Alberta Liberal Party David Khan at a campaign stop in Calgary on Thursday, April 11, 2019.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
The Alberta Liberal Party says its leader, David Khan, is stepping down.
A news release from the party on Sunday evening says Mr. Khan is accepting a new job in law.
It says the party’s board of directors will meet shortly to decide on its next steps.
Mr. Khan failed to win a seat in Calgary Mountain-View in the April, 2019, vote, an election in which the Liberals failed to win any seats.
A lawyer specializing in Indigenous rights and land-claims litigation, Mr. Khan won the party’s leadership in 2017.
The Liberals were once the province’s Official Opposition, but after a high of 32 seats in 1993, the party suffered from ups and downs until it fell to third-party status in the legislature in 2012 and elected only one member in 2015.
“During my time as Alberta Liberal Leader, we were powerful advocates on significant issues including regulating Political Action Committees, remediating orphan wells, eliminating school segregation rooms, and addressing the ‘red alerts’ crisis with EMS,” Mr. Khan said in the news release.
“We pushed the provincial government to take action on these matters of concern to Albertans. We also raised awareness and grew support for Universal Basic Income, and the necessity of a sales tax. I was proud to advance these forward-thinking ideas to improve the lives of Albertans.”
The party thanked Mr. Khan, noting in the news release he “developed bold new policies, modernized party operations and recruited a new generation of young Albertans to the Alberta Liberal Party.”
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