![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/c9a234160bd79d12dfbf18b8b2e3c491.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nSocial media once made him the darling of Calgary.<\/p>\n
Purple Power, as it was called, elected Naheed Nenshi to the mayor\u2019s office. And if it worked then, orange is the new colour Nenshi is now drumming up to persuade Albertans to stay in Confederation. As leader of the provincial New Democrats, he has launched \u201cFor Alberta, For Canada.\u201d Splashed across the usual digital platforms, the campaign sidesteps the inconvenient reality of Avi Lewis, the newly elected leader of the federal NDP, and his unabashed attacks on the province\u2019s hydrocarbon economy.<\/p>\n
Paying no mind to that political cognitive dissonance, Nenshi spent this week urging Albertans to join a day of action on Saturday. \u201cWe\u2019ll be out attending events, knocking on doors, talking to people about Canada,\u201d he told me a few days back. The provincial NDP\u2019s pro-Canada push will run until the October separation referendum.<\/p>\n
Nenshi is quick to jab at the governing United Conservatives. \u201cBecause the legislation around referenda is very poorly written,\u201d he says, \u201cpolitical parties have abilities that groups like Thomas Lukaszuk\u2019s Forever Canadian don\u2019t. So we\u2019re calling this campaign \u2018powered by the Alberta NDP.\u2019 But signing up doesn\u2019t make you an NDP member. It doesn\u2019t mean you support the NDP \u2014 though I hope you will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powered by the NDP, but not really NDP? The framing feels coy. Why not just own the obvious partisan machinery?<\/p>\n
Nenshi isn\u2019t shy about the scale of the undertaking. He\u2019s consulted veterans of Brexit, the 1980 and 1995 Quebec referenda, and even his own Olympic plebiscite experience. The lesson from all of them: \u201cYou can\u2019t sleepwalk into this. You can\u2019t assume any outcome. You have to treat it like a real campaign \u2014 doors, lawn signs, the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d rather not be doing this,\u201d he confides. For a political party, it means running two campaigns in one year; Alberta\u2019s next provincial vote is scheduled for October 2027.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi, centre, is shown with supporters during a small rally and press event in Calgary on Thursday, April 9, 2026, to launch a pro-Canada campaign. Jim Wells\/Postmedia<\/p>\n
Fair enough. But what opposition leader truly finds it inconvenient to be knocking on doors between elections, especially on an issue this consequential?<\/p>\n
Nenshi\u2019s tone grows more pointed: \u201cWe have to do it. A lot of people woke up the morning after Brexit and said, \u2018Wow, I should have voted,\u2019 or \u2018I should have paid more attention.\u2019 We cannot let that happen here.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m solidly pro-Canada and have no objection to people knocking on my door to discuss Alberta\u2019s future in Confederation. Yet I wonder about the optics. Progressives are mobilizing in force: the NDP, Lukaszuk\u2019s Forever Canadian campaign, and even Alberta political strategist Stephen Carter, who is reportedly eyeing a rebranding of the provincial Liberals into a pro-Confederation vehicle. Is there a risk that too many pro-Canada voices will flood the zone and unintentionally energize the separatist side?<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s the thing,\u201d Nenshi replies. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to coordinate as best we can, and Thomas has done an incredible job. But I absolutely reject the idea that this energizes the other side. That was exactly the mistake the Remain campaign made in Brexit \u2014 and Canada made in the 1995 Quebec referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n
I ask whether federal Liberals will be joining NDP canvassers at Alberta doors. Nenshi says he\u2019s spoken with them about the NDP\u2019s perspective on separation and adds dryly, \u201cIt will be interesting to see how they respond.\u201d On that, at least, we agree.<\/p>\n
He hasn\u2019t spoken with Carter about the Liberal reboot. \u201cThis is, I believe, the fourth Alberta political party he has attempted to take over,\u201d Nenshi notes, his sarcasm thinly veiled. (Carter, of course, helped engineer Nenshi\u2019s own successful 2010 mayoral run with that memorable purple brand blending liberal red and conservative blue.)<\/p>\n
