Now would be a great time for Naheed Nenshi, the Leader of Alberta's NDP, to come clean on choice in education.
Thanks to everyone who signed our petition calling on NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi to come clean on school choice.
We launched it after he headlined a conference hosted by Public Interest Alberta at the Alberta Teachers’ Association - two groups that want charter schools abolished and independent schools defunded.
But, now that he has won a by-election and is a sitting MLA, it is the perfect time to step up the pressure on Naheed Nenshi to come clean.
We certainly didn’t see him address his views on school choice when facing voters in his by-election in Edmonton-Strathcona, nor did we see anyone in media ask him about it!
Nor was any light shed on the question when the aspiring premier's former campaign manager - Stephen Carter (a vicious opponent of school choice in his own right) - compared him admiringly to Zohran Mamdani - an avowed socialist mayoral candidate in New York City.
We thought it might have come up, as Mamdani has promised to use his powers as mayor to end the tiny amount of school choice offered in America's largest city, while Nenshi has not been clear either way.
Both Carter and Nenshi's ex-chief-of-staff said Nenshi's politics were different, but didn't elaborate on whether that extended to choice in education.
As party leader, he is also responsible for his party's fortunes more generally.
The NDP has a spotty record on education freedom.
They know it's popular, and they want to win elections, so they have been careful not to be too strongly opposed.
But they have shut down a home schooling society (reversed in court), threatened certain independent schools with defunding, and have denied new charter school applications.
And recent polling shows the NDP at risk of losing many seats they currently hold, already a minority.
Clarifying his party's full-throated support for a popular policy, like school choice, might be attractive to Nenshi just about now.
And showing that his New Democrats are more sensitive to actual democracy than labour-union-led special interest campaigns might be a good move with a teacher strike looming.
If Nenshi still refuses to come clean, the government or a back-bench MLA could always force him to take a position by tabling a bill advancing more choice in education.
That's an opportunity any MLA who is a true supporter of school choice will have - now that Nenshi actually has a seat in the Alberta Legislature - an opportunity no one had before to get him on the record.
But we're not here to offer any politician or political party our political advice.
We're here to advocate for families to get more of what they want and less of what they don't want from Alberta's education system.
That's the real reason why a bill advancing more educational freedom would be valuable!
If both parties who currently hold seats could credibly commit not to roll back choice in education, we could focus our efforts on convincing them to expand it!
And if Nenshi won't come clean and tell us where he stands on school choice, that tells us quite a lot too.
If you agree, sign our petition.
After you've signed our petition, please share it.
Let's make the most of this opportunity to say Nenshi must come clean.
The more awareness we raise by each of you signing this petition, calling on your friends to do the same, sharing the petition on social media, and so on, the more likely it is that more Albertans will ask him the question directly.