The Alberta NDP's anti-leadership race

The contest to determine who will replace Rachel Notley is not very exciting

I waved a brief “Hello,” to Graham Thomson at the Aviary in Edmonton. A modest who’s who of journalists, politicians, and progressive activists packed the venue on a cold February evening for Jeremy Appel’s first book launch. Appel’s new biography of Jason Kenney, Kennyism, is published through Dundurn Press and available at fine bookstores everywhere (I ordered through Audreys).

Thomson is a seasoned journalist and political commentator who served as Appel’s partner in conversation at the book launch, where he offered incisive commentary and moderated the surge of raised hands when it was finally time for questions from the floor. His articles are often the highlight of my Alberta Views subscription.

I do, however, take issue with an opinion peace Thomson wrote for The Star about Naheed Nenshi and the Alberta NDP leadership race. Thomson argues that Nenshi’s dynamic, exciting presence will make the otherwise boring Alberta NDP leadership a lot more interesting. (Thomson wrote the article just before Nenshi officially launched his campaign on Mar. 11).

“If nothing else,” Thomson writes, “a Nenshi campaign would bring some fireworks to a race that so far has all the spark of a spent match.”

This is what happens when you define excitement by affect, not effect.

Thomson could not have been more wrong. We were supposed to have a five candidate scrap, four sitting MLAs and one labour leader, each outdoing the other to court the party faithful. We were supposed to have divisive—if not altogether inspiring—debates about what animates the party members and their movement. Instead, Nenshi’s dominance has made the leadership race a coronation, not a contest. It is more boring now than it ever was or would have been.

I’ll grant Thomson one point. A good leadership race should inspire casual voters, even people who know nothing about politics, to get involved. Hell, that’s what happened to me when 2014 rolled over into 2015. Rachel Notley’s charisma and landslide leadership victory transformed this casual observer into a dedicated volunteer, then an election campaign worker, and finally a full-on party and government staffer.

If Rakhi Pancholi’s claim that Nenshi doubled the membership list is to be believed, the former mayor’s candidacy is having an even greater impact on the party and ordinary Albertans. My own apartment neighbour, with whom I’ve had many friendly conversations but none about politics, caught me in the laundry room and asked if I was joining the NDP to vote for Nenshi just like she was. That’s when I knew the race was over.

But what excitement does Nenshi bring to the race, exactly? We all know he is popular, but what, other than overwhelming conventional wisdom, makes it so?

Thomson describes one of Nenshi’s strengths as appealing to more “pragmatic” voters, that doing so would build a more “dynamic movement” capable of defeating Danielle Smith.

But what is dynamic about a conservative-light New Democratic Party? Aside from the last five years of Kenney and Smith, conservatism-light is the only type of government Alberta has had since at least 1971, a return to which would be the very antithesis of dynamism.

What is dynamic about the status quo? About settling for the lesser of two evils? About sacrificing a party’s core values and traditional base to coalesce around whichever lowest bar will reward you with power?

If political parties have any use at all, they ought to represent something, not just winning. They ought to inspire and inform public opinion, not just react to what is already the consensus. If not, let’s make the province a conservative dictatorship already and do away with this expensive and troublesome voting business.

And what is pragmatic about appealing to the powerful instead of those who are suffering? About strangling public services in the name of fiscal responsibility? That’s not a great pitch, but it is one NDP insiders seem compelled to make. Remember, Kenney and Smith offered health care and public sector workers higher wage increases than Notley, who felt the only pragmatic number was zero.

Nenshi isn’t promising anything dynamic, nor pragmatic, nor exciting. He’s promising victory, and for some that’s enough.

None of this matters, of course. A conservative-light NDP leader is what we were destined for whether we liked it or not. If the way Alberta New Democrats have deified Notley is any indication, conservatism-light is what party members want, and so do the countless Albertans who bought a membership just to vote for Nenshi. So be it.

The Alberta NDP leadership race is an anti-leadership race. It fails as an exciting game to watch, an opportunity for change, and an affirmation of the dreams to which progressives should aspire. What a shame.