Article content

Analysis

CALGARY — Days after the ballots were counted, Shaye Anderson realized his beard might become a problem.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Rachel Notley's approach to NDP caucus: Keep the beard, but use common sense Back to video

Thick, bushy, brown and stretching into his lapels, the union-shop vice-president and Telus worker form Leduc had never faced complaints about his ample muttonchops before. But since the NDP government swept to power in Alberta this month, Anderson found himself with the most conspicuous and healthy beard seen in Canadian politics this side of the 19th century.

“I had a couple of people email me, constituents, asking ‘Are you thinking of trimming it? Or shaving it?’ Questions like that,” he said.

The newly elected NDP caucus has been beset by accusations of inexperience and inappropriate conduct. So Anderson offered to take it off in the name of professionalism.

His colleagues were horrified at the notion: “Everybody has come up to me in the last couple of weeks afterward and said ‘no, no, no. That’s who you are. You have that and you’re not going to shave that off.'”

The country’s newest NDP caucus, rife with rookies, is deeply aware that it bears the weight of history and — possibly — the ambitions of its federal counterpart.

Anne McGrath, the national director of the federal NDP, and Brad Lavigne, a prominent NDP strategist, acknowledged that the federal party is fielding a bump in the polls due, at least in part, to the success in Alberta. The latest numbers put the NDP ahead of the Liberals and, in some cases, leading the Conservatives themselves.