As Elections Alberta defines it, “Scrutineers represent candidates at voting locations to ensure fairness and transparency and to observe the election procedures and the counting of ballots.” I’ve been a scrutineer several times. While scrutineers have a right to be in a voting place, I also consider it a privilege to participate in the process. The ability of any individual to take part in the process of selecting our political leaders is the foundation of our democratic society.

Scrutineers represent a specific party and candidate, but they wear a badge that identifies them only by their role. They swear an oath of secrecy and good conduct. They agree that they won’t campaign or otherwise try to influence voters; they’re not even permitted to wear buttons or carry signs aligning themself to a candidate or party. By law, polling stations must be neutral environments. But not only are scrutineers expected to observe neutrality, they help uphold it by paying attention to how carefully other parties’ scrutineers follow the rules.

Ideally each candidate will have a scrutineer at each polling station all day, but that’s not always the case, depending on the candidate or their party’s ability to attract volunteers. I recall one election when a scrutineer only showed up for the count at the very end of election day—and quickly left after deciding their candidate had lost in that polling station!

Votes must be counted fairly and accurately. Scrutineering helps to ensure both.

Scrutineers have several important duties. They’re allowed to arrive up to 30 minutes before a voting place opens, before any votes have been cast, to verify that the ballot boxes are indeed empty. They can then observe the election process. They can view the record of electors who have voted (ideally when election officers aren’t processing a long lineup of voters!). They can challenge an elector they believe isn’t eligible to vote.

Scrutineers tend to work shifts, and some of them get to witness democracy at its most fundamental level—the hand-counting of ballots. When the polling station closes at the end of the day and has been secured for the count, election officers can provide scrutineers with a tally sheet to create an unofficial count. The officers then open the boxes and record how the ballots were cast. Scrutineers can view—but can’t touch—any ballot. They can object to an officer’s decision about how a ballot was cast, with each objection noted, but voting officers get the final say on how a ballot was cast.

As Canadian citizens we have a right to vote, but our vote must also be counted fairly and accurately. Scrutineering helps to ensure both.

If you’re interested in politics you’ll likely enjoy the opportunity to be a scrutineer. Election day is already exciting and full of anticipation, all of which is amplified when you’re actually in a polling station. Knowing that you played a critical role in the fairness and transparency of the vote and the count is very rewarding. An added benefit is that you develop a deeper understanding of your community. I’ve always thought I “knew” my neighbours until I began scrutineering. I was sometimes surprised to see who showed up at my poll!

To be a scrutineer, you don’t need to be an expert in the electoral process. Parties and candidates often provide training, and Elections Alberta staff are extremely knowledgeable and have always answered my questions. To scrutineer for the current election, contact your preferred candidate or party—they’ll be glad to hear from you. See you on election day!

Sara-Jane Greutzner lives in Calgary.
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Central Alberta, the region between Edmonton and Calgary around Red Deer, includes the mountain parks of Banff and Jasper. Constituencies here include Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin, Camrose, Drumheller, Olds, Rimbey, Innisfail-Sylvan Lake and Lacombe-Ponoka. This is traditionally a deeply conservative area, but the NDP took some seats here provincially in 2015, and could do so again.

Banff-Kananaskis: Environmental issues boost the NDP in a rural riding

Main candidates in 2023:

– UCP: Miranda Rosin lives in Canmore and worked for Coca-Cola before entering politics in 2019.

– NDP: Sarah Elmeligi is a wildlife biologist who studies how humans and wildlife can better coexist.

– Green: Regan Boychuk founded Reclaim Alberta and is a researcher with the Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project.

The UCP government decided to charge Kananaskis hikers and campers $90 annually, but not to do the same for ATVers and “mudboggers” in McLean Creek.

In 2015, when this riding included Cochrane, the PC’s and Wildrose split the vote almost exactly (28.2 and 28.9 per cent). This allowed operating-room nurse and NDP candidate Cam Westhead to run up the middle, taking the seat with 42.8 per cent of the vote. In 2019 Westhead’s voters stuck by him (42 per cent), but the by-then-reunited conservatives—represented by neophyte Miranda Rosin—wrested the riding back.

