Heather McPherson

Heather McPherson represents Edmonton Strathcona as a New Democratic Party Member of Parliament — one of the most extraordinary electoral achievements in Canadian federal politics, holding an NDP seat in a province that otherwise returned Conservative members in every single riding in the 2025 election. Her margin in Edmonton Strathcona reflects an extraordinary personal vote built on community engagement, constituency service, and a political relationship with Old Strathcona's progressive, educated, urban community that transcends party performance elsewhere. Before Parliament she worked in the international development and non-governmental sector — the same substantive background in global governance and human rights that informs her parliamentary work on foreign affairs, international development, and Canada's international human rights obligations. She has been one of the more engaged MPs on the Gaza file, Ukraine, and the specific human rights situations in countries that attract less parliamentary attention. Her position as one of seven NDP survivors makes her parliamentary position simultaneously more visible and more resource-constrained — she carries more responsibility for the party's national profile while having fewer staff, committee seats, and institutional resources than her substantive contributions warrant. In a Parliament of 338 MPs, her solo presence in Alberta makes her genuinely irreplaceable for the Albertans who don't share the province's dominant political culture.