Alberta NDP prepares for a fight as Avi Lewis wins federal NDP leadership

Naheed Nenshi and his party will need to stay focused as both conservatives and hardline NDPers go on the offensive.

Danielle Smith didn’t wait long to tie the Alberta NDP to 39,000 Canadians who voted for Avi Lewis to become leader of the federal party. Her social media post popped up fashionably late, behind Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi, who apparently had more patience than Saskatchewan NDP leader Carla Beck because she distanced herself and the provincial party on official stationary the day before he won. Her sentiments echoed Mr. Nenshi’s.

Today, the federal New Democratic Party selected its new leader.

It is clear that the direction of the federal party under this new leader, someone who openly cheered for the defeat of the Alberta NDP government, is not in the interests of Alberta.

Last year, Alberta’s New Democrats voted overwhelmingly to make membership in the federal party optional. Many thousands of our provincial members, including myself, are not members of the federal party. We are a big tent and welcome the support of people who vote for every federal party.

We believe in Alberta and we believe in Canadian energy and the good jobs it creates. We believe in more pipelines and in reducing emissions. We believe in strong public services and a strong jobs-driven economy to help pay for them. This is what we are fighting for every day.

Albertans deserve federal leaders who understand the importance of Alberta and our essential role in the federation.

Our focus is not on what the federal NDP says or does. Our fight is with Danielle Smith and the separatist UCP. Albertans deserve a better government, and we are here to be that better government.

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi on X, March 29, 2026

While opposition parties in both Alberta and Saskatchewan went on the defensive, B.C. Premier David Eby opted for a thinly veiled threat if the federal party were to contradict its economic progress, and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who, with his average double-digit lead in the polls since he was elected in 2023, had no problem offering his congratulations on the new leader’s win.

I’ve previously discussed the rocky relationship Alberta, and therefore the Alberta NDP, has with Avi Lewis personally, and as I noted last week, the political calculation for members is different when they expect their Party to remain in opposition. Obviously, that applies generally to those in provincial parties as well.

In B.C., Premier David Eby held onto government by a thread in 2024 and polling since still shows them mostly tied with the Conservatives and within the margin of error for victory; or a loss. Saskatchewan NDP had a good showing in 2025 with the party gaining 13 seats at the Sask Party’s expense, but they have been trailing by double digits since. In Alberta, the UCP has not only retained their lead with voters but increased it heartily enough since the 2023 election to keep funneling money to private interests with abandon.

The responses from each of the provincial party leaders was mostly expected but it has in turn riled up some of those longtime NDP supporters who may have forgotten that the Alberta NDP didn’t “win” government so much as Alberta conservatives lost it.

Despite some people’s real dismay at the provincial and federal parties gearing up to be at each other’s throats, Naheed Nenshi was given a stronger mandate to do so.

More people voted in the Alberta NDP leadership than the federal race. Avi Lewis secured 56 per cent with 39,734 votes and Naheed Nenshi received 86 per cent with 62,746 votes. Even Danielle Smith only received 53 per cent of the UCP membership’s votes with a final tally of 42,423 votes; on the sixth ballot.

While I think it’s perfectly fine that the federal membership would like to see a return to hardline values posturing by their fourth party leadership, the Alberta NDP is no longer the little party who could. The Alberta NDP was the party that formed government, even if the split conservative votes made it possible. The Alberta NDP consolidated the non-UCP vote in 2019 and 2023 and their goal has to be to continue to expand and form government again.

Everything’s more conservative in Alberta

Ironically, the space where NDP leader Avi Lewis matters least right now is federally.

In an interview with Rosemary Barton, Mr. Lewis said that he fully supports the Alberta NDP generally and Naheed Nenshi specifically. While some apparently saw it as disingenuous, it didn’t strike me as such; even if it functions as a death wish.

I thought it was a perfectly acceptable thing for a new leader who has been accused of going out of their way in the past to sabotage a provincial party’s electoral chances. However, it also doubled as a reminder that liberals and progressives outside of Alberta fundamentally misunderstand their counterparts within Alberta.

I’ve accepted that reality over the past ten years.

Though I know that some of them really hate to hear it, almost everyone —from NDP to Liberals to Conservatives— is simply more conservative in Alberta. Part of that is because of the government propaganda, to be fair. Rachel Notley was more conservative than her provincial and federal counterparts. Heck, that Prime Minister who “the left” is freaking out over because he’s “basically a conservative”? Prime Minister Mark Carney is, in my experience, entirely representative of a typical Alberta Liberal.

Yet, we don’t have a functioning provincial Liberal party anymore because that well was poisoned— mostly by conservatives who found that pitting Albertans against the rest of the country paid off handsomely for them in elections. It began in earnest before Pierre Trudeau was ever elected but due to the scary bedtime story most Albertans tell their children at night— the first Prime Minister named Trudeau caused the 1980’s depression— many people still believe it. In fact, they’re leading the separatist movement as we speak. Conservative “thought leaders” did that to us, and to themselves, even as they are torn apart one by one and thrown out, too.

All that is to say that Mr. Lewis may not understand that his part in introducing the LEAP Manifesto in Alberta in 2016 has reached those same mythological heights, but he’s the new monster conservatives in Alberta are going to try and scare children, and voters. with.

That’s the other reality we need to accept here.

Alberta New Democrats have formed government one time in the party’s almost 60 year history and that is one time more than the federal New Democrats have. So, it may be one big party for Avi but the Alberta NDP is going to have hard walls.

Alberta has its own race to worry about

In a rare moment that is hopefully foreshadowing the emergence of a political party that is not simply responding but actively equipping itself and preparing to spar in the political arena, Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi dropped a video ahead of the federal party convention this weekend.

It wasn’t to everyone’s taste.

I’ve been critical of the NDP’s political plays in the past (or, more accurately, the glaring lack of them) but I am happy to extoll the virtues of this one. They were prepared for something they should have seen coming and they got out in front of it. Yes, I’m patting them on the back for doing their job but hey, I’ve even done it for the UCP when they showed up for more than just their separatist puppet masters... that one time.

Albertans will not elect a party whose leader isn’t willing to stand up for our energy industry; that’s just a fact.

Naheed Nenshi has been the face and voice in support of the energy hub in Alberta before and it shows.

For me, this was of the first videos they’ve put out in a long time that managed to keep my interest all the way through— and I watch Question Period; which is to say that I’m willing to sit through a lot and I haven’t been able to sit through their content.

Most importantly, what I saw in this video was the person Albertans were putting their support behind when he ran for the leadership of the NDP— a person who unequivocally understands the importance of Alberta’s energy industry and delivers that message sincerely and credibly.

Rachel Notley couldn’t manage it no matter how many times she stood up and said so.

Avi Lewis delivered the first blow to the Alberta NDP in their own house and Naheed Nenshi’s response distancing himself and the provincial party was necessary.

If the hardline democratic socialists are at risk of supporting Maga Midge in response to Naheed Nenshi fortifying his defences against “friendly” fire on Alberta’s energy industry, it’s not about values and principles; it’s about helping them burn down the house.

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