Naheed Nenshi owes it to the people of Alberta to submit to questions about his policy ideas. Ducking them is flat out cowardly
Unlike the other three candidates running to lead the Alberta NDP, Naheed Nenshi has declined an Energi Media interview request. He’s too busy, say staff. Since he can’t spare 30 minutes to explain his energy policies, I’ll review what he has posted to his website.
Since his announcement in March, the former Calgary mayor has preferred not to discuss policy in any depth. After reviewing his skimpy “platform,” I can see why.
These are not policy prescriptions so much as Facebook memes. To say they have the intellectual depth of a finger bowl would be to insult finger bowls. His competitors (Sarah Hoffman, Kathleen Ganley, Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse) have done a much better job of explaining where they stand on energy and climate issues.
Take this amusing little bromide: “Working with our energy sector, both oil & gas and renewables, to not just weather the transition, but to lead it.” Someone clearly doesn’t understand energy transitions.
Alberta will neither weather nor lead. The goal is not to batten down the hatches and survive the intense disruption of a transforming global energy transition, but to plan how to mitigate risks, of which there are many, and seize opportunities (like critical minerals) that are already passing the province by.
Rather than adapting to change, Premier Danielle Smith is trying (unsuccessfully) to shield energy incumbents, to protect the status quo at all costs. Instead, Alberta should be embracing change.
For example, American industrial policy is pumping trillions of dollars into new clean energy manufacturing like EV and battery plants. Alberta can provide much needed critical minerals and, perhaps most importantly, the processing and refining of those minerals into metals that will be required for US supply chains.
That’s just one opportunity. The disruption of the global energy system is providing many more, but the window won’t be open long. Other regions, like southeast Asia, are aggressively pursuing clean energy investments and jobs. Alberta has competition, plenty of it, and this is no time for prospective leaders to hide behind catchphrases.
NDP members would no doubt like to know what Nenshi thinks about these momentous shifts in modern energy and industrial systems that, in short order, will have serious consequences for the provincial economy.
Slogans are not policy, which is why I strongly dislike “Protecting and expanding Alberta’s position as an energy superpower (oil & gas and renewables) while reaching net-zero emissions no later than 2050.” This is UCP-lite nonsense that could have been lifted from Smith’s hapless “Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan” of last year. It is not worthy of an aspiring party leader, let alone a premier.
There are plenty of good ideas in Nenshi’s climate plank, but they are so generic they could have been copied from the other candidates’ websites. No Albertan (well, no thinking citizen) can argue against reducing emissions, fixing the power grid, grappling with the calamitous water shortage, or stopping coal mining on the Eastern slopes.
Nenshi’s competitors didn’t hesitate to expand upon their proposals.
They talked about their own experiences, both as politicians and outside elected office, with these issues. Each has unique perspectives based upon those experiences. As a Harvard-educated former McKinsey consultant and World Mayor in 2014, surely Nenshi has a similar trove of experience that qualifies him to address Alberta’s acute energy transition and climate problems.
What insights about the power sector did he glean from his time on City Council overseeing the ENMAX board of directors? He has said that he supports sustainable communities. What might that mean for Alberta under a Nenship premiership? What does he think about the future of the provincial oil patch? And so on.
NDP members deserve to know before they vote for a new leader. Witty barbs fired at the cartoonish Smith are not enough. Promises to return Alberta to values of yore are not enough. Celebrity is not enough.
Naheed Nenshi owes it to the people of Alberta to submit to questions about his policy ideas. Ducking them is flat out cowardly.
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