SUNDRE - Harbouring the sentiment that change might well be in the air, the Yellowhead riding’s NDP candidate is optimistic about the possibility of making history.
“I feel like there’s a good chance to make history by being the first rural federal riding in Alberta to go orange,” said Avni Soma.
“I’m a big believer that things have to change. It’s the only constant,” Soma told the 51黑料 during a recent interview in Sundre.
In a reconfigured riding for the 2025 federal election, Yellowhead now also includes Sundre, Cremona, Carstairs, Crossfield and part of Mountain View County as well as part of Rocky View County.
A resident of Canmore for approximately the past 15 years, Soma was raised in Alberta after her family moved to Calgary from England in 1975 when she was barely a few years old. Her father worked for the late Alberta Government Telephones.
After earning two masters’ degrees in sciences through the University of Calgary in the 1990s, following graduation she spent a couple of years working in Toronto as an independent contractor who conducted research and clinical studies for mid- to large-sized pharmaceutical companies and found herself travelling throughout North America.
But before very long, Soma found herself yearning for the province she had come to consider home.
“I wanted to be back in Alberta,” said Soma, adding she had decided in her 20s that she would never leave the province.
“I feel like this is where the biggest change needs to happen,” she said. “I didn’t know how or what – politics was definitely not on the radar then.”
Long before she decided to throw her name in the running for the new Yellowhead riding under the banner of the federal NDP, her passion for a sporty lifestyle – including cycling, running, skiing and hunting – led her to relocate to Canmore.
Further cementing her decision was a desire to get involved in organizations that have the potential to steer policy.
After going through a divorce in the late 2000s, Soma would regularly cycle along Highway 8 to Bragg Creek from her Calgary residence. The only other people she would see doing the same thing in the middle of a weekday were older men.
“I got to thinking, they’ve made enough money, they’re sitting on all these non-profit boards or for-profits board … and their decisions and how they see the world is affecting how each of us – I call us peasants – lives on a daily basis,” she said.
Motivated to get more involved, she moved to Canmore.
The power of food
“As soon as I landed, I got involved in the local food system,” she said.
During her time in Calgary, she had previously started a small chai company on the side.
“I already had an idea of the power of food and how food affects our governance,” she said. “Food was very political for me.”
The first endeavour she embraced after arriving in Canmore was to start up the town’s first community garden, which initially was in her own backyard.
“And then we got a space by the hospital. So we built an eighth of an acre; we had to fence it for wildlife,” she said, adding the effort extended to introducing gardens at schools.
“Education is a big component,” she said, emphasizing the importance of knowing where food comes from.
Alongside a business partner, Soma also started up an enterprise that grew from zero to $1.2 million in sales in the span of six years.
“It was all organic produce. We created an alternate food system for the Bow Valley where we had built relationships with organic farmers in Alberta and B.C.” and even Carstairs, she said, adding she eventually pivoted away from her previous career path.
Over time, she also came to get involved with the National Food Policy Advisory Council as well as Alberta Food Matters.
Importance of open discussions
Offering some thoughts on the new Yellowhead riding, she said demographics have changed and that despite differences of opinions there are core, shared values.
“When you grow up here, when you have a connection to the land, there’s a commonality,” she said. “This is beautiful country; Alberta is stunning.”
Asked how familiar she is with the issues facing Mountain View County, Soma said she is endeavouring to meet with constituents to put out the feelers and get more familiarized with people’s priority concerns. But she mentioned the shortage of family physicians as a matter that seems to be front and centre in many people’s minds.
Taxation also tends to be a concern among Canadians generally speaking, and Soma seemed to favour revisiting tax policy as well.
“We need to reframe taxes. Private corporations wouldn’t exist without all the public infrastructure that has been paid by taxpayers,” she said. “You wouldn’t be able to have billionaires without all the taxes and public infrastructure that has been paid by our tax dollars. We need to reframe a lot of these discussions and that’s going to take a collective effort.”
Responding to a question about the provincial government’s plan to allow the expansion of coal mining, she said, “This is Alberta – this is all I’ve known to happen in my lifetime because rural Alberta has only ever been extractive in thinking.”
Resource extraction is ingrained in the province’s economy and society, she said.
“We all have family members who are in that role, or that’s how we’ve made our money. For me, even though my dad worked in telecommunications, all the investments were all in oil and gas,” she said. “So, I think we really need to have more open discussions.”
Government transparency lacking
“What we’re lacking particularly in the coal mine issue, is transparency. We’re lacking transparency with those in positions of power and in governance, and the people. That is a big, big concern,” she elaborated.
“There is a survey that’s done, a public consultation. But the questions are leaning, you’re not getting clear data out of it, which to me equates to a lack of transparency.”
Additionally, she said Indigenous communities need to be more involved in decisions pertaining to resource extraction.
“They’re the ones that see the effects right away.”
Although largely a provincial jurisdiction, coal mining and other resource extraction projects have a precedent of federal government intervention when the risks to the environment and by extension public interest are deemed too high.
So “it’s very important that all levels of government are able to work together,” she said, going onto add that also applies to confronting the new U.S. administration’s threatened tariffs.
“Alberta’s still at this point, an oil and gas economy. So I think it could have detrimental effects,” she said about the impact should the tariffs be imposed.
Unified front in face of tariffs
While Soma on one hand understands why Alberta Premier Danielle Smith went to the U.S. to meet with President Donald Trump to defend Alberta jobs, she isn’t convinced a solo approach is the way to go.
Soma is more of the opinion that a unified front is required in the face of tariffs threatened by Canada’s largest trading partner.
“Having the premiers at the table was very important,” she said.
“I do feel like this Team Canada approach that happened that brought everyone together, was so needed,” she said. “We need to be able to sit around a table and talk to each other.”
Opening metaphorical doors of discussion also involves knocking on literal doors to meet with people and hear their concerns, she added.
“Discussion is where it all starts.”
Throughout the course of some of the many conversations she’s had on people’s doorsteps, Soma said she’s been surprised to find so many instances “where one person is very right-leaning and one person is very left-leaning and they live together – they’ve raised kids together, they eat together, they do life together and they’re still doing it.
“This is what I would ask of political leaders. Whatever side you’re on, we need to be able to have a discussion. I feel like we have lost that ability.”
The polarization of politics has fuelled a lot of negative sentiments that all-too-often make it challenging to have difficult discussions.
“But I feel like we almost need to go through it as humanity to get through the other side, and part of it is continuously having these discussions,” she said.
“That’s why I’m throwing my name in the hat, to start the discussion. We need to find people to have nuanced discussions.”
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