But Carter isn\u2019t the villain in Nenshi\u2019s telling. That honour belongs to Premier Danielle Smith.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/44f11e12a1cb6ada06b480d811157e05.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.<\/p>\n
\u201cPremier Smith is following the David Cameron playbook,\u201d he asserts. \u201cPander to the separatists, empower them, make the referendum easier \u2014 then come out at the end, wrap herself in the Canadian flag and say, \u2018Only I can save Canada.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Her party, he continues, has been captured by separatists. \u201cShe\u2019s painted herself into a corner, just like Cameron. She won\u2019t be able to lift a finger to help the Remain side when the hard work begins. She\u2019ll throw it back to the rest of us. If we don\u2019t do it, no one will.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this narrative, Nenshi casts himself as the reluctant but necessary martyr. I wonder: Doesn\u2019t Avi Lewis\u2019s leadership of the federal NDP make that cross heavier?<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be clear: he\u2019s not my federal party leader,\u201d Nenshi shoots back sharply. \u201cI don\u2019t belong to that party, and many thousands of provincial New Democrats don\u2019t either.\u201d<\/p>\n
He chides me for not paying attention. At last year\u2019s provincial convention, delegates voted to make the Alberta NDP fully membership-independent. They were already financially and policy-independent, he says.<\/p>\n
Nenshi hasn\u2019t yet spoken with Lewis, but he has been in touch with Edmonton-Strathcona MP Heather McPherson, the runner-up to Lewis for leader. \u201cShe very politely asked if she\u2019s allowed to come flip pancakes at my pancake breakfast,\u201d he says, amused. \u201cI told her, \u2018Yeah, you\u2019re my MP. Of course you are. Please come.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1dc1a0b522b6768f3bc5466aa915c649.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
NDP Member of Parliament Heather McPherson.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the pipeline question \u2014 how does the provincial NDP square its ambitions with Lewis and the federal party\u2019s Leap Manifesto stance?<\/p>\n
\u201cDonna, are you really asking me that?\u201d he chides again. \u201cWe put out a whole policy on this. The difference between us and the conservatives \u2014 with all due respect to a former conservative cabinet minister (he means me) \u2014 is that conservatives love to talk about pipelines and have built zero miles to tidewater in 73 years. The Alberta New Democrats got a pipeline built.\u201d<\/p>\n
He presses the point: If Smith delivers on her latest memorandum of understanding, she\u2019ll have taken seven years of UCP government only to land exactly where Rachel Notley left things \u2014 minus an actual pipeline in the ground. \u201cThey\u2019ve wasted seven years fighting with the feds instead of moving projects forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
I bite my tongue and change the subject.<\/p>\n
One final curiosity: The provincial NDP hired New York\u2019s Fight Agency \u2014 the firm credited with helping elect Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Are they still producing videos for Nenshi\u2019s team?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a bunch of consultants \u2014 some of the most thoughtful, progressive people in the world,\u201d he says. Most are Canadian-based. Fight has provided advice, and yes, they\u2019re still involved \u2014 but not on the \u201cFor Alberta, For Canada\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n
The question that actually keeps me up at night is bigger: Even if October\u2019s referendum delivers a \u201cremain in Canada\u201d victory, how do we stop separation sentiment from becoming mainstream in Alberta politics?<\/p>\n
Nenshi agrees it\u2019s the crucial long-term issue. Then he launches another broadside against the UCP, leaving the unmistakable impression that this debate will remain fiercely partisan for years to come.<\/p>\n
National Post<\/p>\n
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social media once made him the darling of Calgary. Purple Power, as it was called, elected Naheed Nenshi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9886,2044,17,10229,2110,3180,10231,10230,10232],"class_list":{"0":"post-20333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta-ndp","9":"tag-avi-lewis","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-david-cameron","12":"tag-federal-ndp","13":"tag-naheed-nenshi","14":"tag-premier-smith","15":"tag-provincial-ndp","16":"tag-stephen-carter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}