Alberta NDP leadership candidates torn about automatic ties to federal party

What began as a race to pick a new leader for Alberta's Opposition NDP has triggered a broader existential debate over why being provincially orange must automatically tie you to the federal brand.

According to party constitutions, members of a provincial NDP are automatically members of the federal party.

It's a linkage that caused headaches for Alberta's NDP when it was in government from 2015 to 2019 and continues to prove politically problematic as it seeks to wrest power from Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservatives in 2027.

The NDP got a big boost in profile — and a reported spike in memberships — earlier this month when former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi joined the race.

Rakhi Pancholi, a two-term Edmonton legislature and one of the leadership candidates, immediately quit the race to back him.

Nenshi says it's time for the Alberta NDP to cut the apron strings.

«I think the membership has to have a very serious conversation about its links with the federal NDP,» Nenshi said in an interview.

«I believe that our ties to the federal NDP are remnants of a party that wasn't confident, a party that wasn't grown up yet, that relied on big brother to look after us.»

«Now this party is confident and a modern force and I don't think we need that anymore,» he said.

«The costs of allying with people who we don't control, whose values and ethics may not line up with us, greatly outweigh the benefits.»

Nenshi isn't alone in his views. Pancholi began her now-abandoned campaign by questioning the link.

«Membership in one political party should not require membership in another,» she said.

«Albertans who want to join the Alberta NDP should get to decide if they also want to become a member of the federal NDP.»

Candidate Kathleen Ganley, a