By Chris Brown

NDP sets nomination date for Cypress-Medicine Hat

Jan 19, 2023 | 3:53 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB -Alberta’s NDP has typically struggled to find candidates to run for the party in our corner of the province, let alone win a seat.

Next month, the party will have a nomination contest in Cypress-Medicine Hat. The party’s Brandon Stevens says it’s the first one for the riding in recent memory. Two candidates – Cathy Hogg and Tim Gruber – have already declared and a third is expected to shortly.

“It’s a sign of I think the party’s growth in the city of Medicine Hat,” the Alberta NDP provincial secretary says. “But also you know these three candidates are going to be growing the party over the next month and a half and that’s really exciting for me, it’s exciting for the potential for us to run a strong campaign in the region come this spring.”

Of the spring vote, Stevens says, “I think what you’ll see in Medicine Hat is the strongest campaigns in our party’s history down there.”

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The party’s nomination date is set for Feb. 28 and the provincial election is scheduled to be held on May 29.

NDP fortunes in the area have been generally trending upward ever since Robert Wanner won in the former Medicine Hat riding in 2015 with 38 per cent of the vote.

The redrawn Brooks-Medicine Hat riding swung back to a conservative party in 2019 when Michaela Glasgo ran for the new United Conservative Party. NDP support fell to 18 per cent in that election, then rose to 27 per cent when Gwendoline Dirk challenged newly-elected UCP Leader and Premier Danielle Smith in a byelection this fall.

Stevens says those sorts of numbers show Albertans are rejecting Danielle Smith’s agenda, an agenda that’s been filled with chaos and with conflict. He says people are seeing the NDP as a credible alternative not only to defeat Danielle Smith, but to make Rachel Notley premier again.

Even before Smith became leader of the UCP, support for the NDP in Cypress-Medicine Hat was rising. The party’s vote share went from 20 per cent to 26 per cent from 2015 to 2019. Drew Barnes won in 2019 under the UCP banner. He now sits as an Independent MLA after being kicked out of the UCP caucus in May 2021.

Stevens says the Cypress-Medicine Hat candidates will get local progressives engaged and involved, setting the stage for the spring provincial election in both city ridings.

“We really want to work with Gwendoline to make sure that she can run another strong campaign and we want to work with the winner of the nomination race to ensure they can run a strong campaign,” he says. “I think the chaos, the division, the conflict within the UCP, I think Albertans are sick of that from the Conservatives and you know we’ll see what happens.”