Alberta Premier Jason Kenney calls March 15 byelection, UCP candidate campaigning to oust him
CBC
After a six-month wait, voters in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche will cast ballots in a provincial byelection on March 15, Alberta's premier announced Tuesday.
Premier Jason Kenney waited until the last possible day to call the byelection.
His former party leadership rival Brian Jean, the United Conservative Party's nominee, will face the NDP's Ariana Mancini, a teacher, Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta leader Paul Hinman, and Marilyn Burns of the Alberta Advantage Party in the northeastern Alberta riding.
Alberta Party leader Barry Morishita says a local candidate will also run under that party banner, but the nomination process is still underway.
Politics watchers have anticipated election call as Jean attempts to re-enter the fray after a nearly four-year hiatus.
"Obviously, this byelection is about stopping the NDP next year," Jean said in an interview on Tuesday. "And starting the process of renewing the UCP this year."
Jean led the Wildrose Party and was Opposition leader until the Wildrose and the Progressive Conservative parties merged to form the United Conservative Party in 2017.
A splinter group of Wildrose supporters opposed to the merger formed the Alberta Advantage Party.
Jean resigned as MLA for the same riding in 2018 after Kenney defeated him in the 2017 UCP leadership race.
Jean has been frank that he aims to sign up new party members, and get them to Red Deer on April 9 to vote against the premier at a leadership review meeting.
NDP rival Ariana Mancini, a teacher, says a byelection campaign that should be focused on local issues is already being derailed by the UCP's internal tussles.
On doorsteps, she said she's hearing from people struggling with the rising cost of living, and frustrated by having to travel to Edmonton for health-care services, such as an outpatient ultrasound.
"They are not interested in any drama or UCP infighting that's occurring right now," she said.
She said she's confident the NDP will win the byelection, and such a political shift would have implications in the 2023 general election.
Kayla DeMong fought tears as she described the dire conditions on the front lines, pleading for more help from the province as staff at the harm reduction site she leads try to keep up with the recent spike in overdoses.
A B.C. woman who has been detained by U.S. immigration officials for 11 days, after trying to enter the country, will be released on Friday, according to her father.
Toronto is doubling the number of automated speed cameras on city streets.
Health Minister Adriana LaGrange is alleging the former CEO of Alberta Health Services was unwilling and unable to implement the government's plan to break up the health authority, became "infatuated" with her internal investigation into private surgical contracts and made "incendiary and inaccurate allegations about political intrigue and impropriety" before she was fired in January.
Hudson's Bay Company filed for creditor protection last week, saying it's struggling to pay landlords, vendors and employees — and it's a process that could lead to the sale or closure of Canada's oldest company.
Still sleepy from this week's time change?
RCMP say a man died while in police custody on Wednesday in downtown Yellowknife, and Alberta RCMP are investigating the incident.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal officials left an hours-long meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying they feel more positive about the Canada-U.S. trading relationship after weeks of bad blood and heated rhetoric.
The Alberta government wants to cut more than $400 million in the fees it pays to doctors, according to a confidential memo obtained by The Canadian Press.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says Canada's incoming prime minister needs to immediately and urgently negotiate a way to avoid China's planned tariffs on Canadian canola — even before an election call.
A judge has sentenced a 48-year-old man to life in prison for brutally stabbing his ex-wife and daughter to death in North York in 2022.
Ontario is seeing a massive surge in measles cases as an ongoing outbreak spreads in the province among mostly unvaccinated people.
Prince Edward Island's Affordable Housing Development Program fell short of its intended purpose, the province's Auditor General says.