'Part of the history': Rivals for Alberta NDP leadership torn on federal party ties

What began as a race to pick a new leader for Alberta’s Opposition NDP has triggered a broader existential debate over why being provincially orange must automatically tie you to the federal brand. NDP supporters chat as they wait for the results of the Alberta election in Edmonton on Monday May 29, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

What began as a race to pick a new leader for Alberta’s Opposition NDP has triggered a broader existential debate over why being provincially orange must automatically tie you to the federal brand.

According to party constitutions, members of a provincial NDP are automatically members of the federal party.

It’s a linkage that caused headaches for Alberta’s NDP when it was in government from 2015 to 2019 and continues to prove politically problematic as it seeks to wrest power from Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservatives in 2027.

The NDP got a big boost 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 legislator and one of the leadership candidates, immediately quit the race to back him.

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

"I think the membership has to have a very serious conversation about its links with the federal NDP," Nenshi said in an interview.

"I believe that our ties to the federal NDP are remnants of a party that wasn't confident, a party that wasn't grown up yet, that relied on big brother to look after us.

"Now this party is confident and a modern force and I don't think we need that anymore.

"The costs of allying with people who we don't control, whose values and ethics may not line up with us, greatly outweigh the benefits.”

Former Mayor of Calgary Naheed Nenshi announced today the he would be seeking the leadership of the provincial NDP party in Calgary, Alta., Monday, March 11, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Todd Korol)

QUESTIONING THE LINK

Nenshi isn't alone in his views. Pancholi began her now-abandoned campaign by questioning the link.

"Membership in one political party should not require membership in another,” she said.

Rakhi Pancholi, seen in this undated handout photo, announced she'd run to be the next Alberta NDP leader on Feb. 8, 2024.

"Albertans who want to join the Alberta NDP should get to decide if they also want to become a member of the federal NDP."

Candidate Kathleen Ganley, a former Alberta justice minister and current Calgary legislature member, has said she won’t shut the door on the debate.

"I think the concerns of members, especially when you hear them repeatedly, are very valid,” said Ganley.

Alliance with their federal counterparts has forced Alberta New Democrats to walk a policy tightrope on energy and environmental policy in a province where jobs and billions of dollars in revenue are tied to non-renewable resources like the oilsands.

BUTTING HEADS OVER TRANS MOUNTAIN

The two wings openly butted heads in 2018 when Notley’s then-government celebrated Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government spending billions to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to ensure more Alberta oil would get to the B.C. coast. 

The move outraged environmental advocates, including those within the NDP. Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh disparaged the purchase as a bad deal for all involved.

In last year’s provincial election, Smith’s UCP happily harvested anti-Trudeau sentiment among voters by gleefully painting the Alberta NDP as either enthusiastic co-conspirators or impotent lackeys in the federal power sharing deal between Trudeau and Singh.

SHARED HISTORY

In an interview, former Alberta NDP leader Ray Martin said it’s wrong-headed to dump the ties, adding there is strength and pride in a shared history.

“Nenshi made some statements about the federal party that haven't gone over very well here," said Martin. 

"The reality of it is when you look at the history of it going back to Tommy Douglas and the whole history of the party, it's been the NDP provincially and federally.”

Douglas, the former premier of Saskatchewan, is widely seen as the father of medicare. He also served as the first federal leader of the newly formed NDP in 1961 when it changed its name from the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.

Tommy Douglas receives a standing ovation while arriving at the Palace Theatre to address an NDP rally in Hamilton, Ont. on June 11, 1968. (The Canadian Press)

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

Hoffman said the party doesn’t need to cut ties to sell itself.

"I don't think we need to try to trick people into voting for us. I think if we really tell people who we are and demonstrate what our values are, they're going to vote for us," she said.

Sarah Hoffman

“I never shied away from our values and I never will. 

“You're not going to get some repackaged Liberal Party."

Political scientist Lori Williams said while severing ties may be controversial, the debate is not just coming from the outside.

“It's making people angry because it's (Nenshi) saying it. He's not seen as somebody who is on the inside,” said Williams, with Mount Royal University in Calgary.

“But Pancholi said it (and) Kathleen Ganley expressed openness to it.”

Williams said shifting away from the federal NDP also may make the provincial party more palatable to those alienated by Alberta’s move further to the political right under the UCP.

"There are a lot of former Progressive Conservatives who do not see their conservatism in the current UCP government but can't bring themselves to vote NDP," she said.

The new Alberta leader is scheduled to be announced June 22.

The other two leadership candidates — Gil McGowan and Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse — did not returns requests for comment.

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