratulated her with a hug. Republican Party leader Davies said he's undeterred by the byelection result. There is a growing movement of conservatives who are not happy with the status quo and that movement is not going away anytime soon, Davies said. As Premier Smith prepares to launch an Alberta Next panel on Tuesday in Calgary, to gather ideas on how Alberta can bolster its sovereignty, Davies said the time for panels, studies, and recommendations is done. Albertans want now more than ever action on the policies that matter most to them, he said. And so we're going to fight for those issues. The NDP's result garnering 20 per cent of the votes is on par with the party's result in the 2023 provincial general election. In a statement, candidate Bev Toews said she saw progress in the conversations she had with rural residents. The opportunity to stand up for Canada and against separatism was a highlight for me this campaign, she said. Nenshi's yearlong road to the legislature Alberta NDP members chose Nenshi to lead the NDP at a Calgary convention a year ago following Rachel Notley's resignation as leader. Nenshi, who served as mayor of Calgary from 2010 to 2021, won the leadership contest in a landslide. Since becoming leader, Nenshi has been without a seat in the legislature, saying he would wait to run until a vacancy in an Edmonton or Calgary riding became available. In his byelection victory speech Monday night, Nenshi thanked the voters of Edmonton-Strathcona for being welcoming and making him feel at home. And I promise I will be your number one advocate, he said. Hinting at the projected result in the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills byelection, Nenshi said if voters take anything from Monday's results, it should be Albertans' weak appetite for separation from Canada. 3 Alberta provincial byelections called for June 23 (new window) Nenshi reiterated the NDP's dedication to publicly-funded and accessible health care, a robust public education system, workers' rights, affordability and community safety. A closer result in Ellerslie Political pundits said they'd be watching the race closely in Edmonton-Ellerslie as an indicator of how robust NDP support remains in Edmonton. If Monday's byelection results are made official, all seats in the City of Edmonton will remain in NDP hands. The NDP's Brar, a Punjabi-language broadcaster and self-taught tech enthusiast, according to his campaign website, captured 51 per cent of the 8,511 byelection votes cast. He previously won a competitive NDP nomination contest against three other community leaders. UCP candidate and former Progressive Conservative MLA Naresh Bhardwaj, earned about 38 per cent of the votes. The result was a narrower margin of victory for the NDP, who won the riding by 25 percentage points in the 2023 provincial election. Brar's campaign did not respond to messages on Monday night. In a statement after his win, Brar said he would fight for better health care, education, community safety, and a south Edmonton hospital — a project cancelled by the government. Tonight, we've sent a clear message to Danielle Smith and the UCP: our community is demanding better, his statement said. Manpreet Tiwana, the Alberta Liberal candidate, came in third and captured about five per cent of the vote. That party has not elected an MLA to the legislature since 2015. When the legislature rose in May, there were 46 UCP MLAs, 36 from the NDP, and two independents. The legislature is set to reconvene on the last week of October. Janet French (new window) · CBC News
Global News
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Global News
Alberta voters to decide if NDP's Nenshi, separatists to hold legislature seats
Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is looking to finally win a seat in the legislature after a year of sitting on the sidelines. He's running in one of three provincial byelections today as a candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona, where his predecessor Rachel Notley last won 80 per cent of the vote. In Edmonton-Ellerslie, NDP candidate Gurtej Singh Brar could solidify the opposition party's hold on the city, but United Conservative Party candidate Naresh Bhardwaj is hoping to make an inroad. In rural central Alberta, the separatist Republican Party of Alberta is aiming to capitalize on discontent with Ottawa. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Republican leader Cameron Davies has been campaigning in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills against the UCP's Tara Sawyer, the NDP's Bev Toews and Bill Tufts of the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition. The seat became vacant after former legislature speaker and long-time UCP member of the legislature Nathan Cooper resigned to take a post as Alberta's representative in Washington, D.C. Story continues below advertisement 1:56 Alberta voters to decide if NDP's Nenshi, separatists to hold legislature seats Also vying for the Edmonton-Strathcona seat are UCP candidate Darby Crouch, Republican Ravina Chand, Samuel Petrov of the Alberta Party, Liberal Don Slater and Wildrose Loyalty Coalition candidate Jesse Stretch. Candidates in Edmonton-Ellerslie include Caroline Currie of the Alberta Party, Pamela Henson from the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition, Fred Munn of the Republican Party and Liberal Manpreet Tiwana. The south-Edmonton riding had been represented by Rod Loyola under the NDP banner until he resigned to run in the federal election.
