How can Nenshi run for an Edmonton seat while living in Calgary?
Alberta New Democratic Party leader Naheed Nenshi does not currently hold a seat in the Alberta Legislature and has announced he will run for Rachel Notley's recently vacated seat in Edmonton-Strathcona in a by-election.
Nenshi is synonymous with Calgary thanks to his 11 years as mayor and has confirmed he is not moving to Edmonton in a social media post. "This doesn't mean I'm leaving Calgary behind!" Nenshi wrote.
How can he run to represent an Edmonton riding, then? To find out, Taproot caught up with Duane Bratt, a professor who teaches international relations and public policy at Mount Royal University in Calgary.
"It's up to voters, and we replicate the British parliamentary system," Bratt told Taproot about Nenshi's decision and options.
Bratt said Nenshi, who won the NDP leadership in June and did not run to be a member of Alberta's legislative assembly in the 2023 provincial election, fits the definition of a "parachute candidate" in this scenario. Such candidates are people who parachute into a riding located far from where they live in order to secure election to a legislature. Other examples of parachute candidates in Alberta include Premier Danielle Smith, who returned to the legislature by winning a by-election in Brooks-Medicine Hat in November 2022, after already being handed Alberta's premier role by winning the United Conservative Party leadership contest to replace former leader and premier, Jason Kenney, in October 2022.
Notley, who led Alberta as premier from 2015 to 2019 and the NDP from 2014 until 2024, vacated the Edmonton-Strathcona seat on Dec. 30. The rules dictate the United Progressive Conservative government must call a by-election by June 30. It has yet to do so.
Bratt said provincial candidates have always been allowed to run in any riding, regardless of where they live, and that holds true federally as well. Bratt also said Nenshi's choice of where to run makes sense for political reasons, and that the UCP has options to add politics to it all, too.
Nenshi, for his part, said in a post that running in Edmonton does not change much about who he is. "While still proudly Calgarian, I'm already dividing my time between the two cities and I'm looking forward to learning more about Edmonton," he wrote in his social media post.
Why Edmonton-Strathcona?
Bratt said Nenshi's decision of where to run makes sense. "It's the safest NDP riding in the province," he said. The numbers back him up. Notley held the seat for nearly 17 years. In the 2023 election, Notley running for the NDP received 80% of the vote, and Edmonton-Strathcona received the lowest number of votes for the UCP of any riding.
