Nenshi’s 2019 letter suspending the contractual rights of unionized Calgary employees is once again bothering him

Did Naheed Nenshi just have his reverse chicken salad moment?

It was the future US President Lyndon B. Johnson, then majority leader in the Senate, who astutely remarked about Richard Nixon in 1958: “In politics you have to learn that chicken shit can turn into chicken salad overnight!”

Of course, the transformation can also happen the other way around, as Nenshi, who at least until earlier this week was the clear front-runner in the race to succeed Rachel Notley as leader of the Alberta NDP, has just discovered.

Or maybe not. But whatever the answer, it will say a lot about the kind of party the NDP has become during Notley’s decade at the party’s helm.

Nenshi had to contend with the leak The Canadian Press of a letter he wrote as mayor of Calgary in 2019, calling on then-Premier Jason Kenney’s newly elected United Conservative Party (UCP) government to support a city program to privatize public services by allowing the new owners to do so Ignoring the succession rights of employees in their collective agreements.

The revelation of the letter signed by Nenshi to Labor Minister Jason Copping immediately triggered a barrage of sharp attacks from the other candidates for the leadership of the opposition party.

Alberta Federation of Labor President Gil McGowan, who has run an aggressive campaign but is not viewed by most pundits as a likely winner, was particularly combative.

“No new Democrat I know would have ever signed a letter like that.” McGowan tweeted. “That is serious.”

“I was hoping Naheed would apologize and say it was a mistake,” he continued in another tweet. “But he didn’t do that. As the elected leader of Alberta’s largest workers’ organization, I am very disappointed. And very worried.”

Speak with Canadian Press Reporter Lisa Johnson, McGowan, called the revelation a “pretty serious concern about someone who is running to lead what is, or at least it wasthe Labor Party.” (emphasis added.)

Kathleen Ganley, the former NDP justice minister who was considered the front-runner until Nenshi entered the race on March 11, said on social media: “I am deeply disturbed by former mayor Nenshi’s letter attempting to extort himself a deal he made with the city.” Workers. There is also an effort to change the rules regarding when the city can privatize a service.”

“The next premier of this province will be responsible for negotiating with hundreds of thousands of workers, including nurses and teachers,” she continued. “These professionals deserve to feel like they are dealing with someone who respects their rights and keeps their word.”

Candidates Sarah Hoffman and Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse made similar arguments. “Signing your name on a letter saying you are asking the government to do something that goes against your values ​​is not leadership,” Hoffman said.

Instead of apologizing for what he might have dismissed as a mere mistake, Nenshi’s response seemed slippery. “I never believed in it and did it because the council asked me to,” he said Canadian Press. “I believe that collective agreements and collective bargaining rights are incredibly important.”

This would be easy to shake off if Nenshi were a candidate vying for the leadership of another progressive party, say, the Liberals. But for the NDP, which was founded as a labor party, perhaps not so much.

But many Albertans who may not be traditional New Democrats were drawn to the big tent erected by Notley and desperately hoped that Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP would disappear for good in 2027. They chose Nenshi as the candidate most likely to be able to win the next election.

For many of them, including Nenshi himself and his supporters, this may not be an electoral issue, if they care at all.

This will be a harder pill to swallow for traditional New Democrats, who are deeply rooted in the party’s blue-collar tradition. Privatization is also not considered a virtue in NDP circles.

Will that be enough to knock Nenshi out of the race? Probably not. Candidates with momentum tend to survive such flaps.

But it means he will have to mend some kinks with the party’s labor traditionalists, and if the result turns out not to be the crowning glory most observers expected, it could limit his room for maneuver as NDP leader. Given the trends suggested in his 2019 letter, perhaps that’s not a bad thing.

He also needs to come up with a better explanation than the city council gave me!

Look for Nenshi to remind voters of the 12.5 per cent increase over four years that Calgary residents negotiated during his term as mayor in 2014, compared to what public sector workers received like teachers and nurses received when Notley was prime minister in 2017 and 2018.

An interesting question remains: who leaked the letter?

As McGowan noted when someone accused him of committing the crime, Smith’s UCP is the most likely suspect. “Who else,” he asked“Would you have access to this private correspondence between a mayor and the UCP labor minister?”