Nenshi will end his leadership campaign outside of Calgary

Nahid Nenshi has until June 22 to convince Alberta NDP voters to elect him as their party's leader. Then comes the hard part.

Nenshi is vying for the party's top post, which he was not a member of until this year. Last May's provincial election marked the first time the former three-term mayor of Calgary publicly endorsed the party, and it's the first time Nenshi has sought votes outside Calgary.

For Nenshi, a big part of his leadership campaign has been trying to reach voters outside the traditionally classified “urban centers.” He has campaigned in Okotoks, Red Deer, Claresholm and now Airdrie.

At Atlas Brewing in Airdrie on Tuesday night, Nenshi spoke to about 50 people, some of whom were teachers, health workers and parents of vulnerable children. The big question facing any future NDP leaders is how the party can overcome the urban-rural divide that has prevented it from forming government in the last two elections.

“We have to think about places where people live on farms and on farms differently from a place like Airdrie,” Nenshi said. “(Airdrie's) not all rural Alberta. I think that's a mistake the NDP has made in the past, lumping everyone together outside of Calgary and Edmonton.”

Although Nenshi has never campaigned in the province before, he believes his past successful mayoral campaigns have prepared him to navigate the political divide.

“If you took a map of where I won three times in Calgary and superimposed it over a place where the NDP didn't win, you'd have an NDP majority government,” he said. “But it's not easy. Number one, you have to win that vote back, and number two, the party has to be legitimate by having the two main centrist seats.”

Of the leadership candidates currently running, Nenshi is the only one with a pre-established political brand completely separate from the NDP. His decade as mayor put him under the microscope. Plainly stated: Nenshi has baggage and he knows it.

“I think I've been ranked higher than Daniel Smith in 11 years,” Nenshi said. “But, at the same time… I'll put my (small) roll bag in the trunk of his giant steamer any day because people know who I am and what I stand for. Ultimately, I think it's a good thing.”

Ultimately, Nenshi believes that the profile that has benefited his membership sales will benefit the party as a whole.

“It makes people look again, but I want to be clear, the N in the NDP doesn't mean Naheed, it means New,” he said. “The party does not need a savior, it won three quarters of a million votes in the last election. You need to invite more people into the conversation, so you'll take the good and the bad with me.''