Lethbridge MLA resigns, opening potential seat for leadership hopeful Naheed Nenshi

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One of Alberta’s most prominent New Democratic Party MLAs is set to resign, opening a potential seat for perceived leadership front-runner Naheed Nenshi and setting the stage for a feisty by-election in the southern part of the province.

Shannon Phillips, who was first elected in Lethbridge-West in 2015, told The Globe and Mail she will step down on July 1. Ms. Phillips served as the Minister of Environment and Parks when the NDP ruled the province between 2015 and 2019, during which time she accelerated Alberta’s phase-out of coal-fired power plants. She defended her seat in the 2019 and 2023 spring elections, landing in opposition benches.

Ms. Phillips said she is leaving office because she was worn out by the polarization and disinformation infecting today’s politics. This shift in norms is especially acute for Ms. Phillips: As a cabinet minister, two members of the Lethbridge Police Service who opposed her politics inappropriately surveilled her. While the officers were convicted of violating the Police Act, Ms. Phillips was informed in May that the provincial prosecution service declined to pursue criminal charges.

Alberta’s NDP are in the midst of a major overhaul, and party members have until June 22 to vote in its leadership contest. Mr. Nenshi, Calgary’s former mayor, is considered the likeliest candidate to replace Rachel Notley, who ended 43 years of conservative rule when she became premier in 2015.

Mr. Nenshi is the only leadership contestant without a seat in the legislature, and political observers credit him with attracting thousands of new NDP members. But Ms. Phillips, who is supporting fellow former cabinet minister Kathleen Ganley in the leadership contest, said Mr. Nenshi’s potential victory is not why she is leaving her post.

“Jesus Christ himself couldn’t have kept me,” she said in an interview. Instead, Ms. Phillips said her political foes, who failed to beat her at the ballot box, ground her down.

“I’m the next in a line of woman politicians who are taking a pass,” she said.

She added: “These conditions are not improving. The right is only getting more crazy and more bonkers, and disinformation is just getting worse. And that is going to have an affect on people’s desire to do this work.”

She conceded that she would not be quitting had the NDP formed government last year, but noted she faced “extraordinary circumstances” as a politician targeted by police: “I don’t know if anyone in the country has gone through what I have.”

Lisa Young, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, said Ms. Phillips’s resignation is a “huge loss” for the NDP because she is the party’s most senior MLA outside of Calgary and Edmonton. It also puts the Lethbridge-West seat in play, she said.

“This is significant for Alberta politics,” Prof. Young said. “This is a plot twist.”

Should Mr. Nenshi win the NDP leadership race, Prof. Young thinks he will face pressure to run in a by-election there rather than have a sitting MLA step aside so he can challenge for a seat. Lethbridge-West encompasses a university, and the NDP have won it in the last three elections, making it potentially friendly territory for Mr. Nenshi.

But he and the NDP are generally not welcome in southern Alberta: “It would be high risk,” she said.

Prof. Young said Mr. Nenshi would be wise to resist the temptation to run in Lethbridge-West, should he assume the leadership. On the one hand, the seat could help connect him with people and issues beyond Calgary and Edmonton, she said. But on the other, it would deprive the city of a local voice, she added.

Further, Prof. Young expects the governing United Conservative Party to fight hard in a by-election. If the UCP won the riding, it would demonstrate the party has a path to retaking some of the seats it lost in Calgary and suggest it is not in trouble in smaller urban centres such as Red Deer and Medicine Hat.

Chima Nkemdirim, a campaign director for Mr. Nenshi, said that, should the former mayor win the leadership race, his team will examine various avenues for him to obtain a seat in the legislature.

Ms. Phillips said she has already informed Ms. Notley, most of the NDP caucus, and the leadership candidates of her decision. Ms. Notley said Ms. Phillips was unwavering in her convictions.

“Shannon was an important leader in the Alberta NDP government and played a pivotal role in making sure country-leading environmental progress happened right here in Alberta,” the departing NDP leader said in a statement.