Bell: Nenshi vs. Danielle Smith, this is not going to be pretty

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The NDP members didn’t care about whether Naheed Nenshi was a tried-and-true NDPer.

Or if they did care, they parked that feeling to the side.

They didn’t care if you could get a laugh calling the NDP the Nenshi Democratic Party because Nenshi was no NDP soul.

Or if they did care, it didn’t affect their vote.

No, they want to win. They want to win real bad. They believe Nenshi is the ticket.

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They believe Nenshi can sell the NDP to more Albertans.

They are mad as hell they didn’t kick Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP to the curb in the last ballot battle.

They came close and they thought they had Smith on the ropes and she prevailed and it hurts.

So they handed Nenshi the keys and told him to get them to the political Promised Land.

Boy, did they tell him. The result wasn’t a landslide. It was a pulverizing.

Bulldozers don’t do the kind of job Nenshi did this day. He got well over four out of five NDP votes.

When the numbers were read out it took a few seconds to digest the awesome arithmetic.

It’s like going to the fights and thinking it will last at least a few rounds and just when you sit down with your drink the bout is over.

What just happened?

The drum beat was clear when Nenshi debated other leadership candidates in Calgary.

Beat Smith. Beat Smith. Beat Smith.

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Now it’s on to Smith.

Nenshi does not hesitate to rake Smith over the coals.

He tells the party faithful he doesn’t recognize Smith’s version of Alberta.

He says Smith’s Alberta is so very, very small, a fortress to be defended where everyone is against us and we need to fight outsiders all the time.

Nenshi uncorks the line about how it’s impossible to be small when the sky is big and the people don’t see it as something corny, they see it as somehow inspirational.

Nenshi quotes this scribbler when Smith said she was the most freedom-loving premier in Canada.

The former long-time Calgary mayor says Smith is, in fact, systematically taking freedoms away.

He accuses Smith of being the most power-loving politician In Canada.

He says Albertans are better than the first. He adds Smith’s UCP machine is not based on values ​​and ethics and morals, it is all power for power’s sake.

Talk about throwing down the gauntlet.

Afterwards, down the hall at the Hyatt in Calgary, Nenshi is obviously over the moon with his giant victory.

“I am, of course, blown away by this level of support.”

But I remind him people within the Smith government are said to be salivating over the chance to tangle with Nenshi.

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“If they’re salivating they might want to drink some water,” says Nenshi.

Slap!

The new NDP leader says the party he now leads has “massively out-organized” the UCP and he claims the governing party “is not in any way united.”

“You can’t build a movement as the UCP has done that is only focused on power.”

He says people “want a better and more welcoming Alberta, an Alberta with pragmatic and smart and thoughtful government.”

How does he see the next three years in the political trenches?

“I haven’t been on social media yet. I wonder what they’ve said already.”

He continues.

“Only for you, Rick. Only for you. We can talk a little bit politically.

“Of course, they’re going to come out and try and define me in their terms. Let them try. I have a record of 11 years that defines me very, very well.”

That’s 11 years as mayor of Calgary.

Another newshound asks if people will tire of Nenshi going back and forth with Smith since the election isn’t until the fall of 2027.

“Look, no one can ever get tired of me. I am endlessly fascinating to myself and Rick Bell.”

Nenshi figures he is living rent-free in my head. He should be so lucky.

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He says the government will be called out when they are “unethical, immoral and incompetent.”

Nenshi commits himself to driving home the message the province “is not really represented by this version of the conservative movement.”

He mentions two conservative firsts.

“This is not Peter Lougheed’s conservatives. This is not even Ralph Klein’s conservatives.”

Nenshi believes he is at the beginning of a movement. He says it feels a little bit like the late stages of his 2010 campaign to be Calgary mayor where he was the underdog and moved up the polls and won.

So here we are.

Love him or loathe him, Nenshi is back and the NDP have put their faith in him to win.

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