Naheed Nenshi voted new Alberta NDP leader in landslide victory 

Article content

Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi romped to a landslide first-ballot victory on Saturday afternoon to become the Alberta NDP’s new leader and succeed the outgoing Rachel Notley. 

Article content

Nenshi, 52, becomes the party’s ninth leader as well as its first from Calgary, ushering in a new era for the NDP that currently sits as the largest Official Opposition in Alberta’s history. 

He gathered more than 86 per cent of the vote on the first ballot, far more than necessary to meet the 50 per cent plus one threshold for victory, according to results announced in Calgary. 

“This extraordinary movement is an example of what’s possible when you stop thinking small and start dreaming big,” he told the crowd, which included Notley. 

“We are a completely unified team.” 

He also looked forward to the next election, scheduled for three years from now. 

“Winning that election in 2027 is not the end result. It’s the means to an end result,” he said. 

Article content

Nenshi finished with 62,746 votes, followed by Kathleen Ganley with 5,899 (eight per cent), Sarah Hoffman with 3,063 (four per cent), and Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse with 1,222 (one per cent). 

Nenshi told the crowd his number of votes was the most received by any provincial party leader in Canadian history and dwarfed the 34,949 first-ballot votes Premier Danielle Smith received in her election as United Conservative Party leader in 2022. 

A NDP official said 85,277 members were eligible to cast a ballot when the race ended, an increase of 69,000 from when the race began. The party says 72,930 members voted, resulting in a turnout of 85.6 per cent. 

Nenshi’s campaign had been criticized by his fellow candidates for lacking policy depth. 

Article content

One area, however, he was more clear about was potentially breaking with the federal party of the same name. 

“The math says that we cannot succeed unless people who vote for every party federally vote for the NDP provincially,” he said during the party’s third and final leadership debate on June 2. 

Currently, and as per the Alberta NDP constitution, a party membership automatically enrols a member in the federal NDP. That relationship is often highlighted by the governing UCP, characterizing it as the “Notley-Singh-Trudeau alliance.” 

Nenshi was endorsed by eight other New Democrat MLAs as well as initial leadership candidate Rakhi Pancholi, who withdrew to support the former Calgary mayor. 

He’s touted what he believes is his ability to beat Premier Danielle Smith at the ballot box with policy pitches, including boosting funding to both public health care and education, reversing the government’s policies on 2SLGBTQ+ youth and fully implementing $10-a-day child care. 

Article content

He was the only one out of the four candidates not to be a sitting MLA, and by convention, will seek to do so in the coming months. That could mean a run in outgoing Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillip’s riding, after she announced she was stepping down effective July 1 — though Nenshi hasn’t indicated any interest in seeking that seat yet. 

Some in the UCP have welcomed the challenge from the three-term Calgary mayor. 

“Running against him would present us with the mother of target-rich environments,” a source in the premier’s office told Postmedia’s Rick Bell earlier this year. 

Notle announced her intention to step down as leader in January. So far, she has not said if she plans to stay on as an MLA. 

Article content