Nenshi ready to rebuild' Alberta

Former Calgary mayor named new provincial NDP leader in his first foray into partisan politics

- ALEX BOYD

Outgoing Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley congratulates Naheed Nenshi after he was named the provincial party's new leader in Calgary on Saturday. Nenshi won 86 per cent of the vote.

Naheed Nenshi has officially been named the new leader of the Alberta NDP party, concluding a closelywatched competition to replace Rachel Notley and putting the outspoken former mayor of Calgary on a collision course with Danielle Smith.

“I was increasingly troubled by this indulgent provincial government, but also being told by so many people, ‘the stakes are too high,’ ” he told a crowd of orangeclad party faithful in a downtown Calgary ballroom on Saturday. The race for leader was Nenshi’s first foray into partisan politics, during which he was often seen as a highprofile outsider.

“I realized I do have a political home, and my political home is here in the Alberta NDP.”

But Nenshi, who has been largely consulting since finishing up as mayor in 2021, won by a landslide in a seemingly clear endorsement of what he has described as a “pragmatic” vision for progressive politics in the Prairies. His high-profile entry into the race helped swell the province’s NDP party membership fivefold, past 85,000, most of whom turned out to vote.