EDMONTON— Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi says the UCP’s Calgary-Shaw by-election candidate Mike Derry may be running under the party's name, but he was not Premier Danielle Smith's choice to win the nomination race. "What happened here was the premier had a whole plan," said Nenshi during a press conference on Wednesday. "As always, the premier's office thought they were playing 4D chess when they were barely playing checkers.""They were going to move Dan McLean here. They were going to run a loyalist for Dan McLean's seat so that they had someone else on city council to try and control Mayor Farkas, and it all fell apart. And it all fell apart because of the extreme fringes of the UCP base."The comments came in response to the Western Standard asking Nenshi for his reaction to Derry defeating current Calgary city councillor Dan McLean to win the UCP nomination contest with 56% of the vote. .Nenshi, the former Calgary mayor, said he was "really looking forward" to McLean winning the UCP nomination because he does not think he has a "particularly great record on City Council."Some individuals were surprised by the result, given that McLean has represented a portion of the riding on a municipal level since 2021. The race, however, shifted after Alberta Prosperity Project leader Mitch Syvlestre backed a candidate, Stewart Jeanes, and called on supporters to do the same. Complications led to Jeanes falling short of the number of signatures needed to get on the ballot, though, and Nenshi said that was a key factor in the race. "The separatists threw their support behind Mike Derry and behind Craig Chandler and behind the extreme views of both of them, so whether or not Derry and Chandler are actual separatists, they got here because of the separatists, just like Danielle Smith became premier because of the separatists," Nenshi said. Despite Nenshi's claims of Smith preferring McLean, the premier has thrown her support behind Derry. "Mike knows Calgary, understands the challenges facing families and businesses, and has spent years giving back to his community,” reads a quote from Smith in a press release issued by the UCP on Monday. “He will be a strong voice for Calgary-Shaw and help us keep taxes low, keep communities safe and grow an economy that continues creating good jobs."Derry has not publicly stated his view on Alberta independence. .Wednesday’s press conference served as the Alberta NDP's opportunity to promote their Calgary-Shaw candidate, Kyle Campbell, a Somerset resident with a background in finance, ahead of the by-election on Sept. 14. "People want practical solutions," said Campbell. "They want a government focused on lowering costs, fixing healthcare, strengthening education, and building a strong relationship and future of Alberta within Canada.”"They want leadership that is focused on them, and that is why I am running, not because I'm a politician; I assure you, I am not."Campbell said an experience while battling cancer helped push him towards pursuing the nomination."In that moment, all I could think about was my wife and my two boys," Campbell said. "I thought about whether they would be okay. I thought about whether I would be okay as well. And I thought about whether the healthcare system would be there for us when we needed it.""I was incredibly fortunate to have amazing care from Alberta's healthcare professionals-the doctors, the nurses, and other practitioners. But I also saw firsthand how strained our system has become." .Calgary-Shaw's by-election has been billed by some as a trial run for parties ahead of the October 2027 general election, and Nenshi's comments on Wednesday reflect a narrative that may follow the UCP during election season. "That is going to be a difficult challenge for them," said political scientist Duane Bratt in a recent interview with the Western Standard. "My sense is now, if you lose the referendum, let's say 70/30, and in the year between that result and the election, the UCP is viewed as a separatist party.""Do you replicate that vote result, or if it's a split party? How do you maintain unity? How do you maintain party discipline? Because you know, even if Danielle Smith is operating as a pro-Canadian, if there are candidates who are explicit separatists, you know that Nenshi and others will will focus on that." Conversely, the by-election may be an early indicator of whether the Alberta NDP can win support in suburban Calgary, a key factor in their 2015 victory. Nenshi downplayed the narrative to some degree on Monday, saying the referendum is somewhat overshadowing the by-election and that Calgary-Shaw is not high on the Alberta NDP's pathway to a majority government, but that the riding is an example of one the UCP has taken for granted.