Winnipeg Free Press
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Alberta voters to decide today if NDP's Nenshi, separatists to hold legislature seats
EDMONTON – Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is looking to finally win a seat in the legislature after a year of sitting on the sidelines. He's running in one of three provincial byelections today as a candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona, where his predecessor Rachel Notley last won 80 per cent of the vote. In Edmonton-Ellerslie, NDP candidate Gurtej Singh Brar could solidify the opposition party's hold on the city, but United Conservative Party candidate Naresh Bhardwaj is hoping to make an inroad. In rural central Alberta, the separatist Republican Party of Alberta is aiming to capitalize on discontent with Ottawa. Republican leader Cameron Davies has been campaigning in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills against the UCP's Tara Sawyer, the NDP's Bev Toews and Bill Tufts of the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition. The seat became vacant after former legislature speaker and long-time UCP member of the legislature Nathan Cooper resigned to take a post as Alberta's representative in Washington, D.C. Also vying for the Edmonton-Strathcona seat are UCP candidate Darby Crouch, Republican Ravina Chand, Samuel Petrov of the Alberta Party, Liberal Don Slater and Wildrose Loyalty Coalition candidate Jesse Stretch. Candidates in Edmonton-Ellerslie include Caroline Currie of the Alberta Party, Pamela Henson from the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition, Fred Munn of the Republican Party and Liberal Manpreet Tiwana. The south-Edmonton riding had been represented by Rod Loyola under the NDP banner until he resigned to run in the federal election. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2025.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
In Alberta, separatism is on the ballot in a rural byelection on Monday
OTTAWA — Cameron Davies, the leader of the separatist Republican Party of Alberta and the party's candidate for Monday's Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills byelection, admits that his party's name and MAGA red branding are causing some confusion at the doors. 'It certainly has come up in conversation,' Davies told the National Post on Thursday. 'People want to know more about it, what it means and that's just an opportunity to explain why the word 'republican' and why a constitutional republic is something we want to look at.' Davies' Republican party isn't formally aligned with the more well-known one south of the border — notably swapping out the latter's elephant for a more local buffalo as its logo — but it does aspire to make Alberta an independent republic governed similarly in principle to the U.S. 'The form of government Canada has doesn't work for Alberta, and the form of government we have here in Alberta doesn't work for Alberta,' said Davies. Davies, an ex-UCP organizer, is one of two separatist candidates who'll be on the ballot in Monday's byelection in the south-central Alberta riding, where the governing United Conservative Party won more votes than anywhere else in the province in 2023's provincial election. The other is employee benefits specialist Bill Tufts, running under the banner of the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition. Under normal circumstances, the byelection would be a tap-in for first-time UCP candidate Tara Sawyer. But these are anything but normal circumstances, with support for Alberta separatism spiking on the heels of the federal Liberals fourth straight election win. What's more, Davies and Tufts have a fortuitous piece of Alberta election lore to point to. Western Concept candidate Gordon Kesler notched a surprise 1982 byelection win in predecessor riding Olds-Didsbury, briefly becoming the first and only separatist to hold a seat in Alberta's legislature. Kesler is still active in the area's politics and is backing Davis in the byelection. Ex-Alberta MLA Derek Fildebrandt, whose now-defunct riding of Strathmore-Brooks crossed into the riding's east end, says he expects the Republicans to place a strong second, possibly even pushing the UCP below a majority vote share. 'Based on my gut, nothing hard,' said Fildebrandt. The UCP's Nathan Cooper won in dominant fashion with 75 per cent of the vote in 2013. Davies says he'd be happy with 20 per cent of the riding's vote, around what the populist Wildrose party got in its first election in 2008. '(Wildrose) got around 20 per cent of the vote, and that was after being a party for close to a year,' said Davies. The Alberta Republicans, formerly the Buffalo Party of Alberta, formally launched on February 11. Davies was acclaimed as leader two months later in April. 'Anything at or above 20 per cent is a significant gain, given how short of a runway we've had,' said Davies. Davies, who lives just outside the riding in south Red Deer, says he typically gets between 12 and 18 volunteers each day and has knocked on 20,000 doors in the riding, which is home to about 50,000 people. Tufts, for his part, says he's in it to win it. 'Well, we would like to win,' said Tufts. Tufts said that the contest's timing, outside of a general election, gives him an opening. 'Byelections can be quite tumultuous events, typically because of the low voter turnout. So I think we've had an opportunity to go out there and work hard, knock on the doors and explain our position.' Tufts pointed out that both Kesler and Alberta's first Wildrose MLA Paul Hinman won office in byelections. He said he was optimistic that his party's brand recognition would propel him past Alberta Republican candidate Davies and into the winner's circle. 