With only days left before the September 14th by-election in Calgary-Shaw, Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi delivered his party’s health care pitch to voters with a pledge of stability and investment in a public system that has undergone massive bureaucratic restructuring and increased privatization since 2023.
Nenshi pledged that within three years of forming government after the 2027 election, the NDP would shorten emergency department wait times, cut surgical, diagnostic, and specialist wait times by 30 per cent, make sure every Albertan has access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner, and, a big one, re-form one single Ministry of Health.
Nenshi said the NDP would also launch a judiciary-led public inquiry into CorruptCare, a wide-ranging government corruption scandal that largely faded into the background over the summer.
“Delivering on these commitments will not happen overnight,” said Calgary-Varsity NDP MLA Dr. Luanne Metz, who was the Head of the Division of Neurology at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary before her election in 2023. “Years of UCP cuts, chaos, confusion, and cruelty have left Alberta’s health care system more fragmented, less accountable, and harder to access.”
Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government has implemented a massive bureaucratic restructuring of the public health care system, carving up the former Alberta Health Services province-wide health authority into multiple administrative organizations, agencies, and corporations under the responsibility of four separate health ministers. But it’s the UCP’s privatization push that has earned the most attention.
The UCP’s Bill 11: Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (No. 2) passed through the Legislature in November 2025 and has drawn considerable criticism across Canada for creating a dual-practice model that allows doctors to switch between billing public and private insurance plans, which some argue is a direct attack on the Canada Health Act.
The Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Nurses Association, and Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions have expressed deep concerns about Bill 11 and federal Minister of Health Marjorie Michel has said she is watching the Alberta law.
Nenshi has promised to repeal Bill 11 to put an end to dual-practice and privatization efforts.
Nenshi and Metz were joined at the health care policy announcement by Calgary-Shaw by-election candidate Kyle Campbell, who has made his experiences as a former cancer patient a key part of his campaign narrative.
“Three years ago, I was told I had stage four cancer, and in that moment I saw firsthand what’s at stake when our system isn’t working the way it should,” Campbell said after his nomination on June 26.
“What matters in a moment like that is being able to count on getting timely health care and having a government that cares about affordability for all families,” said Campbell, an employee benefits professional and former Somerset residents’ association president.
The NDP’s Campbell faces an uphill battle to win in Calgary-Shaw. The south Calgary riding has been held by the UCP since 2019 and former UCP MLA Rebecca Schulz, who resigned earlier this year, was re-elected in 2023 with a 13.9 point margin of victory. That election also saw the NDP vote in the riding jump by 17 points, which is one reason this is still a race to watch.
The results in Calgary-Shaw will be an important test for Nenshi, whose record as Mayor of Calgary from 2010 to 2021 was a big factor in his landslide win in the NDP’s 2024 leadership race.
Nenshi’s ability to increase the NDP’s support in Calgary, even in likely UCP-voting ridings like Calgary-Shaw, will determine whether the opposition party could have path to victory in the next election. It will also be an indicator of whether the broad voter coalition built by former leader Rachel Notley in the 2023 election has sustained itself since the former leader stepped down two years ago.
UCP’s Mike Derry the favourite to win in Calgary-Shaw
Provincial cabinet ministers have poured into Calgary-Shaw to support UCP candidate Mike Derry and Smith has campaigned with him numerous times since the by-election campaign started last month.
Derry is the favourite to win the by-election but the vote is also a test for Smith, who has led a government mired in controversy and a party deeply divided on whether Alberta should separate from Canada.
Smith’s absence from any visible pro-Canada campaigns ahead of her October 19 separation referendum has raised a lot of eyebrows, especially after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s full-throated support of Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian campaign in Banff this week.
Postmedia columnist Don Braid wrote it well in a recent column:
The best campaigner for Canada in the Oct. 19 referendum won’t be a premier who claims to be federalist.
