Nenshi talking to the feds at Stampede
By Lethbridge Herald on July 5, 2025.
NDP leader Naheed Nenshi, alongside Court Ellingson, Shadow Minister for Finance, and Rob Miyashiro, MLA for Lethbridge West, speaks to a crowd at a town hall at the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association in the winter.
Herald photo by Al BeeberAl Beeber
Lethbridge Herald
Newly elected to the Alberta legislature as the MLA for Edmonton Strathcona, NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is now fighting for his constituents and party members from his own seat.
But with the legislature out of session for the summer, the party leader will be waging his battle against UCP policies across Alberta including at the Calgary Stampede where he will be meeting with federal ministers.
Normally the leader of the Opposition wouldn’t be taking such actions at the Stampede, which in a phone interview from Calgary Thursday Nenshi referred to as a “politician petting zoo,” but he figures it has to be done.
“The premier’s really on the ropes. She’s already lost two of her MLAs, she had a miserable showing for the Conservatives in all four by-elections including Lethbridge West,” said Nenshi.
“They haven’t been able to increase their vote at all and in Olds-Three Hills, they actually lost 15 points of their vote and if that trend holds through across rural and smalltown Alberta, she’s done,” said Nenshi.
“It’s very clear that she’s very desperately trying to change the channel but they’re making it up as they go along,” added Nenshi, stating that the Alberta police force was announced a day after she talked about holding a referendum on the idea.
The UCP’s Alberta Next Panel is staging town halls this month as well as in August and September seeking residents’ views on issues including sovereigntyh and the economy. It is also going to be seeking to identify and discuss policy questions that could be included in a provincial referendum in 2026.
One town hall meeting is planned for Lethbridge on Sept. 11.
The province says registrations will open two weeks prior to each event.
One topic of discussion is ending the province’s contract with the RCMP for policing.
Another topic is withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan and setting up an Alberta alternative.
The panel will also discuss withdrawing from the joint tax collection agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency and instead have Albertans file their income tax with the province.
And the panel will talk about taking more control of immigration to Alberta “to insulate the province from the damage of out-of-control immigration policy from Alberta,” according to website albertanextpanel.ca
“So what would the referendum be about since you already did it and spend what could be $1.82 billion crafting an Alberta police force according to your own government’s numbers? It’s very clear they’re running around like chickens with no heads looking for anything to save their political skin and I think the by-election results really showed Albertans have had enough of it,” said Nenshi.
And Smith better be prepared if holding a referendum to see a result she doesn’t like, he added.
“If in fact she continues to foster hate and division and anger and the referendum goes against Canada what the heck is she going to do?
“She’ll have no mandate to negotiate with the federal government and if she herself campaigned for Canada in the referendum then she’ll have no mandate to stay in her job. I’m not sure she thought through the implications of what she’s doing in her sort of desperate attempt to save herself,” said Nenshi.
The NDP matched its highest vote count ever in Edmonton Strathcona and held Edmonton Ellerslie where the UCP didn’t increase its vote and in the Olds riding, it got its highest vote ever, he said.
“We don’t have to make conjecture; Danielle Smith said on her radio show that she’s flirting with separatism not because it’s the right thing to do but because she thinks it’s the only way to unify her party. And it’s not working,” said Nenshi.
Albertans are going to lose by the UCP strategy, claimed the NDP leader stating nobody will want to invest in this province due to its political instability.
“Who’s going to invest in a pipeline when you don’t know what country that pipeline will be in?”
Nenshi says the NDP’s job is to show Albertans they have a better option in his party “and I think people across the province are seeing it.”
Nenshi also noted issues with health care and the Corrupt Care scandal which he says is worsening to the revelations about more ties between Smith’s cabinet, staff and “the guys getting billions of dollars and government contracts….
“If I’m the premier today, I’m really feeling like the walls are closing in and I’m desperately looking for an exit but the exit’s really obvious – call a public inquiry on the Corrupt Scare scandal, a real public inquiry – get to the bottom of it – start listening to Albertans and start getting to work on the things that matter like the economy and health care and education instead of just fighting and posturing,” he said.
During the Stampede, Nenshi will be discussing with federal politicians about what he feels are Alberta needs “because they’re not getting it from the premier. They’re just seeing her kind of squawk and flap her wings around without actually coming to the table and saying ‘this is what a deal could look like.’ Normally the leader of the Opposition doesn’t sit down with federal ministers and somebody’s got to stand up for Albertans and I’m happy I’m in a position where I can do it,” Nenshi said.
The NDP will continue to negotiate and try to figure out where deals exist. And while he isn’t in power to do that, Nenshi said “somebody has to stand up for Alberta.”
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They’re just seeing her kind of squawk and flap her wings around without actually coming to the table and saying ‘this is what a deal could look like.
Oh shut up Nenshi with your condescension.
If you actually had anything other than blue rings and tax increases people might even listen to you.
Try a concern for the environment and you know, little things like caring for those less fortunate. The separatists across the province to whom she (Smith) is beholden, are not and never will be in the majority – thank goodness !
quite right, j. i am ever grossed out by those that have so little to no concern, compassion, or acknowledgement for other people, other sentient life, and for the natural world that sustains health and life. ever about money – an artificial construct, and when so prioritised it undermines all else.
The feds? Okay, I take this from the NDP rant palybook: who does he think he is talking to the federal government when he is not the government in Alberta?
But then again, the NDP propped up the Chretien-Trudeau (for Quebec to rule Canada) Liberals as they bankrupt our country, destroyed our military, offeneded our allies and allowed drug use and organized crime to explode across Canada! NDP suppported them and the party was obliterated in the process in the election.
By all means Nenshi, cozy up with the Chretien-Carney( allowing Quebec to rule Canada) Liberals so you too will lose your official party status in the next election.
The Liberals are just a continuation of the previous Liberal government only it is now the Chretien-Carney 3.0 version of the Liberals. Chretien and his Quebec monarchy have just got more power for Quebec to rule Canada!
Keep talking Nenshi so people learn why Calgary didn’t like you! Bring down your party!
Agreed , Quebec does hold a disproportionate influence on Canada, but to equate Carney with Trudeau and Chrétien is utter bollocks. He is is not and clearly is steering the Libs toward the centre. On the other side , we have “no seat” Poilievre who is rapidly becoming a MAGA like mouthpiece – all negativity and no answers. Absent Poilievre, and we have the moronic Andrew Scheer, utterly useless also catering to the far right .
i sure bet the likes of the hitlers, stalins, putins, dutertes, trumps of the planet would know how to deal with the likes of quebec and drug users. you have great company with whom to cozy up.