NDP MLAs attack NDP MP Charlie Angus
A leading candidate running to replace Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley wants the Alberta NDP to distance themselves from Jagmeet Singh and the federal NDP.
In a release posted on social media Thursday, Rakhi Pancholi, NDP MLA for Edmonton-Whitemud said “the decision to make joining the federal NDP a choice, rather than a requirement, of membership in the Alberta NDP is ultimately the decision of party members, not the leader of the party,”
Charlie Angus, NDP MP for Timmins-James Bay, Ontario, earlier this month tabled a bill in the House of Commons that would make it illegal for petroleum producers or retailers to advertise, or even to sponsor minor sports teams. Companies such as Petro-Canada or Suncor would face fines of $1 million and their employees could face two years in jail for violating the ban.
Pancholi’s plea for a divorce from Jagmeet Singh comes as some of his controversial federal MPs ramp up new attacks on Alberta’s oil and gas industry.
Angus received a blistering rebuke from Alberta NDP Energy Critic Nagwan Al-Guneid, MLA for Calgary-Glenmore, and Saskatchewan NDP Energy Critic Aleana Young, MLA for Regina University.
“It is not helpful to pick fights that just polarize people and get in the way of the real solutions we need,” the two MLAs wrote in a joint statement. “Elected officials should be advancing policies focused on creating good-paying jobs and diversifying our economy while addressing climate change.”
In November, in the wake of the NDP’s crushing election loss to Premier Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party, a group calling itself Alberta’s Progressive Future proposed changing the name of the Alberta NDP, to put some distance between provincial NDPers and Jagmeet Singh’s increasingly unhinged federal caucus.
The group, led by Brian Malkinson, former NDP MLA for Calgary Currie, who served as a minister in Rachel Notley’s cabinet, commissioned a poll showing that 50 per cent of Alberta voters believe that the federal NDP either has some influence or a great deal of influence over the Alberta NDP.
New polling from Abacus Data shows Singh’s NDP trailing Pierre Poilievre’s federal Conservatives by 38 points, with 22 per cent support compared to 60 per cent. The anti-petroleum Trudeau Liberals trail with 12 per cent support, while the Greens are at three per cent.
The latest 338 Canada projection shows the federal Conservatives picking up three seats in the upcoming federal redistribution, the Liberals losing their two seats in Calgary and Edmonton to the Conservatives, and the NDP safe only in their downtown Edmonton stronghold of Edmonton Strathcona. The other federal NDP seat in Alberta, Edmonton Greisbach, is listed as a toss-up.
Polling aggregator TheWrit.ca currently shows Danielle Smith’s United Conservatives picking up six seats from the Alberta NDP based on its model. A Leger poll in January showed the UCP up 4 points from October at 50 per cent support, while the Alberta NDP was down 4 points at 43 per cent.
