3 leaders in Ottawa’s House of Commons hail from Alberta

This composite image shows, left to right, Liberal Leader Mark Carney in Ottawa on March 27, 2025; Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in Toronto on March 30, 2025; and interim NDP Leader Don Davies in Ottawa on Feb. 7, 2023.

With Don Davies appointed the interim leader of the federal NDP on Monday, Canada has three leaders of national parties with strong Alberta ties.

Davies, who replaces outgoing leader Jagmeet Singh, was one of only seven NDP candidates elected or re-elected to Parliament in April 28’s federal election, won by Mark Carney’s Liberals. Davies, who hails from Edmonton, has represented the riding of Vancouver Kingsway since 2008.

Carney, too, hails from Edmonton, while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was born and raised in Calgary.

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Don Davies

The 62-year-old was born and raised in Edmonton. He holds a bachelor of arts in political science and a bachelor of laws from the University of Alberta.

Davies worked as a researcher at the Alberta legislature before working for Ray Martin, the NDP opposition leader, from 1989 to 1991, when he moved to Vancouver to become director of legal services for a Teamsters Canada local before winning election in 2008.

Pierre Poilievre

The 45-year-old Poilievre, who became Conservative leader in September 2022, was born in Calgary. He was adopted by two teachers and grew up in the southwestern suburbs of Alberta’s largest city.

He attended Calgary’s Henry Wise Wood High School, studied international relations at the University of Calgary and started to become active in politics as a teenager. Poilievre, who lost his Ottawa-area seat in April’s federal election, is slated to run in a byelection in the Alberta riding of Battle River—Crowfoot once Damien Kurek, its MP, resigns.

Mark Carney

Carney, 58, was born in Fort Smith, N.W.T., and grew up in west-central Edmonton.

His parents, like Poilievre’s, were educators – his father a high school principal and later a professor at the University of Alberta, while his mother taught elementary school before stay-at-home-mom duty. Bob Carney ran for the Liberals in Edmonton during the 1980 federal election, placing second.

Mark Carney attended St. Francis Xavier Catholic High School, studied economics at Harvard University and at Oxford University, and after a career in investment banking, was appointed governor of the Bank of Canada in 2007.

Five years later, he became governor of the Bank of England, staying in the role until 2020. He was elected federal Liberal leader in March and led the party to a minority win in last month’s election.

Other notable federal leaders from Alberta

Stephen Harper

The Toronto native moved to Alberta as a young adult and attended the University of Calgary, graduating with a master’s of economics in 1991.

The Conservative Prime Minister from 2006 to 2015 was one of the founders of the Reform Party in 1987 and was first elected to the House of Commons under that banner in 1993 for the riding of Calgary West. He left the party in 1997 and returned to politics five years later when he won the leadership of the Canadian Alliance, Reform’s successor party.

Harper negotiated the Canadian Alliance merger with the Progressive Conservatives to form today’s Conservative Party. The Conservatives won the 2006 election, defeating Paul Martin’s Liberals to form a minority government. Five years later, after winning another minority in 2008, the Conservatives captured a majority in 2011 before the Liberals under Justin Trudeau won election four years later.

Preston Manning

The leader of the Reform Party was born in Edmonton and grew up in central Alberta. He’s the son of former Alberta Premier Ernest C. Manning.

He helped form the Reform Party in 1987 and held a seat in Calgary starting in 1993. Reform became the Official Opposition in 1997.

He lost party leadership to Stockwell Day in 2000, when the party changed its name to the Canadian Alliance. Today, the party forms the basis for today’s Conservatives.

Stockwell Day

The former pastor was born and raised in Ontario and moved to Alberta in the 1970s. He was first elected to Alberta’s legislature in 1986 for the Progressive Conservatives and served in Ralph Klein’s cabinet after Klein became premier in late 1992.

Day left provincial politics for the federal stage in 2000, when he won the leadership of the Canadian Alliance Party. He was MP for Okanagan-Coquihalla in B.C.

He lost the leadership two years later to Stephen Harper. Day held several cabinet positions under Harper after the Conservatives took power in 2006 before leaving politics in 2011.

Joe Clark

The High River, Alta., native is a graduate of the University of Alberta and entered federal politics in the early 1970s, serving as an MP in two different rural Alberta ridings and becoming leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976.

He served as prime minister briefly after the PCs formed a minority government in 1979, only for Pierre Trudeau’s Liberals to topple them the next year with a majority win.

Clark was PC leader until 1983, when Brian Mulroney defeated him for the party leadership. Clark held several cabinet positions under Mulroney until 1993, when Clark left politics. He returned to lead the PCs in 1998 until 2003, when the party merged with the Canadian Alliance to form the modern Conservative Party.

R.B. Bennett

The Conservative prime minister of Canada from 1930-35 held Calgary seats in the House of Commons over a 25-year period from 1911 to 1935.

The wealthy lawyer, who was partners with James Lougheed, started his political career in regional politics in 1898, before Alberta was a province, until he was elected federally.