(Edmonton, AB) April 2, 2026: Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi has conveniently forgotten about the time he was bought and paid for by the Chinese communist dictatorship while mayor of Calgary.
In 2013, Nenshi travelled to China to speak at a sustainability conference just outside of Shanghai – a trip that he said was bankrolled for by the World Economic Forum and the China Center for Urban Development. The center is a government-run urban planning and research institute under China’s central economic planning agency – basically the Chinese Communist Party’s official think‑tank for city development.
This comes after weeks of Naheed Nenshi and the Alberta NDP criticizing Premier Danielle Smith for doing government business with two of our province’s key international trading partners: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
“You can’t take a trip paid for by the Chinese communist dictatorship only to turn around years later and pretend you’re the arbiter of ethics,” said Chief Government Whip Justin Wright. “This is blatant hypocrisy, and Albertans won’t stand for it.”
In 2013, Nenshi also billed Calgary taxpayers thousands of dollars to pay for his first trip to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This trip caused its own expense controversy because it took nearly a year for his office to disclose the true cost of the trip.
But Nenshi yearned so badly for the flattery afforded to him by the Davos crowd that he just had to go again – the very next year. In 2014, he had to defend his second trip to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland – which he once again billed to Calgarians.
And if two trips weren’t enough to satisfy Nenshi’s ego of grandeur, in 2016, he yet again billed Calgarians for a third trip to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
And it doesn’t stop there. In 2018, Nenshi accepted a full expenses trip paid for by the Rockefeller Foundation to attend their Urban Resilience Summit at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, situated on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy.
“Only a few days ago, Nenshi called the Premier’s trip ‘so far out of the norm,’” said Wright. “But it seems the only thing out of the norm is his selective memory.”
“Nenshi’s obsession with the world elite was bankrolled by Calgary taxpayers and even paid for in full by the elites themselves,” added Wright.
“Frankly, this hypocrisy is alarming. It’s time for Nenshi to give up the act.