The citizens of Banff voted heavily for the NDP in both recent elections, as did members of the Stoney Nation and many residents of Canmore. But people in Bragg Creek and Cochrane were more drawn to the UCP. The riding is drifting leftwards, however, thanks to new boundaries and unpopular UCP policy. Even as Alberta’s 2017 boundaries redistribution gave the riding the Springbank area—the fifth-richest postal code in Canada—it lopped off Cochrane, which now gets its own riding.

Kenney-era policy also angered many people here. The UCP proposed to shut down 175 provincial parks and recreation areas, only reversing course after huge protests. It brought in a

$90 Kananaskis Park user fee, then backtracked on a promise to similarly charge a fee to destructive ATVers and “mudboggers” in McLean Creek. And it pushed ahead with the Springbank Dry Dam, a project designed to protect Calgary from floods, even over ranchers’,  acreage owners’ and incumbent MLA Rosin’s objections. Rosin herself has been largely invisible other than to make a social media comment on supposed federal “COVID concentration camps” and to express her preference for two-tier healthcare. Now poll aggregator 338 is calling this riding an NDP pickup.

The 2023 contest will principally be between Rosin and Sarah Elmeligi, who won the NDP nomination over three other candidates. The leader of Alberta’s Greens, Jordan Wilkie, was slated to run in this riding but switched to Edmonton-Rutherford. Regan Boychuk will now represent that party here.

Red Deer South: City solicitor challenges libertarian

Main candidates in 2023:

– NDP: Michelle Baer is the City Solicitor of Red Deer. She also sponsors refugees and supports newcomers to Canada as they integrate into Red Deer.

– UCP: Jason Stephan is a tax lawyer, chartered accountant and founder of the Red Deer Taxpayers Association.

Michelle Baer (right), City of Red Deer solicitor, is the local NDP candidate.

Red Deer is the third-biggest city in the province – population 107,073. Last year it had its largest growth of international migration in 20 years. Red Deer-South went NDP in 2015, electing Barb Miller. In 2019 the UCP’s Jason Stephan soundly defeated Miller (16,159 votes to her 6,844). The NDP were leading in the polls in 2021 and tied with the UCP in late 2022. But now poll aggregator 338 predicts the UCP will get 48 per cent of the popular vote in this constituency compared to the NDP’s 41 per cent.

The Red Deer Regional Hospital is the number-one issue in the constituency and a lightning rod for political controversy. It serves an area of a half-million people and has been over capacity and understaffed for years. In 2022 Jason Kenney’s government committed $1.8-billion for expansion and renovation, which included $100-million previously promised in early 2020. At that time construction was supposed to begin in 2021, but nothing happened. Still nothing has happened. When deputy premier Nathan Neudorf said in early 2023 that construction of a healthcare facility “has complexities that most of the general public doesn’t understand,” local NDP candidate Michelle Baer responded, “For the minister to imply that residents wouldn’t understand the complexities of its construction and the delay is a slap in the face.”

Hospital construction was to begin in 2021; nothing happened.

The irony is that back in 2019 incumbent Jason Stephan blamed the NDP for not taking enough action to protect citizens. “Red Deer hospital must provide necessary life-saving services for residents,” he said. “The provincial government under Rachel Notley has failed to do that.” During the pandemic he vacationed in Phoenix and as a result lost his position on the Treasury Board. Later Stephan called on Kenney to resign, and said about the UCP government’s mask mandates that “the cure was worse than the disease.”

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By most accounts the 2023 election will be determined by who can win the most seats in Calgary. In 2019 the UCP won 23 of the city’s 26 seats. The NDP got three, down from the 15 they won in 2015. Regaining those seats won’t be easy. In nine of the last 10 provincial elections, Calgary gave conservative parties a majority of the city’s seats. Now, however, in key suburban battleground ridings, polls have the NDP and the UCP virtually tied.

Calgary-Varsity: The future of healthcare is on the ballot

Main candidates in 2023:

– UCP: Jason Copping is Alberta’s Minister of Health and formerly the minister of labour and immigration.

– Alberta Party: Angela Grace is a psychologist and an advocate against the UCP changes to the K-6 curriculum.

