Rivals for Alberta NDP leadership torn on federal party ties

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What started as a race to select a brand new chief for Alberta’s Opposition NDP has triggered a broader existential debate over why being provincially orange should routinely tie you to the federal model.

In response to celebration constitutions, members of a provincial NDP are routinely members of the federal celebration.

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It’s a linkage that induced complications for Alberta’s NDP when it was in authorities from 2015 to 2019 and continues to show politically problematic because it seeks to wrest energy from Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservatives in 2027.

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The NDP bought a giant increase in profile — and a reported spike in memberships — earlier this month when former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi joined the race.

Rakhi Pancholi, a two-term Edmonton legislature and one of many management candidates, instantly stop the race to again him.

Nenshi says it’s time for the Alberta NDP to chop the apron strings.

“I feel the membership has to have a really severe dialog about its hyperlinks with the federal NDP,” Nenshi mentioned in an interview.

“I imagine that our ties to the federal NDP are remnants of a celebration that wasn’t assured, a celebration that wasn’t grown up but, that relied on large brother to take care of us.

“Now this celebration is assured and a contemporary drive and I don’t assume we want that anymore.

“The prices of allying with individuals who we don’t management, whose values and ethics might not line up with us, tremendously outweigh the advantages.”

Nenshi isn’t alone in his views. Pancholi started her now-abandoned marketing campaign by questioning the hyperlink.

“Membership in a single political celebration shouldn’t require membership in one other,” she mentioned.

“Albertans who wish to be a part of the Alberta NDP ought to get to determine if in addition they wish to turn out to be a member of the federal NDP.”

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Candidate Kathleen Ganley, a former Alberta justice minister and present Calgary legislature member, has mentioned she gained’t shut the door on the talk.

“I feel the issues of members, particularly while you hear them repeatedly, are very legitimate,” mentioned Ganley.

Alliance with their federal counterparts has pressured Alberta New Democrats to stroll a coverage tightrope on power and environmental coverage in a province the place jobs and billions of {dollars} in income are tied to non-renewable assets just like the oilsands.

The 2 wings overtly butted heads in 2018 when Notley’s then-government celebrated Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s authorities spending billions to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline growth to make sure extra Alberta oil would get to the B.C. coast.

The transfer outraged environmental advocates, together with these throughout the NDP. Federal NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh disparaged the acquisition as a nasty deal for all concerned.

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In final 12 months’s provincial election, Smith’s UCP fortunately harvested anti-Trudeau sentiment amongst voters by gleefully portray the Alberta NDP as both enthusiastic co-conspirators or impotent lackeys within the federal energy sharing deal between Trudeau and Singh.

‘You’re not going to get some repackaged Liberal Occasion’

In an interview, former Alberta NDP chief Ray Martin mentioned it’s wrong-headed to dump the ties, including there’s energy and satisfaction in a shared historical past.

“Nenshi made some statements in regards to the federal celebration that haven’t gone over very properly right here,” mentioned Martin.

“The fact of it’s while you take a look at the historical past of it going again to Tommy Douglas and the entire historical past of the celebration, it’s been the NDP provincially and federally.”

Douglas, the previous premier of Saskatchewan, is extensively seen as the daddy of medicare. He additionally served as the primary federal chief of the newly fashioned NDP in 1961 when it modified its title from the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.

Martin is backing Sarah Hoffman, an Edmonton legislature member and former deputy premier in Notley’s authorities.

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Hoffman mentioned the celebration doesn’t want to chop ties to promote itself.

“I don’t assume we have to attempt to trick individuals into voting for us. I feel if we actually inform individuals who we’re and show what our values are, they’re going to vote for us,” she mentioned.

“I by no means shied away from our values and I by no means will.

“You’re not going to get some repackaged Liberal Occasion.”

Shifting away from federal NDP might make provincial celebration extra palatable: political scientist

Political scientist Lori Williams mentioned whereas severing ties could also be controversial, the talk isn’t just coming from the skin.

“It’s making individuals indignant as a result of it’s (Nenshi) saying it. He’s not seen as any individual who’s on the within,” mentioned Williams, with Mount Royal College in Calgary.

“However Pancholi mentioned it (and) Kathleen Ganley expressed openness to it.”

Williams mentioned shifting away from the federal NDP additionally might make the provincial celebration extra palatable to these alienated by Alberta’s transfer additional to the political proper below the UCP.

“There are quite a lot of former Progressive Conservatives who don’t see their conservatism within the present UCP authorities however can’t convey themselves to vote NDP,” she mentioned.

The brand new Alberta chief is scheduled to be introduced June 22.

The opposite two management candidates — Gil McGowan and Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse — didn’t return requests for remark.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed March 30, 2024.

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