I had coffee with my old friend Buff yesterday, and Buff had a theory about what’s happened to NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi since his slam dunk 86-per-cent victory over all the other candidates to lead Alberta’s Opposition party back in June.
“I think Nenshi’s been kidnapped,” said Buff as we waited for our overpriced cappuccinos.
Maybe that’s why the NDP doesn’t seem to have time to criticize Premier Danielle Smith or her outrageous United Conservative Party Government very much, Buff speculated.
Well, I’m delighted to be able to report that Nenshi is safe and sound and doing what he said he was going to be doing back in that post-victory interview with CTV on Aug. 12. You know, “organizational work, the sort of less sexy stuff,” as he put it at the time.
No need to take my word for it. Blogger Susan Wright, a very respectable source of information whose weekly Susan on the Soapbox blog has been around almost as long as this one, reported that she actually saw him in action yesterday afternoon, at the Calgary-Elbow NDP Constituency Association’s barbecue.
No one seems to have posted any photos of that event on social media, but there was a snapshot on X of Nenshi addressing a small group at another Calgary constituency association get-together on Friday.
“After a (very) enthusiastic introduction from NDP MLA Samir Kayande,” Wright wrote of the NDP leader’s Sunday afternoon do, “Nenshi made a short speech which reinforced his commitment to classic NDP positions like public health care and public education, he touched on the need to be ready for the new economy arising from a shift to renewable resources, increased automation and AI, and he emphasized the importance of adopting an attitude of joy and optimism as we move forward.”
Joy and optimism, eh? There’s something familiar about that. I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere in the last few days.
Okay, to be fair, according to the Soapbox blog’s author, Nenshi acknowledged the source – the campaign of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for the American presidency and vice-presidency. “Nenshi ended his speech by reinforcing the need to ‘tap into love’ and turned once again to the amazing momentum coming out of the DNC,” Wright said. “When we fight, we win!”
Wright and her hubby “returned home feeling energized,” she concluded. “Which when you think about it, is quite remarkable given all the crap that’s come down the line since Smith took power.”
So it’s great to learn Nenshi is safe, well, and leaving NDP supporters feeling energized and encouraged, perhaps even joyful and optimistic.
Now, I don’t want to be a nattering nabob of negativity, to borrow a phrase from a former U.S. vice-president, the late Spiro T. Agnew, or his speechwriter William Safire anyway. But Nenshi is going to have to do better than just go to the occasional NDP BBQ that attracts no media reporters and preach to the choir.
He needs to be speaking up forcefully and consistently about the appalling policies the UCP is implementing – for example, the wholesale privatization of mental health and addiction treatment now underway, which is in the news because the government is making regular announcements about it, and the frightening state of the entire health care system which appears to be near collapse while the government focuses on ideological vanity projects!
Nenshi need not do it all himself. But where have NDP mental health and addictions critic Janet Eremenko and health critic Luanne Metz been?
Well, the MLAs for Calgary-Currie and Calgary-Varsity popped up at an NDP town hall meeting in Okotoks on Thursday, but that seems about all that’s made the news lately.
I speak from some experience when I say it’s not all that hard to earn more media coverage than that if you want to – even in these days of mostly conservative-biased mainstream media. A news story, after all, is still a news story, and most journalists still define sharp criticism from an elected official as news.
It gives me no pleasure to say this, but this summer anyway, Smith’s UCP is mopping the floor with the NDP, and the Opposition is squandering opportunities right and left to hammer the government for policies that are unpopular with most voters, including many conservatives outside the UCP’s extremist base.
Labour Day is almost upon us and summer will soon be over. And sure, the Legislature won’t sit again until the last week of October. But Question Period is mostly a waste of time anyway. So let’s not focus on that as it’s a game changer, for heaven’s sake!
Joy and optimism? South of the Medicine Line, that is mainly the result of the relief felt by Democrats who realized their doddering incumbent president simply could not defeat his baleful Republican opponent.
Here in Alberta, New Democrats chose Nenshi two months ago to replace capable former premier Rachel Notley. That was the moment for optimism, if not joy.
At the risk of sounding like an assistant coach somewhere, now is the time for Nenshi and the NDP to up their game and start playing like they actually want to win!
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