Spring Session Comes to a Close – Things to Watch Over the Summer

Although MLAs were scheduled to sit until May 30th, the spring sitting officially came to an end on the previous afternoon in Edmonton. It was a sitting that will be looked back on in the coming years as a time where our province’s political landscape changed dramatically with the passing of numerous controversial pieces of legislation.

In his concluding remarks, Speaker Nathan Cooper shared a number of interesting pieces of data from the spring sitting:

·         40 sitting days

·         160 hours of sittings (equivalent of watching Barbie and Oppenheimer back-to-back 33 times)

·         43 individual sittings, including three evening sittings

·         2 sitting days that extended beyond midnight

·         240 sessional papers

·         21 bills introduced

·         25 government motions

·         9 private members’ motions

·         358 visitor introductions

·         1.3 million words recorded by Hansard

There will be plenty of time in the coming weeks and months to look back on the impacts of the spring sitting on Alberta, and many will not be known until some of the bills passed come into force. With that said, there are a few things we will be watching over the summer months that will also have a significant impact on our politics going forward.

Here are three things we will be paying attention to over the summer.

Alberta NDP Leadership Vote

On June 22, members of the Alberta NDP will wrap up their leadership contest and announce who will succeed Rachel Notley. The balloting process officially opened up on June 3 meaning that candidates are entering the get out the vote (GOTV) phase of their campaigns. Early reports from some of the camps suggest that more than 11,000 members cast a ballot during the first day of eligibility. (Pull Quote)

Should one of Kathleen Ganley, Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, or Sarah Hoffman win the race, the transition period will be relatively simple. The new leader will select their house team, re-organize critic portfolios, and begin implementing a new direction for the party both inside and outside the Legislature.

If Naheed Nenshi is victorious, more questions will need to be answered. Given many consider him to be the frontrunner in this race, we want to spend some time looking at what needs to be sorted if he wins.

First, there is the matter of finding him a seat. As there are no vacant seats in the province at this time, someone would need to resign their position with a subsequent by-election called. We will not speculate on who may or may not be asked to make the sacrifice.

Second, there is the timing of the subsequent by-election. It is ultimately up to government to call a by-election, which raises the question of how long the opposition may have to wait for him to enter the Legislature. The most recent example can be found during the last term when former MLA Doug Schweitzer resigned his seat at the end of September 2022. The vacancy was not filled until the May 2023 election. When Premier Danielle Smith ran in her by-election, former MLA Michaela Frey resigned her seat in Brooks-Medicine Hat to allow Smith to run (rather than running in Schweitzer’s riding of Calgary-Elbow).

Third, there is the question of how the NDP will operate inside the house if Nenshi is forced to wait an extended period before he joins the Assembly. Although Rachel Notley is still a sitting MLA, it is unlikely that she will be asked to remain acting as leader in the house. Could Nenshi ask someone like Rakhi Pancholi, who now serves as the executive chair of his campaign, to hold the fort? Would it be “leadership by committee” instead?  

Municipal Political Parties

Although we are still more than a year away from the next municipal election, political parties in Edmonton and Calgary are going to be an item to watch for some time going forward. As you likely recall, Bill 20 officially permits the participation of political parties (independent from provincial or federal political parties) in Alberta’s two largest cities. Even before Bill 20 was passed, potential parties were preparing for the 2025 election cycle.

And we’ve already seen some get off the ground.

In Edmonton, TapYeg has launched and is starting the recruitment process to find candidates. The party has already shared that it hopes to elect at least seven candidates to city council and form a majority government. The president of the party is Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson, the same individual who led the Prairie Sky gondola project proposal in Edmonton a couple years ago.

While they are the only party to publicly launch at the time of writing, there are more groups organizing behind the scenes. We will be watching to see who ultimately takes the initiative to build a party from the ground up, what political alignment they hold, and how many sitting councillors will join a party or continue to seek office as independents.(Pull Quote) We will also be curious to see if any councillors decide not to seek re-election as a result of the introduction of political parties.

Chief Electoral Officer Recruitment

Earlier this week, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta announced that the deadline for applications to become the next Chief Electoral Officer will fall on July 2, 2024. Following the application deadline, the select special committee will meet on July 31, 2024 to discuss the applicants.

Given the attention that Shawn McLeod’s hiring as the new Ethics Commissioner generated, this writer suspects that there will be many watchful eyes monitoring the ongoing recruitment process.

As the name suggests, the chief electoral officer is responsible for overseeing provincial and senatorial elections in Alberta. The outgoing holder of this position, Glen Resler, has held the position since December 2013 – appointed by the Alison Redford government.

With the provincial government recently passing legislation that prohibits the use of electronic tabulators at the municipal level, there is a good chance that we could see similar legislation tabled for the next provincial election in October 2027. If this proves prophetic, it would be a major departure from Resler’s time in the position as a key part of his appointment included making it easier for Albertans to vote electronically.

The province faced criticism with McLeod’s recent appointment due to his past partisan connections to the UCP. He has entered the nomination race for Edmonton-Riverview, but ultimately dropped out before the vote was conducted. He has also donated to the UCP in the p