Naheed Nenshi wins Alberta NDP leadership race

[Music] please join me in welcoming the new leader of the Alberta NDP nahad nii Winds of Change in Alberta former Calgary mayor na nshi has been named the new leader of the Alberta NDP here we go a man has been charged after four people were shot just north of Toronto two people were killed in the incident including a [Music] [Applause] toddler love we provided exciting night in sports three straight wins have Oilers fans dreaming of a Stanley Cup Parade as admon prepares to play for the NHL’s STP prize in game seven good evening and welcome to CTV News Channel thanks for joining us I’m aay Tandon a change of God in Alberta NDP n n has been elected as the party leader with an overwhelming majority in the first ballot after rent notle officially stepped down please join me in welcoming the new leader of the Alberta NDP nahad n nchi who secured more than 62,000 of the roughly 85,000 ballots cast also becomes leader of the opposition but doesn’t hold a seat in the legislature there were three other contenders all sitting mlas in the race for the leadership let’s now bring in Lori turnul political analyst for this latest development Lori great to see you this afternoon thank you for taking out the time thank you so much for having me a change in Garden Alberta what a strong and powerful victory for n n she your thoughts pretty much on expected lines well I mean he was definitely the candidate to watch this whole time uh obviously he’s a he’s a big name um he had a had a huge uh sense of momentum around him this whole time and obviously the first ballot win was absolutely decisive this is almost unanimous right like and so this is a huge win for him clearly he has the leadership of the party he has the party in his hand uh now it’s up to him to decide how he’s going to go forward in terms of charting out the course because I think the expectations of him are extremely high he people do not expect him to be a happy warrior they expect him to win and I think he he expects that of himself too so let’s talk about those expectations what do you think this really means for the NDP Alberta now they’ve elected him with such high hopes like you were pointing out what are they hoping to achieve with the new leader well they’ve got three years to the next election and I think that’s good news for them in the sense that they’ve got enough time to do the things like chart out a course what the part is going to represent get figure out how they’re going to get him into the legislature which they need to do and also figure out how they’re going to position themselves against Danielle Smith and make themselves a contender to government which they are right the last election as much as uh you know clearly it’s a majority government for Danielle Smith the NDP did quite well and they they elected 38 people to the legislature so it’s not like he’s in inheriting a party that’s in tatters or something like he’s he’s inheriting a very strong machine with a lot of people behind him and I think the again the expectations of him are high but that’s not a bad thing I think the fact that people are expecting that a win is possible and they’re seeing that in terms of the the course of the NDP in Alberta is really important because it’s a party that sometimes can get itself in a position of okay we’re the opposition we’re a strong opposition but we’re not really thinking of forming a government but I think that his win and again the decisiveness of that win really sets a a new expectation for the party so a lot packed in that answer of yours let’s sort of split it apart and talk about these issues one by one let’s just talk about n n she’s person priorities over here as you pointed out the party has lost two consecutive elections but they are in a strong position what do you think he really needs to do here so that the party performs better where the next election is concerned I mean I think we heard some of that even in the the short period of time between you know now and and since the results have been announced he talked about his vision for the province he talked about how Danielle Smith sees Alberta as being almost under attack and her vision for the province is small and he’s saying let’s not see it that way let’s see Alberta as a place where we are welcoming we are powerful we have opportunity we you know there is growth here and so he’s instead of of seeing the province as being in a in a weak spot in Confederation and being treated poorly let’s think differently about what Alberta is trying to do so I think that’s the first part it’ll be interesting to see what he does in terms of relationships with other politicians in the country it will be interesting to see how other politicians react to him what will we hear from the Prime Minister what will we hear from other premiers in terms of you know reaching out to him will they do that will will people try to create Partnerships with him is there going to be a sense that there could be a shift in Alberta I think that’s going to be really interesting to see you know nahid theni as we know Lori of course he’s been a former Calgary mayor he’s very articulate in the way he speaks he’s a good oror uh he doesn’t sort of you know fair questions that are put across so when you talk about his political personality uh versus the political personality of Daniel Smith and that’s where really the political battle lies what do you make of the next 3 years it I think um I we’ll hear a few things from him I think we’ll hear more about a different kind of vision for Alberta so that he can get people think differently to think differently because what he has to do is it’s actually quite complicated I think what he has to do he has to get the party to mobilize around him and behind him and today that looks like a really easy thing for him because he’s got so many votes in favor of him but it’s going to be more difficult when it comes to what kind of direction does he want to pull the party is he going to see this as a Centrist party is he going to stay true to some more traditional roots of the party that are more left-wing I think you can see in in nensi almost a kind of post-partisan attitude and of course he’s been a mayor right so he hasn’t been a a politician in this kind of partisan uh environment before he’s been able to just kind of Park all of that and so it’ll be interesting to see whether he brings that um that kind of persona to this or whether he wants to play it more from a partisan perspective I think that’s one thing I think the other thing too is going to be how does he try to position Alberta in the context of the country is he going to is he going to talk what kind of social programs is he going to talk about how is he going to potentially partner with other Premier to try to look ahead to a time where he’s going to lead the province if that happens you know in the last two governments we’ve seen in Alberta the two uh cons consecutive conservative governments and we’ve seen the kind of relationship they’ve had with the feds and the kind of language that we’ve seen especially with the current Premier your take on how that relationship if you think needs to uh be mended with the federal government and the path that nahi needs to take on that front well this is it so um I think the way things are going to go um right now prime minister Trudeau could potentially if nieni was coming into a leadership position in the province right now which is not the case but if he was yes this would be a very interesting partnership between these two men but that’s not the case by the time nedeni could be in the in the position of of really going for the premier spot um perhaps it won’t be prime minister Trudeau perhaps it would be a prime minister POV in which case the circumstances would be very different and very I think potentially very difficult that said um we’re not sure that there’s necessarily going to be a Rosy relationship between Premier Smith and and a prime minister POV should that happen and so there’s so many unknowns and thinking about you know how nedeni would navigate that space is it better for Alberta regardless of who the prime minister is is it better for Alberta to C take this stance where look we’re not getting our fair share here we need the calculations to be different are we going to see any parallel at all any continuity at all between a Smith leadership and and a nchi leadership is there going to be anything at all that they agree on in terms of the Strategic position of Alberta in the country or are we going to see a completely different tone and content from him where he says look we’re just going to park all of this and start again very interesting times indeed we’ll keep a close eye at for the moment Lori Turnell political analyst appreciate your time and thank you for joining us with this breaking news thank you for having me

Political analyst Lori Turnbull reacts to Naheed Nenshi winning the Alberta NDP leadership race.

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