A majority of delegates at the Alberta NDP convention in Edmonton on Saturday voted to end the party’s automatic membership ties to its federal counterpart. Their leader, Naheed Nenshi, also received nearly 90 percent support in his first leadership review.
More than
1,000 registered delegates attended the May 3 convention, where over two-thirds voted in favour of allowing provincial members to opt out of membership in the federal New Democratic Party.
While some two or three dozen strongly opposed the change, the outcome was in line with the
Alberta NDP’s rules, which require “a two-thirds majority of all delegates present and voting at any Provincial Convention” to effect a change to the party’s constitution.
The vote to amend party affiliation came shortly after members cast their ballots, giving Nenshi 89.5 percent support in his first leadership review—surpassing the
86 percent he received on the first ballot of the leadership contest last June to succeed Rachel Notley.
Prior to the leadership review vote, Nenshi addressed the charged-up crowd with a
speech focused on “his vision for building a strong Alberta economy with good jobs, great public services, and unifying our country.”
The move to decouple the provincial NDP from the federal brand was spearheaded by Nenshi, who
campaigned on the issue during the leadership race last year.
Before the vote on Saturday, the NDP was the only party where both the provincial and federal branches were officially affiliated. This meant someone registered as an Alberta NDP member automatically became registered with the federal party as well.
With the motion passed, Alberta NDP members now have the option to choose if they want to be affiliated solely with the provincial party or with both NDP branches.
Speaking to reporters at the convention, Nenshi said the longstanding tradition of signing up members to the federal party was a turnoff for some potential voters and members. He said supporters had expressed concerns to him while he went knocking on doors during his latest leadership campaign.
“I did have to answer that question a lot. ‘Am I automatically a member of the federal party?’ And now we can say, ‘You can choose,’” Nenshi
said.
With that strong support to change the status quo, Nenshi said the approval would allow him to build a bigger tent for Alberta’s NDP.
“I’ve heard from so many people who want to join our movement. Listen, I love the Alberta New Democrats, but I vote a different way federally, and today, the party decided overwhelmingly that we will welcome those people into our movement,” he
added.
Opposition
Some of the delegates who opposed the motion argued that separating from the national branch would undermine the New Democrats’ unity. One delegate commented that the Alberta government, under Premier Danielle Smith of the United Conservative Party, would continue to jab at Nenshi’s NDP for having ties with its federal counterpart no matter what measures it took to “sever” the relationship.
Speaking in the Alberta legislative assembly on May 1, Premier Smith
said the vote to be initiated by the provincial New Democrats on May 3 suggested that the party wanted to “separate completely from the damaged brand of the NDP party at the federal level.”
Before the federal election on April 28, the federal NDP, led by Jagmeet Singh,
held 24 seats in Parliament. As a result of the election, the caucus was reduced to just
seven members, losing its official party status, which requires at least 12 seats. Singh was one of the 17 who lost their seats and has
announced he will step down once the party selects an interim leader.
Singh had
opposed the idea of separating the provincial NDP from its federal counterpart when Nenshi raised it last year, saying that this would be a mistake.
“We are united in our goals to take on Conservatives, to bring forward a clear vision for a government that works for people,” Singh said in June 2024, adding that the best way to achieve the goal of bringing down the competition was by being united.
The NDP in Alberta had attempted at various times in the past to distance itself from the federal party on certain policy issues, particularly on matters related to the oil and gas sector.
Former Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley and Singh were on opposite sides of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion decision, with Notley in favour of the project and Singh opposed.
Notley, however, showed allegiance to her federal counterpart when she
said last June that a split would be “shortsighted” and “superficial.”
Chandra Philip and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
