Advance polls open for 3 Alberta byelections

Advance voting opened Tuesday for three provincial byelections, including one for the leader of the Alberta NDP, Naheed Nenshi. Nicole Weisberg reports.

Residents in two Edmonton communities and one southern Alberta riding can head to advance polls Tuesday for their respective provincial byelections.

Candidates are running in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Edmonton-Ellerslie and Edmonton-Strathcona.

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NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is expected to take the party’s stronghold in Edmonton-Strathcona where Rachel Notley served as MLA of the riding for 16 years. The NDP has had a firm grip on the riding since 1997.

John Brennan, a political analyst and commentator, said Edmonton-Strathcona is the safest NDP riding in the province as well as the safest in the country at the federal level.

“I fully expect Nenshi to win in Strathcona,” said Brennan. “What’ll be very interesting is how much he wins by.”

But further south, there will be a more competitive race between the UCP and NDP candidates in Edmonton-Ellerslie.

Former Progressive Conservative Naresh Bhardwaj will be running again in his old riding, but for the UCP.

Bhardwaj was the MLA for Edmonton-Ellerslie from 2008 to 2015. He chose not to run in 2015 after bribery allegations surfaced.

NDP candidate Gurtej Singh Brar is well known in the south Edmonton community and will follow a third straight NDP win in the riding.

“My gut tells me it’s going to be a lot closer this time,” said Brennan. “We’ve had several polls out just in the last three or four weeks measuring public opinion in Alberta and Edmonton. The UCP continues to pull well province-wide.”

Brennan said polls have shown a bit of decline in NDP support.

“It’ll be a blow to the NDP if they can’t hold Edmonton-Ellerslie,” said Brennan, adding that the NDP won all of the ridings in Edmonton in the 2023 provincial election.

Brennan said it’s not ideal for an opposition party to be losing seats, even if the provincial election is over two years away.

The Edmonton-Ellerslie byelection will replace NDP member Rod Loyola who stepped down earlier this year to run as a Liberal in the federal election for Edmonton-Gateway.

Loyola was dropped by the Liberals just 10 days after stepping down as NDP MLA.

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No reason for the decision has been made public, but the move came after a video from 2009 emerged of Loyola sympathizing with Hezbollah and Hamas.

Meanwhile, some experts deemed the byelection in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills a trial run for a separation referendum, with the Republican Party of Alberta expected to take some votes from the UCP.

Here’s who’s running

Edmonton-Ellerslie

• Naresh Bhardwaj, UCP
• Gurtej Singh Brar, NDP
• Caroline Currie, Alberta Party
• Pamela Henson, Wildrose Loyalty Coalition
• Fred Munn, Republican Party of Alberta
• Manpreet Tiwana, Alberta Liberal Party

Edmonton-Strathcona

• Ravina Chand, Republican Party of Alberta
• Darby-Rae Crouch, UCP
• Naheed Nenshi, NDP
• Samuel Petrov, Alberta Party
• Don Slater, Alberta Liberal Party
• Jesse Stretch, Wildrose Loyalty Coalition

Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills

• Cameron Davies, Republican Party of Alberta
• Tara Sawyer, UCP
• Beverley Toews, NDP
• Bill Tufts, Wildrose Loyalty Coalition

Advanced polls are open from June 17 to 21. Election day is June 23.

Visit Elections Alberta to find out where you can vote.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg