Nenshi predicting byelection will be called next week
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on November 16, 2024.
Herald photo by Al Beeber
Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi speaks during a luncheon hosted by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce on Friday at the Lethbridge Lodge.LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi expects premier Danielle Smith will call a byelection for Lethbridge West next week.
And the date will be when post-secondary education students have the left the city after exams.
Nenshi made that prediction on Friday as he talked at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon along with the NDP’s Lethbridge West candidate Rob Miyashiro.
Nenshi visited Lethbridge two days after Premier Danielle Smith and UCP candidate John Middleton-Hope spoke to the Chamber, also at the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge downtown.
Nenshi told the audience Smith’s had since July 1 to call the election and that he heard she’s blamed the delay on him. He said Smith took 916 days from when she became leader of the Wild Rose party to run in an election – 2.5 years.
One of the real reasons she hasn’t called the vote yet and will make that call the middle of next week is “so that Election Day occurs after final exams and all the students have left” so they will be disenfranchised and unable to vote, said Nenshi, pointing out there will be advance polls for students or others who live temporarily in Lethbridge West.
“That’s the kind of cynical politics we’re dealing with right now,” Nenshi told the Chamber and its guests.
He said there are many reasons he isn’t running in the riding, one of them being because voters deserve someone who understands the city and will fight for it every day in the Legislature.
In a media scrum, Nenshi added of Smith “she wants the election to happen when there are no students in Lethbridge West to vote. It’s pretty cynical, it’s pretty wrong and for an excuse, she’s trying to blame it on me,” said Nenshi, reiterating what he recently told The Herald – that if Smith wants to fire an underperforming minister in Calgary or Edmonton, “I’m happy to run.”
The NDP leader said the delay is a UCP tactic, the party which refused to call a byelection in the riding of Calgary Elbow because the party knew it would lose, according to Nenshi.
“The people of Lethbridge West deserve representation; Shannon Phillips was a terrific representative and just call an election already,” Nenshi added.
“All this stalling just to try to get students not to vote is not just worth it.”
Nenshi said the NDP will be keeping an eye on the non-binding referendum in the Crowsnest Pass on Nov. 25 when residents will be asked if they support a coal mine at Grassy Mountain which is in a neighbouring municipal district.
“I don’t even understand why this referendum is happening but we know the county around the town are universally opposed to this mine and that’s where the mine is. . .of course, we’ll be watching the referendum closely but we also have to understand these kinds of projects have a much broader impact. In this particular project – it’s not that we’re opposed to coal mining in general – but this particular project and how it impacts the watershed, how it impacts the agricultural industry in southwestern Alberta, that’s why the farmers and ranchers are up in arms about it. It has impact way, way, way beyond the town limits of the Crowsnest Pass and Albertans have been very clear in their near-universal opposition to this project,” Nenshi added.
During his talk to the audience, Nenshi addressed a number of issues in the province including health care, affordability and utilities, saying what sparked his interest in returning to politics was the grid alert in January when historically cold temperatures swept across the region. He said the situation was due to “extraordinary mismanagement” of the grid, pointing out that when he was elected as mayor of Calgary in his first term he had to learn about electric utilities since the City of Calgary owned one.
He talked about the types of conservatism that existed under former premiers Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein and how they strived to make the province a world leader whereas current conservatism encourages an attitude of isolation.
A former educator, Nenshi also noted he hates talking to teachers because “I hate hearing what they’re dealing with in the classroom.”
Nenshi also disputed pictures the UCP paints of the provincial economy, saying Alberta has the highest unemployment rate in Canada outside of the Atlantic provinces, adding that businesses need certainty. He referred to the UCP as a “pinball government” in that it careens from crisis to crisis.
He talked about the impact on the economy – including in Cardston county – caused by the UCP’s moratorium on renewable energy which Nenshi says has cost the province $33 billion and many thousands of jobs.
In response to a question by Shelby McLeod of the Canadian Mental Health Association, he said while the province’s abstinence-based approach to recovery is a critical piece of treatment for addictions, it fails to work unless done in conjunction with other components.
And he said involuntary treatment won’t work, that people who return to places such as Galt Gardens and relapse may overdose and die if they take the same quantity of drug they used before treatment.
Miyashiro spoke before Nenshi and noted while an NDP win in Lethbridge West wouldn’t put the party in power, he said a by-election is an opportunity for Lethbridge West residents to send a message to the government.
The candidate said he wants to make sure residents’ voices are heard in the Alberta legislature. And he talked about the issues in the riding citing health care as the biggest concern, saying the province needs a government that will work with the health care system.
25-24
Dirty politics, dis-enfranchising eligible voters.
Disenfranchising you more like it. Give me three good reasons why 90% of students who don’t pay taxes in this city should have any “right” to vote in an election that won’t effect them. I can give you one why you would want it. You feel the NDP anti government indoctrination center would make the day for Miyashiro. End of story. They can pony up and drop 3-5 K at city hall any time they like if they want to vote. Enough of this back door garbage. Just existing here before they move on elsewhere does not make them eligible. In other words, they too can pay to play.
Voting is for registered voters, students attending the U of L are not residents of the westside, they reside where they live and file their federal taxes at. Just because they go to school there and rent a room for 7 months does not mean they reside there. If that were so they would be able to vote twice in provincial elections and city elections in this province or in another province where they actually reside and get there mail at.
Sorry WRONG information, students may vote. (Last election Shannon Phillips ‘et al’ had a Bar B Que rounded up the students and took them to the voting station.)
And that is wrong, students are supposed to vote where they legally live, not where they live because of school. How many out of town and out of province kids voted when and messed up the results. That is called voter fraud.
Temporary living arrangement doesn’t make them residents.
Most students will leave the city after they finish their education and will not be here as a constituent for MLA West, and many will remain in the city during Christmas. Not even a weak attempt to make the UCP look bad.
“And he said involuntary treatment won’t work, that people who return to places such as Galt Gardens and relapse may overdose and die if they take the same quantity of drug they used before treatment.”
Involuntary treatment actually has been at play on a small scale using the drug courts and has been successful with 78% success rates.
Forced treatment has been successful since 2013 in the US with 83% success rates, but treatment was over 18 months, and included upgrading and after treatment, job placement. You actually haven’t taken the time to see the medical condition of those on the streets as they rapidly destroy their minds and bodies with these drugs, the skin wounds, the muscle and bone destruction, the inhumane lifestyle that many would not allowed a dog to live like. The NDP thinks it is fine for them to live in Hell before the die in a few years!
Nenshi once again you have proven how out of touch the NDP is regarding this crisis. You still believe harm reduction is the answer, even though it has been used in BC since 2003, and has failed completely. The UCP has tangible proof their plan is working, with fatal overdoses lower and per capita fatal overdoses as proof. You don’t even have a constituency to run in, and in true NDP fashion do not have your own house in order before attacking others!
Great comment Mr. Nenshi, “The people of Lethbridge West deserve representation” and we couldn’t agree more! We are totally familiar with the ZERO representation we had from NDP Shannon Phillips! The people of West Lethbridge deserve representation, not a absent or aloof MLA (Phillips) who dumped her role mid-term for no apparent reason other than to accept a position with the University of Lethbridge!
No, we can not risk this NDP fiasco again! We can not risk voting for NDP – Rob Miyashiro, NO WAY!
Speaking of fiasco…the UCP blew up the health care system and AIMCO after their mismanagement proved to be disastrous. Yeah we need more of their self serving bs.
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/11/15/Gina-Rinehart-Grassy-Mountain-Coal-Crowsnest-Pass/?utm_source=weekly&utm_medium=email
UCP