Danielle Smith is too trapped by the separatists in her UCP and her caucus. She’s propelled by the burning need to keep the party together and deny victory to the NDP.
The most federalists can expect is Smith’s personal promise to vote against leaving Canada. Mildly, she urges Albertans to do the same.
But cheerleading? Real passion for Canada? Bows to the greatness of this incredible country? Full-throated praise for Ottawa’s many policy reversals in Alberta’s favour?
Unlikely. The premier is stuck in her web of ambiguity.
But Smith’s lethargic support for Alberta staying in Canada doesn’t appear to have hurt the UCP in the polls. A recently released Leger poll showed the UCP with 51 per cent support across the province, a 10 point lead over the NDP with 41 per cent. And a Research Co. poll showed a closer race with the UCP at 46 per cent and the NDP at 43 per cent.
The Leger poll showed the UCP with 49 per cent and the NDP with 42 per cent support in Calgary, and the Research Co. poll showed a closer race with the UCP at 46 per cent and the NDP at 44 per cent in Alberta’s largest city. This suggests that Calgary remains a competitive electoral battleground and neither party has taken off in the minds of Calgarians.
We will have to wait until the votes are counted on Monday night to see what that means for the Calgary-Shaw by-election.
Calgary-Shaw by-election candidates
Rolly Ashdown, Independent
Kyle Campbell, NDP
Mike Derry, UCP
Kyle Joseph, Progressive Tory
John Roggeveen, Liberal
Dan Williams wins UCP nomination in Peace River
UCP MLA and Minister of Municipal Affairs Dan Williams fended off a challenge from local contractor and separatist-backed candidate Dave Long to win his party’s nomination to run for re-election in Peace River. Williams was first elected in 2019 and was re-elected in 2023 with 72.8 per cent of the vote.
In southeast Edmonton, Gurtej Singh Brar was nominated to run for re-election as the NDP candidate in Edmonton-Ellerslie. Brar was first elected in a June 2025 by-election after former NDP MLA Rod Loyola stepped down to run in the federal election.
The NDP are expected to nominate former public school trustee Trisha Estabrooks as the party’s candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona at a September 16 nomination meeting.
Edmonton-Strathcona is currently represented by Nenshi, who has announced he plans to run in a Calgary riding in the next election, and is the safest NDP riding in the province. Nenshi was elected with 82.2 per cent of the vote in a June 2025 by-election.
The UCP has opened nominations in Calgary-Acadia, Calgary-North and Edmonton-North West with a candidate entry deadline set for September 25, 2026.
Erin Averbukh and Jeevan Mangat are running for the UCP nomination in Calgary-Acadia and Amit Batra, Iurie Boaghie and Patrick Royer are expected to contest the Edmonton-North West UCP nomination.
Recommended listening and reading
Real Talk’s Ryan Jespersen hosted a discussion with former premier Rachel Notley, former Edmonton mayor Don Iveson, former Lethbridge mayor Chris Spearman, former St. Albert mayor Cathy Heron, and lawyer Avnish Nanda about their recent column calling on Albertans to vote against the five immigration questions on the ballot on October 19.
Notley and fellow former premier Jason Kenney spoke with the Toronto Metropolitan Democracy Forum about why they’ve teamed up to oppose the separation referendum in October.
Abacus Data’s David Coletto and the University of Calgary’s Lisa Young joined host Kathleen Petty on the CBC’s West of Centre to discuss recent polling about the separation referendum.
Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean wrote about two separatist events she attended last week.
David Climenhaga wrote that, despite UCP scheme to fuel AI data centres, there’s nothing wrong with Crown corporations.
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Is it surprising that, for the most part, separatist candidates are not winning UCP nominations? I thought they might win a couple....
It is early morning and I didn't sleep all that well, so this might be the result. To my mind, "a pledge of stability and investment in a public system" is NOT a PLAN. It is what even the UCP claim they are doing. All the politicians claim that is their goal, and once in office, we find tinkering and not much more.