'The Wildrose has been around for a long time … so I think there's a lot of credibility with the name, the recognition of our brand and our policies that resonate with a lot of voters,' said Tufts. The populist Wildrose Party merged with the rival Alberta Progressive Conservatives in 2017 to form the UCP but Tufts' Wildrose Loyalty Coalition lives on as a splinter group. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith led the Wildrose Party from 2009 to 2014 before defecting to the PCs in a disastrous floor-crossing. Tufts says that a revitalized Wildrose caucus could hold the UCP to account and keep it from getting weak-kneed in seeing through the results of a successful referendum on independence, drawing a comparison to the recent Liberal-NDP supply and confidence agreement. 'Look at who the most powerful party in Ottawa was over the last few years: that was the NDP,' said Tufts. Katherine Kowalchuk, a separatist who lives in the riding, says she'll be voting Republican. 'The sense that I get from Cam (Davies) is that he's prepared, he has conservative viewpoints on things… and I think that he has the ability to stand by those convictions,' said Kowalchuk. 'We need to fight for our strong Alberta heritage rooted in family and freedom, and Cam is really the only candidate that's talking about this.' Kowalchuk ran in the riding for the Alberta Independence Party in 2023, winning 4.7 per cent of the vote. Pollster Dan Arnold, an executive with Pollara Strategic Insights says that Alberta's budding separatist movement could hardly have picked a better time and place for its first electoral test. He noted that support for Alberta independence among committed voters was at 24 per cent in mid-May, the highest level his firm has seen since it started polling Albertans on the topic in 2011. 'My assumption is the reason you're seeing the numbers edging up is because (separation) is now in the spotlight,' said Arnold. He said that the UCP will likely get spooked if the separatist vote breaks the double-digits. '10 per cent can grow over time to 20 per cent and then you're getting into vote split territory,' said Arnold. Arnold noted that Smith has dialled up the rhetoric against Ottawa's equalization program in recent days, likely in an effort to shore up soft separatists in the province. 'In our past polling, we've generally found that nobody really knows what equalization is but, at least in Alberta and Saskatchewan, they think it's unfair to their province.' Smith said on Monday that Quebec, the program's biggest recipient, should develop a resource 'royalty framework to wean them off the equalization that comes from western Canada.' Arnold said that 35 per cent of UCP voters see Smith as a separatist. Ironically, this could be a problem for her with her base, with polls showing that over half of UCP voters would vote 'yes' in a referendum on independence. Sawyer says she's not a separatist and believes in a strong Alberta within a united Canada. She told National Post that she's not playing the over/under game. Instead, she's focused on earning the trust of voters and winning the seat. 'We are working hard and earning every vote,' said Sawyer. Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills is one of three byelections scheduled for Monday, with the NDP tipped to win two Edmonton-area races. National Post Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.
National Post
21-06-2025
- Politics
- National Post
In Alberta, separatism is on the ballot in a rural byelection on Monday
OTTAWA — Cameron Davies, the leader of the separatist Republican Party of Alberta and the party's candidate for Monday's Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills byelection, admits that his party's name and MAGA red branding are causing some confusion at the doors. Article content 'It certainly has come up in conversation,' Davies told the National Post on Thursday. Article content 'People want to know more about it, what it means and that's just an opportunity to explain why the word 'republican' and why a constitutional republic is something we want to look at.' Article content Davies' Republican party isn't formally aligned with the more well-known one south of the border — notably swapping out the latter's elephant for a more local buffalo as its logo — but it does aspire to make Alberta an independent republic governed similarly in principle to the U.S. Article content 'The form of government Canada has doesn't work for Alberta, and the form of government we have here in Alberta doesn't work for Alberta,' said Davies. Article content Davies, an ex-UCP organizer, is one of two separatist candidates who'll be on the ballot in Monday's byelection in the south-central Alberta riding, where the governing United Conservative Party won more votes than anywhere else in the province in 2023's provincial election. Article content The other is employee benefits specialist Bill Tufts, running under the banner of the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition. Article content Under normal circumstances, the byelection would be a tap-in for first-time UCP candidate Tara Sawyer. But these are anything but normal circumstances, with support for Alberta separatism spiking on the heels of the federal Liberals fourth straight election win. Article content Article content What's more, Davies and Tufts have a fortuitous piece of Alberta election lore to point to. Article content Western Concept candidate Gordon Kesler notched a surprise 1982 byelection win in predecessor riding Olds-Didsbury, briefly becoming the first and only separatist to hold a seat in Alberta's legislature. Article content Kesler is still active in the area's politics and is backing Davis in the byelection. Article content Ex-Alberta MLA Derek Fildebrandt, whose now-defunct riding of Strathmore-Brooks crossed into the riding's east end, says he expects the Republicans to place a strong second, possibly even pushing the UCP below a majority vote share. Article content 'Based on my gut, nothing hard,' said Fildebrandt.
