Alberta NDP Leader Says Not Focused on Changing Party’s Name

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi says he is not looking to change his party’s name, but is open to considering it if members of his party want to discuss changing the name, as the provincial party looks to distance itself from the federal New Democrats.

His comments come as federal NDP members chose journalist and activist Avi Lewis as their new leader on March 29. Lewis has said he’s opposed to oil and gas development, while provincial NDP leaders in Alberta and Saskatchewan, which are highly dependent on the sector, have said they’re opposed to this stance.

“I think Albertans are smart enough to understand that we are different and that we are an alternative for them as a government in waiting,” Nenshi told reporters on March 30.

“But, ultimately, if the members of the party want to have that conversation … New Democrats are very, very good at having conversations within the party with people who may or may not agree with one another, and I’d be happy to have those conversations.”

A group of Alberta NDP members had said in 2023 that the provincial party’s ties to the federal NDP were hindering support for the provincial party, and pushed for a rebranding of the Alberta party.

Janet Brown Opinion Research conducted a poll for the group in September 2023 of 900 Albertans and found that 50 percent of respondents think the federal NDP had influence over the provincial party.

However, Nenshi says his party is not focused on rebranding at this moment.

“I suppose the next step would be to change the name if people wanted to, but I think the example we’ve seen from BC United is that, shockingly, most people don’t follow politics,” Nenshi told reporters on March 30. Upheaval within the B.C. Liberal Party had led the party to rebrand itself in 2023 as BC United, but the party continued to lose support regardless.

“We had a focus group recently where we asked people, do you prefer New Democrat or NDP, and a number of engaged, thoughtful people had never stopped to think about that NDP stands for New Democrat Party.”

Despite not focusing on a name change, Nenshi maintains that the provincial NDP differs from the federal NDP and is distancing himself from newly elected federal NDP Leader Lewis. Nenshi told reporters that it is “important for Albertans to remember that for many, many years now, the Alberta New Democrats and the federal New Democrats have not been fully aligned, particularly on energy policy.”

After Lewis was elected as new leader on March 29, Nenshi said it is clear that the direction of the federal party under Lewis’s leadership “is not in the interests of Alberta.”

Lewis is strongly opposed to oil and gas development, saying Canada should prioritize greenhouse gas emission reductions and focus on renewable energy. Meanwhile, Nenshi said his party believes in more pipelines and in reducing emissions. “We believe in Alberta and we believe in Canadian energy and the good jobs it creates,” he said in a March 29 social media post.

Nenshi noted that Alberta NDP members voted last year to make membership in the federal party optional. The NDP is the only major federal party whose provincial wings are officially affiliated with it and membership in a provincial wing means automatic federal membership, but the Alberta NDP has chosen to break the affiliation.

“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,” Nenshi said.

He noted that his party is not focused on what the federal NDP says or does, but on what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party is doing.

Nevertheless, Nenshi told reporters earlier this week that he is willing to meet with Lewis. Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck told Lewis in a letter on March 29 that she wouldn’t meet with him unless he changed his position on resource development.

Nenshi said, “I can work with anybody — I can work with the Conservatives, I can work with the Liberals, I can work with the New Democrats — and our party is made up of people who share our values but also vote every possible way federally.”

Nenshi released his own energy policy last week, ahead of the federal NDP vote over the weekend, which included expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline’s capacity and revisiting projects such as the Energy East pipeline.