Nenshi's NDP leadership rivals say he's vague on policy, as front-runner tries to blend in with orange crowd

It was a random draw, organizers say, that gave Naheed Nenshi the centre lectern in the five-candidate NDP leadership debate Thursday.

Nothing to do with his widely perceived front-runner status, his race-leading name recognition or his reported prowess recruiting new members to the party.

If any of his rivals wanted to use this first debate to tear a strip out of him or knock him down a peg, the placement of him in the middle on stage in Lethbridge meant all of them were in relative jabbing distance.

That didn't happen, aside from a few pokes about Nenshi's reluctance to take firm policy stances.

Let's contrast that with how UCP leadership hopefuls two years ago used debates to try piercing the armour of that contest's front-runner. Brian Jean, Rajan Sawhney and the others assailed Danielle Smith for the harm they believed her Sovereignty Act would wreak on the province's stability, and for unorthodox remarks she'd made that cancer was often "controllable."

The UCP candidates steadily rained rhetorical blows on Smith. It ultimately didn't prove successful against the now-premier, but it did convey that candidates were willing to combat the rival they saw as a threat, either to their party or their own leadership ambitions.

New Democratic pleasantries

Scrapping on stage is not the NDP way, traditionally.

In Alberta and elsewhere, leadership debates tend to strain the meaning of debate. They're routinely cordial affairs among candidates who largely agree on issues, and would much rather make barbed contrasts with rival parties than against each other.

At Thursday's forum, the candidates applauded each others' closing statements. They declared their agreement routinely — on renewable power, on recruiting workers to the public health system, on fighting climate change while growing the economy, on fighting to gain ground in  rural Alberta where the UCP utterly dominates.

"We've been doing this for the last number of weeks," Nenshi remarked at one point about how often they've been at party functions together. "We're beginning to sound like each other."

It would serve Nenshi's best interests if all five sounded roughly the same, if he as the outsider who'd just bought his own party membership was beginning to blend in with the rest of the New Democrat pack.

Doing so would likely help more members feel comfortable with the prospect of him leading the party, and tamp down the clamour for an anybody-but-Nenshi movement.

The stance on stances

There were wisps of such pushback at the Lethbridge forum. They didn't centre on painting the former Calgary mayor as an outsider to the party, but as a candidate who's being deliberately vague on where he stands.

"We're hearing many sentences, but we're not hearing a lot of policy," former health minister Sarah Hoffman said, as she pressed Nenshi on whether he'd repeal Smith's restrictions on wind and solar power. (He said he would, but bristled at her calling it a "ban" on renewables.)

WATCH | Candidates debate the future of renewable energy in Alberta: 

'We're going to debate now,' exclaims Nenshi during renewable energy question

7 months ago

Duration 4:48

Alberta NDP candidates discuss their thoughts on the UCP government's renewable energy policies, and the recent moratorium that some claim has led to a ban in areas of the province.

Kathleen Ganley, the former justice minister, joined in on that argument later. "I think it is very important that, in this leadership race, everybody knows where each and every one of us stand in incredibly concrete terms."

When labour leader Gil McGowan chimed in that "someone who aspires to lead a party should be able to tell people where he would lead them," Nenshi got short.

"So what question do you have, Gil?" the former mayor retorted, his eyes widening. He'd later declare the lack of policy firmness somewhat of a virtue, given that the NDP will remain in opposition until at least the 2027 election, and so needs to consult broadly and craft detailed policy more responsive to the future than the current moment.

His chirping back when provoked hearkened back to his time as mayor, when Nenshi would show flashes of frustration and irritability when a councillor's remarks got under his skin. 

More of those flashes may have shown if there was more aggressive debating from his counterparts, which would better preview the ride the next NDP leader will get opposite Smith's UCP in the legislature.

Among NDP insiders, there was high speculation that Gil McGowan would be the night's attack dog, having most aggressively poked at Nenshi's reputation in recent weeks. 

McGowan largely relented Thursday night, though he told reporters afterward that when he said in the debate that too many workers "think we're a bunch of overeducated sanctimonious snobs who look down on them," he'd meant to add that Nenshi came across as an icon of that attitude. (He just never got around to saying as much during the debate.)

So this turned out to be less of a clash of ideas, and more a showcase of candidate offerings. 

McGowan pitched himself as the candidate to bring the working class back into the NDP fold. Ganley said she'd offer policies appealing to those worried about New Democrats' management of the economy. 

Hoffman said she'd be an "unapologetic" New Democrat as NDP leader — another subtle jab at Nenshi. Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, a first-term Edmonton MLA and the least well-known of the group, positioned herself as a clear-eyed voice defending the natural environment, especially as Alberta approaches a devastating drought.

"Every economic system, everything we do is [with] water. Water is life," she said.

Nenshi, meanwhile, leaned less on his three-term mayoral record than Hoffman did on her four years as health minister and deputy premier. But he stressed the party must appeal to a broad array of Albertans to overtake a Smith government that he claims is "reckless, dangerous, immoral and incompetent."

The next phase

This past Monday was the membership sales deadline for leadership campaigns, meaning only Albertans who joined the party by April 22 will be allowed to vote for leader.

That means candidate teams no longer have to blitz the province, trying to convince anybody with a progressive bone in their body to become a card-carrying New Democrat. Now has begun the campaign period where the would-be leaders must persuade those who've already joined.

Leadership teams won't get the updated member list until next week, but many organizers expect it to have between 70,000 and 85,000 names. That's a massive leap from the 16,000 the party reported at last year's end, and way beyond the roughly 30,000 active memberships that candidate McGowan claimed there were a month ago, when MLA Rakhi Pancholi dropped out and said member numbers doubled the week Nenshi entered the race.

It is, however, a far cry from the 123,915 members the UCP had during the 2022 leadership race that Premier Danielle Smith won. But you don't hear many New Democrats wincing about that disparity — not from the party whose last leadership race a decade ago had only 3,589 votes cast.

Other debates will be held May 11 in Calgary and June 2 in Edmonton. The successor to current leader Rachel Notley will be crowned June 22.