CALGARY — More overlap between anti-coal campaigns and NDP-linked organizations has emerged with a Calgary-based advocacy firm appearing to provide digital infrastructure for one of the province's largest anti-coal initiatives.
Materials reviewed by the Western Standard indicate Northweather — a Calgary-based digital strategy organization that describes itself as a firm that helps “progressive nonprofits, charities, and businesses develop cross-platform advocacy campaigns that create change and motivate action," — appears to be providing digital infrastructure for Save Our Slopes.
Domain registration records for SaveOurSlopes.ca list domains@northweather.com as the administrative contact, suggesting the company manages the website and digital assets on behalf of the Land Lovers Network, the organization identified as the domain registrant.
The address listed is also 1240 Kensington Rd. NW in Calgary, which matches the address of Northweather's office.
The Land Lovers Network is also part of a broader coalition of organizations opposed to coal development in Alberta that overlaps with groups including Save Our Slopes, the Calgary Climate Hub (CCH), the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), the Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA), Alberta Beyond Coal, and Water Not Coal.
That relationship is acknowledged on the Save Our Slopes website.
"Brought to you by Land Lovers Network in partnership with the Calgary Climate Hub, The Gravity Well, and the Save Our Slopes Coalition," the website reads.
"The Save Our Slopes Coalition is a growing coalition of Albertans, partners, endorsing organizations and businesses that share the common goal of protecting the crucial Eastern Slopes region of Southern Alberta."
Northweather partner Zain Velji, a longtime political strategist known as being one of the architects of Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi’s political brand.
Velji was involved in all three of Nenshi’s successful Calgary mayoral election campaigns, serving as campaign manager during the 2017 election, and also being heavily involved in Alberta NDP election campaigns in 2019 and 2023.
He currently co-hosts The Strategists podcast with former Alberta NDP Minister of Environment and Parks Shannon Phillips, and political strategist Stephen Carter, who also worked on Nenshi's early campaigns and became one of his top political advisers.
Northweather president Richard Einarson also worked on Nenshi's successful 2010 mayoral campaign, serving as communications manager, and as one of the creators of the campaign’s “Purple Revolution” branding strategy which helped propel Nenshi to office.
Einarson and Velji also co-founded Forward Canada, an advocacy group that has campaigned against Alberta sovereignty initiatives, criticized Premier Danielle Smith and federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, opposed private health-care reforms, and defended the taxpayer-funded CBC.
On its website, Forward Canada describes itself as "non-partisan, but not neutral."
Northweather's senior creative director, James Jensen, operates Atom Studio, a communications firm that has completed projects and campaign work for the Alberta NDP.
Save Our Slopes states on its website that The Gravity Well, a project operated by Jennifer Yeremiy, a Calgary-based geophysicist as one of the campaign's partners.
Yeremiy previously led the Recall Nicolaides campaign, which sought to remove UCP Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides from office over concerns related to education policy.
On The Gravity Well website, Yeremiy identifies the CCH as one of her campaign partners, explaining that she originally began collaborating with them on a proposed logging moratorium in the Eastern Slopes before it evolved into the current Save Our Slopes campaign.
“They understand the place to act is right here at home,” Yeremiy writes of the CCH.
“They communicate and demonstrate the time to act on climate is now, and that ‘social justice is climate justice.’”
Yeremiy declined to answer a list of questions the Western Standard sent her regarding her involvement with Save Our Slopes and the CCH but stated her "expertise was geophysics and environmental liabilities."
"I'm not an eco-activist," she said.
The CCH has also publicly opposed coal development in the Rockies.
On its website, the organization argues that mountaintop coal mining in the Eastern Slopes could harm wildlife habitats and increase selenium levels in Alberta’s watersheds.
The organization also identifies itself as part of the Albertans for Coal-Free Rockies coalition.
Responding to questions from the Western Standard, CCH director Dr. Joe Vipond said the organization's involvement with Save Our Slopes was limited and that it had acted as the fiscal agent for a 2024 grant that funded development of Save Our Slopes' online letter-writing platform, which credits the CCH at the bottom of the webpage, and added his organization didn't provide staff, volunteers or funding to the Save Our Slopes campaign.
He also said the CCH has not been involved with CPAWS or Corb Lund's Water Not Coal campaign regarding anti-coal advocacy.
One of the CCH's directors, Becky Best-Bertwistle, has previously appeared across several organizations involved with the anti-coal movement.
The Western Standard previously reported she worked as a senior strategist for Point Blank Creative, a Vancouver-based communications agency that has received significant payments from unions and third-party political advertisers for campaign work, including projects connected to the Alberta NDP, and CPAWS Southern Alberta.
It was also confirmed that Best-Bertwistle participated in volunteer and canvasser training for Corb Lund's Water Not Coal campaign and formerly worked for CPAWS as a conservation engagement coordinator.
When Lund submitted the Water Not Coal petition signatures to Elections Alberta earlier this month, he also confirmed to the Western Standard that Point Blank Creative had provided advertising and campaign services to his campaign, but he rejected suggestions that such a relationship demonstrated any partisan political stance or affiliation with the NDP.
The Western Standard reached out the Northweather for comment multiple times but had not heard back at the time of publication.
