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As Alberta heads toward an election in five months, the governing United Conservative Party is beginning to catch up to opposition New Democrats in nominating a full slate of candidates.
While the NDP held riding contests throughout 2022, the UCP paused that work in the summer to focus on a leadership contest that saw Premier Danielle Smith selected for the top job.
However, the gap is wider in Edmonton, where the UCP has nominees named in just over a third of the city’s 20 constituencies, including former city councillor Jon Dziadyk running against NDP MLA Nicole Goehring in Edmonton-Castle Downs.
The NDP has all but one Edmonton riding officially linked with a candidate. That outlier is Edmonton-Strathcona, where NDP Leader Rachel Notley will likely launch her 2023 election campaign.
In the days before Christmas, Scott Cyr became the UCP candidate for northeast riding of Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul after getting only one vote more than current MLA Dave Hanson on a second ballot recount. That came after Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Tany Yao lost his UCP nomination bid to Zulkifl Mujahid in early December.
Back in June, Chris Nielsen became the first incumbent NDP MLA to lose his nomination bid. Sharif Haji, executive director at the Council for Advancement of African Canadians, will be the new NDP candidate for Edmonton-Decore. He’ll face off against economist Sayid Ahmed, who was acclaimed as the UCP candidate in the riding.
In September, Rhiannon Hoyle won the NDP nomination for Edmonton South, a seat held for two terms by NDP MLA-turned-independent Thomas Dang, and being challenged by UCP candidate and accountant Tunde Obasan.
Another interesting race shaping up in Edmonton-South West, where three-term public school board trustee and NDP nominee Nathan Ip will look to unseat Kaycee Madu, the UCP’s lone MLA in the capital. Madu is one of two deputy premiers, a former justice minister, labour minister, and now head of a new skilled trades and professions ministry.
UCP incumbents have also been confirmed as nominees in ridings that colour the map blue around the city, including Jordan Walker in Sherwood Park, Nate Glubish in Strathcona-Sherwood Park, and Searle Turton in Spruce Grove-Stony Plain.
Down the highway in Calgary, the UCP has similarly yet to fill a number of blank spaces in a city widely considered to be the battleground that will decide the province’s next government.
In Calgary-Lougheed, the UCP riding association has yet to officially log a candidate with Elections Alberta after former premier Jason Kenney announced he would resign as MLA in late November. Former cabinet minister Doug Schweitzer’s UCP riding of Calgary-Elbow has put up lawyer Chris Davis, who will face off against energy analyst Samir Kayande for the NDP.
While Smith promised during the leadership campaign to look into reopening contested nominations, she appears to have backed away from that move.
As for the NDP, Notley’s party has candidates confirmed in all but two ridings within Calgary city limits, including current cabinet minister Jeremy Nixon’s Calgary-Klein, where the electoral game changed in November when the NDP revoked the candidacy of Marilyn North Peigan.
Six-time Calgary councillor Druh Farrell will hold the NDP banner in Calgary-Bow, a seat currently held by Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides.
Smith has said she expects her party to catch up with nominations early in the new year.
“We’ll be ready to have our full slate of candidates probably by the end of February or early March,” she said.
Smith said she plans to stick with the province’s fixed election day that would see voters go to the polls May 29.
Scroll over this map to see who is nominated in your Edmonton-area riding as of Dec. 31:
–With files from Anna Junker and Matthew Black
Source: EdmontonJournal