– NDP: Dr. Luanne Metz is a professor and the former head of neurology at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary.

The Calgary Cancer Centre—approved in 2017—will finally open in 2024.

Calgary-Varsity is a healthcare hub, containing the Alberta Children’s Hospital, the Foothills Hospital and the new Calgary Cancer Centre. Since it was first contested in 1993, the riding has variously been won by the Progressive Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP and the UCP. In 2019 the race was tight, with the UCP’s Jason Copping edging out the NDP’s Anne McGrath by less than a 3 per cent margin (about 600 votes). Copping is now the Minister of Health. Compared to his combative predecessor, Tyler Shandro, Copping has projected an air of relative competence that has kept him in the role through the transition from premier Jason Kenney to premier Danielle Smith. Still, as health minister Copping has repeatedly undermined public healthcare, from expanding private lab services to contracting out thousands of orthopedic surgeries to a private for-profit company.

Dr. Luanne Metz—a professor of neurology at the U of C and a recipient of the Alberta Medal of Distinguished Service (which recognizes physicians who have made an outstanding personal contribution to the medical profession and to all Albertans)—is the NDP candidate in the riding.

She secured the nomination early, in summer of 2021. “As a physician and a researcher, I decided to enter politics because I knew that the increasing privatization of healthcare by the UCP would not improve outcomes for patients,” she announced. “Privatization will not lead to better results. Instead, it will draw resources away from the public system, eroding it further. This has been shown time and again in study after study. I’m here for public policy that is based on evidence, not ideology.”

Calgary-North: Suburban battleground

Main candidates in 2023:

– NDP: Rajesh Angral is the CEO, producer and host of Sabrang Radio and the president of the Punjabi Council of Commerce in Calgary.

– UCP: Muhammad Yaseen is the Parliamentary Secretary of Community Outreach, previously associate minister of immigration and multiculturalism.

With many new communities and lots of space for more development at the northern end of the city, Calgary-North has much in common with neighbouring suburban constituencies such as Calgary-Foothills, to the west, and Calgary-North East. As with those ridings, Calgary-North has a higher median household income than the provincial average ($116,612 vs. $93,931) and a higher percentage of people with post-secondary education (73.4 per cent vs. 63.9 per cent). Also similar to those constituencies, Calgary-North has a large visible minority population (62.3 per cent vs. 23.5 per cent for Alberta), and polls project both the UCP and the NDP could win here. The incumbent Muhammad Yaseen, an engineer before running for office in 2019, has had a relatively low profile in the UCP government, and was left out of both Jason Kenney’s and Danielle Smith’s cabinets. In contrast, at least locally, NDP candidate Rajesh Angral has a prominent voice in Calgary-North as a radio host and community organizer of multicultural and sport events such as Culturefest, Vaisakhi Mela and Calgary cricket tournaments. He won a contested NDP nomination race over two other candidates.

Calgary-Glenmore: A sunny new energy economy?

Main candidates in 2023:

– NDP: Nagwan Al-Guneid is director of Business Renewables Centre Canada.

– UCP: Whitney Issik is the incumbent MLA.

– Green: Steven Maffioli is a retail specialist with Freedom Mobile.

NDP candidates Druh Farrell and Nagwan Al-Guneid with Rachel Notley and current MLAs.

Calgary–Glenmore has been a litmus test for Alberta politics.

In 2009 the Wildrose won a by-election here, signalling the party’s rise. In 2015 the NDP won the riding by six votes, highlighting the narrow margin by which they won the provincial election. In 2019 conservative activist Whitney Issik won here for the UCP with 55.6 per cent of the vote, decrying “the decline of the oil and gas business” and the “out-of-work engineers who are in our constituency now.”

To run against Issik in 2023 the NDP recruited Nagwan Al-Guneid, the director of Business Renewables Centre Canada—a non-profit that supports the growth of industrial scale wind and solar energy development. “We’ve been door-knocking a lot, and every third door is either a geologist, a geophysicist or an oil and gas engineer,” says Al-Guneid. “I want to help them to find a home with Alberta’s NDP.”

