NDP MLA Rod Loyola running for federal Liberals in Edmonton Gateway
Loyola challenging long-time Conservative MP Tim Uppal in south Edmonton
Rod Loyola has resigned as the Alberta NDP MLA for Edmonton-Ellerslie and is running as the Liberal Party candidate in the new Edmonton Gateway riding in the federal election. Loyola represented his south Edmonton provincial riding from 2015 until he stepped down earlier this week to pursue the federal Liberal nomination.
Loyola released a statement on social media announcing his candidacy on Wednesday morning:
I deeply respect the work of my Alberta NDP colleagues and am profoundly proud of the work we have done together to advocate for a more just and more prosperous province for all Albertans.
But recently, that prosperity has been at risk.
Donald Trump isn’t just threatening our sovereignty and economy, he is actively working to undermine it.
This federal race is one of the most important elections of our lifetimes.
Loyola’s jump into the federal Liberal candidacy was not unexpected, as it had been rumoured for a few weeks, but it still caught some New Democrats by surprise.
Loyola was one of the first NDP MLAs to endorse former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi when he announced his intention to run for the leadership of the Alberta NDP in early 2024. He was the NDP Caucus’ senior advisor for outreach until he stepped down as an MLA earlier this week.
Representing the left-wing of the NDP when he ran against Rachel Notley for the party leadership in 2014, Loyola’s soft spoken demeanour as an MLA in the NDP government and opposition rarely matched the firebrand politics his opponents have sometimes accused him of representing during his decade in the Legislature.
Loyola’s history of leftist politics has featured prominently in sometimes over-the-top attacks by his conservative opponents. On the eve of the 2015 election, the Progressive Conservative campaign in Edmonton-Ellerslie distributed a flyer with pictures of Loyola placed beside symbols of the former Soviet Union and Communism.
The attacks failed to damage his electability in southeast Edmonton. Voters in suburban Ellerslie elected him with 61 percent in 2015, the same percentage they elected him for a third time in 2023.
Loyola versus Uppal
Loyola is facing Conservative candidate and party deputy leader Tim Uppal in this new south-side riding of Edmonton Gateway. Uppal is a big player in Conservative politics in Edmonton and Ottawa. He was first elected to Parliament in 2008 and has represented southeast Edmonton as the MP for Edmonton Mill Woods since 2019 (he was the MP for Edmonton-Sherwood Park from 2008 to 2015).
With the Liberals currently riding high in the national polls, it looks like Edmonton Gateway could be competitive. Loyola’s late entry into the campaign and the possibility that Uppal could become a senior cabinet minister in a Pierre Poilievre-led Conservative government in Ottawa means that it is a riding to watch.
Results from the 2021 election transposed onto the new riding boundaries would give 43 percent to the Conservatives and 25 to each the Liberals and NDP. The NDP has not yet nominated a candidate in the riding.
Even if Loyola is unable to topple Uppal on April 28, having a former MLA as a challenger might force Uppal to spend more time in the riding rather than lending his support to Conservative candidates in competitive ridings across Canada.
The Liberals made room for Loyola’s last minute candidacy by shuffling candidates around in Edmonton. With MP Randy Boissonnault announcing last week that he would not run for re-election in Edmonton Centre, the Liberal Party’s already nominated candidate in Edmonton Strathcona, Eleanor Olszewski, moved to the vacant riding north of the river. Olszewski was then replaced in Edmonton Strathcona by Ron Thiering, who had been nominated to run for the Liberals in Edmonton Gateway.
As I wrote last week, the shifting federal political sands are complicated for the Alberta NDP. Many Alberta NDP activists and MLAs will support campaigns to elect federal NDP candidates, but others might support federal Liberal candidates who they believe have a better shot at defeating Conservative Party candidates in their ridings.
A long-time NDP MLA like Loyola joining Mark Carney’s Liberals gives us just an indication about how little daylight some NDP politicians believe exists between the federal Liberals and NDP in 2025.
Daveberta in the media
📻 I joined host Kathleen Petty and guests Jason Markusoff and Lori Williams on CBC’s Alberta at Noon call-in show to talk about ballot issues and narratives in the federal election in Alberta.
Former Conservative MPs join Alberta independence delegation to Washington DC
Premier Danielle Smith is in Florida today to share a stage with anti-Canada media personality Ben Shapiro at a $1,500-a-plate fundraiser for the pro-Trump PragerU media company. Smith defended her MAGA charm offensive in a long speech in the Legislature yesterday after facing a mountain of criticism and political attacks over her efforts at freelance diplomacy (Smith’s delivered the speech on the same day Trump announced a new 25 percent tariff on Canadian auto imports).
But Smith isn’t the only Albertan heading south to hobnob with officials in Trump’s orbit.
Former Conservative Party MPs LaVar Payne, who represented Medicine Hat from 2008 to 2015, and Rob Anders, who represented Calgary-West from 1997 to 2015, have joined the “Commonwealth of Alberta Delegation to Washington” group that wants to meet with officials in Trump’s White House to discuss the possibility of Alberta joining the United States.
A lengthy statement released by the group yesterday ended with the declaration that:
Members of the Delegation are presently meeting with people who have expressed a desire to join the delegation to assess their suitability and ability to work cooperatively and confidentially to further the goal of having Alberta in a position to Declare its Independence from Canada following a successful referendum this year.
The group is calling on Smith to hold a referendum on Alberta independence by the end of 2025.
Payne is also a member of the “Black Hat Gang,” a group of influential conservatives from her Brooks-Medicine Hat riding in southeast Alberta who pushed the UCP government to amend the Alberta Bill of Rights to include a articles protecting people who refuse to get vaccinated and increasing property rights and protections for firearms owners.
The Medicine Hat News reports that founding members of the Delegation include Dennis Modry, Jeffrey Rath, and Alberta First Pension Plan leader and Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP constituency president Mitch Sylvestre.
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