EDMONTON – Alberta’s New Democratic Party has voted overwhelmingly to cut traditional membership ties with its federal counterpart.
Delegates in Edmonton voted Saturday to allow provincial members to opt out of joining the federal NDP, a move Leader Naheed Nenshi campaigned on last year.
In adopting the measures, the party is shedding what many considered a political albatross.
Nenshi says the party’s long-time practice of automatically signing up members to the federal party scared some Albertans away, and the change will allow his NDP to build a bigger tent.
Nenshi says his NDP is financially independent and dictates its own policy, but candidates said they needed a better answer when people at the door tie them to the federal party’s positions.
The provincial practice has been a target for the governing United Conservatives, who say Nenshi’s party answers to political masters in Ottawa that don’t support Alberta’s oil and gas industry.
This story from The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2025.
