Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi, who hasn’t held a seat since winning his party’s nomination, will remain on the sidelines despite the chance to actually get to work for Albertans.

Nenshi won the NDP’s leadership race on June 22, but at the time he didn’t represent the NDP as an elected member of the Alberta legislature. Allegations of a wave of illegal membership sales plagued the campaign, but nevertheless, Nenshi was crowned leader of the party following the race.

Since then, none of his own party members seem to want to give up their seat for him, meaning he’s been unable to participate in the legislative process.

On Wednesday, Premier Danielle Smith requested that the Lieutenant Governor drop the writ for the Lethbridge-West byelection, now slated for December 18, 2024.

The NDP had been pressuring Smith to do so for the last few weeks, but Smith said she was waiting for another seat to open up so that they could have two by-elections at once, since she knew Nenshi had no intention of running in Lethbridge-West.

“We had been waiting to call this by-election with the expectation that the NDP leader would also be seeking a seat in the legislature this fall,” a statement reads from Smith.

Smith added, “Unfortunately, he has still not made any indication that he plans to seek a seat and given it has been 151 days, apparently has no desire to sit in the legislature.”

The NDP’s candidate for the riding is Rob Miyashiro, former Lethbridge City Council member, and current executive director of the Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization.

In a promotional video with Nenshi, Miyashiro accused Smith of waiting to call the byelection until now so that left-wing university students would be unable to vote due to having gone home for the holidays. 

The NDP previously won the Lethbridge-West riding by about 2,500 votes.

The UCP candidate is John Middleton-Hope, a former chief of police and current city councillor.