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Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi in the Legislature for the first time as the leader of the official opposition, in Edmonton, on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber BrackenAMBER BRACKEN/The Canadian Press
It has been a busy year in Alberta.
Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative government has operated at a frenetic pace, twice changing laws to allow a separation referendum, four times invoking the notwithstanding clause to block courts from challenging legislation, and forging ahead on a transformative overhaul of the health care system that emphasizes private delivery.
Ms. Smith started the year threatening a national unity crisis – a moment that helped awaken pockets of separatism in light of annexation threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, with whom she met at his Mar-a-Lago club in January. Flash to November, and she was announcing a new dawn for Alberta-Ottawa relations on energy and environmental policy with a federal pact that could lead to a new oil pipeline.
And that’s only scratching the surface.
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Across the aisle from a Premier who plays an outsized role on the national stage, how does Naheed Nenshi, the former Calgary mayor and provincial NDP Leader, make himself a main character in the drama of Alberta politics?
“It’s very hard to defend against. That’s why it’s an effective strategy,” Mr. Nenshi said in a year-end interview with The Globe and Mail.
He argues it’s a strategy ripped from the Trump playbook called “flooding the zone” – overwhelming the public with information.
“As an Opposition, you want to swing at every pitch. You want to go, ‘Oh my God, they’re doing this. Oh my God, they’re doing that.’ People should know about this, right?” he said.
Despite the deluge, Mr. Nenshi believes he has hit his stride. It’s been 18 months since he won the Alberta NDP leadership, taking over from former premier Rachel Notley.
But a quiet first year as leader – one without a seat in the legislature – led some to ask: Where is he?
“Nobody’s asking that anymore,” he said in his party’s downtown Calgary office this month.
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Few dispute that Mr. Nenshi struggled at the beginning of his leadership.
Shannon Phillips, who was the NDP’s only MLA outside Calgary and Edmonton before retiring last year from politics, said the party drifted from the ordinary trappings of opposition over Mr. Nenshi’s first year-plus as leader.
“The transition from municipal government to being an opposition party was difficult, I think, for understanding that holding the government to account is why the people are paying your salary,” Ms. Phillips said.
But she said his presence in the legislature this fall, earned through his June by-election win in Edmonton, made a noticeable difference: “They have found their stride though this session.”
Mr. Nenshi – who for a decade plied his political brand as a non-partisan operator – has recently defined his positions on issues that raised questions during his leadership bid.
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Ms. Smith’s invocation of the notwithstanding clause to end Alberta’s nearly month-long teachers strike, for example, allowed him to stake his support for unions. NDP leadership contenders the year prior had voiced concerns that his past signalled he was anti-union.
He is also different from his predecessor.
Cheryl Oates, Ms. Notley’s chief of communications during her time in government, said Mr. Nenshi is an eminently strong communicator. Ms. Notley, a lawyer and daughter of former Alberta NDP leader Grant Notley, was deeply focused on litigating policy, she said.
“Where he starts from sort of a communications piece, she starts from a policy piece,” Ms. Oates said. “They’re good at both sides, but they sort of lead with different feet.”
The NDP, with 38 seats, remains at a disadvantage to Ms. Smith’s 47-seat majority UCP. Through the first nine months of the year, the UCP out-fundraised the NDP, $6.3-million to $3.7-million.
War chests matter in a general election. Mr. Nenshi’s party has recently called on Ms. Smith to trigger one before the scheduled October, 2027, vote.
“The walls are closing in on this government,” Mr. Nenshi said, citing deepening pressures on Ms. Smith, including cratering oil prices that stand to worsen Alberta’s multibillion-dollar deficit.
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Alberta’s Auditor-General is also racing to complete a report on health-contracting procurement – part of a scandal that has roiled the UCP government since allegations by the former head of Alberta Health Services were first reported by The Globe and Mail in February.
Sam Blackett, spokesperson for Ms. Smith, said Mr. Nenshi’s “delusions of grandeur know no bounds.”
“We’re puzzled as to why the NDP leader continues to beg for an early election because every pollster has shown the UCP would win a massive victory if an election were held today.”
The Globe was not granted a year-end interview with Ms. Smith.
Lars Hallstrom, political science professor at the University of Lethbridge, said Mr. Nenshi will have to carefully monitor his party’s appeal among swing voters given Alberta’s bedrock support for conservative parties and the threat posed by the Alberta Party under new leader Peter Guthrie.
“There’s definitely an appetite for a shift in the political landscape. And if the NDP can’t adjust to that, they’re going to slide,” said Prof. Hallstrom.
