Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi declares candidacy for Alberta NDP leadership

Peter McCaffrey of the Alberta Institute remarked on Naheed Nenshi, stating, 'If you look at the policies and the way that the Calgary council was run under his tenure, you could argue, he was far more left-wing than the NDP.'

By Rebel News
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March 14, 2024
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News Analysis

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Calgary's former mayor Naheed Nenshi has entered the race to become the next leader of the Alberta NDP. After years of presenting himself as a "non-partisan purple centrist—neither red Liberal nor blue Conservative," Naheed Nenshi has embraced the New Democrat orange, seeking to succeed long-serving former leader Rachel Notley, Sheila Gunn Reid noted.

"It looks like he's got the momentum to get the job done, with well-oiled political machinery from his eleven years as Calgary's mayor," said Sheila.

Peter McCaffrey from the Alberta Institute joined The Gunn Show last night to discuss Naheed Nenshi.

Hi, I’m Naheed Nenshi. I’m running to be the leader of Alberta’s NDP and the next premier of this province.

I can’t do this without your support. Visit https://t.co/OqpFCojIcF to buy a membership and sign up as a supporter.

We can do this. Together. For Alberta. For all of us. pic.twitter.com/PjWUxnwhhT
— Naheed Nenshi (@nenshi) March 11, 2024

"With regards to Naheed Nenshi, it's an interesting one because everyone's saying, 'oh, I've never seen him as a partisan person or an orange NDP or something like that,'" Peter said.

Peter added that if you look at the policies and the way that the Calgary Council was run under his tenure, if anything, you could argue, he was far more left-wing than the NDP because he was mayor while the NDP were in government.

"And it was often Naheed Nenshi pushing the NDP to change the rules to allow him to do more left-wing ideas at city council, he wanted to be able to run deficits," Peter continued. "He wanted to be able to introduce more city specific taxes. And he really pushed the provincial government to introduce changes to the municipal government Act and city charters that would give him and the city council more powers to implement more of those ideas."

Peter added that in some of those areas, Nenshi was successful in convincing them to do so.

Premier Danielle Smith reacts to former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi's entry into the Alberta NDP leadership race and his comments calling her government "immoral and dangerous."

Smith says the NDP isn't even sure what kind of party it wants to be.https://t.co/DKcTNFlY44 pic.twitter.com/Ip1k6X8BCC
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) March 13, 2024