Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi wins Alberta NDP leadership
CTV
Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi will replace Rachel Notley as the Alberta NDP leader after receiving 86 per cent of the vote on the first ballot.
Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi will lead the Alberta NDP after receiving 86 per cent of the vote on the first ballot.
Nenshi received 62, 746 votes to beat out three sitting NDP MLAs -- Kathleen Ganley, Sarah Hoffman and Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse -- to replace outgoing leader Rachel Notley.
“I am truly humbled and honoured to have been selected to lead the Alberta NDP into its next era. The excitement and optimism I’ve felt throughout this leadership race proves that Albertans want a government they can trust and believe in," said Nenshi.
72, 930 members of the NDP voted in the leadership race, the results of which were announced to a crowd of supporters in downtown Calgary on Saturday afternoon.
"The Alberta NDP today is the largest provincial political party in Canada," Nenshi said to applause.
The race to replace Notley saw support for the Alberta New Democrats balloon, with numbers growing from just over 16,000 members in December to nearly 86,000 as of the end of April.
Notley, who congratulated Nenshi on stage on Saturday, announced she was stepping down as NDP leader in January, months after her party lost to Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party.