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Edmonton has a history of being more progressive than anywhere else in Alberta. The city has a large public sector, large universities and many working people. Liberals took every seat here in 1993. Today Edmonton is an NDP stronghold: 19 of Edmonton’s 20 seats went to the NDP in 2019. But if Edmonton is awash in orange, many ridings in the “donut” immediately surrounding the city are solid blue. A few are considered to be “races to watch.”

Morinville-St. Albert: NDP cattlewoman could flip this “rurban” riding

Main candidates in 2023:

– UCP: Dale Nally, a former general manager of big-box retail stores and the associate minister of natural gas in Jason Kenney’s inaugural cabinet, became Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction in 2022.

– NDP: Karen Shaw is a cattle rancher and four-term (14 year) councillor for Sturgeon County.

“Karen Shaw has 150 cattle… she’s a true Albertan.” –Vlad Pasek.

This district is one-third urban and two-thirds rural. When the riding was created in 2017, the Alberta Boundaries Commission reasoned that St. Albert and Morinville’s shared francophone heritage made them naturally compatible. In 2019 Dale Nally won the riding with 50 per cent of the vote to the NDP candidate’s 33 per cent (13,435 votes to 8,908).

Vlad Pasek, VP of the local NDP constituency association, says Karen Shaw is rural and has experience in the county. “We need the rural vote. [Maybe rural constituents will] realize that we are for them—the NDP is for them. And his is a good case, because here’s a person that’s real, you know She has 150 cattle… she’s a true Albertan,” he says. Shaw raises Simmental X Angus cattle at Shaw Farms.

Of course, the district is also urban and industrial, including the NWR Sturgeon Refinery and the western zone of Alberta’s Industrial Heartland—a region that attracted over $40-billion in investments between 2017 and 2020, supporting over 31,000 jobs. Incumbent UCP MLA Dale Nally spearheaded his government’s development of the Natural Gas Vision and Strategy, which created an industry-supported plan to grow the hydrogen, petrochemical, liquefied natural gas and plastics recycling sectors, and he launched the Alberta Petrochemical Incentive Program. Poll aggregator 338 projects 49 per cent of the popular vote will go to the UCP in 2023 with the NDP winning 41 per cent.

“We are the largest hydrogen producer in Canada.” —Dale Nally.

 

Edmonton–South West: Edmonton’s only UCP seat

Main candidates in 2023:

– Green: Jeff Cullihall works in communications technology and is a climate systems student and educator.

– NDP: Nathan Ip is a three-term Edmonton Public School Board trustee particularly concerned about the UCP’s draft curriculum.

– UCP: Kaycee Madu is a deputy premier of Alberta (along with Nathan Neudorf) and the minister of skilled trades and professions

Kaycee Madu (UCP)

Nathan Ip (NDP)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaycee Madu was the only UCP MLA elected in Edmonton in 2019. In 2015 Thomas Dang, the youngest MLA ever to be elected in Alberta, had taken the riding for the NDP. He got almost twice as many votes as PC incumbent Matt Jeneroux—12,352 to 6,316. (Jeneroux went on to become the federal MP for Edmonton-Riverbend.) In 2019 Dang chose to run in the new district of Edmonton-South, and UCP candidate Madu defeated the NDP’s John Archer 10,254 votes to 9,539.

Madu has been embroiled in one controversy or another ever since. As municipalities minister he repealed Alberta’s big-city charters and cut funding to cities by $236-million. He reduced the assessment value of oil and gas infrastructure, lowering the tax revenue of rural municipalities by as much as $291-million. His amendments to the Local Authorities Election Act removed the requirement that municipal candidates disclose their donors prior to election day. When the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association said their relationship with Madu was “broken,” he was shuffled to Justice—the first Black Canadian to serve as a provincial minister of justice.

After receiving a ticket for using his cellphone while driving in a school zone, Madu phoned Edmonton’s chief of police to complain. An investigation found that Madu had tried to interfere in the administration of justice. His call to the chief created a “reasonable perception of interference.” Madu was demoted to minister of labour and immigration. Critics inside and outside government said it was wrong for him to remain in cabinet at all. In fall 2022 Madu again created controversy when he thanked the “freedom convoys” for fighting against “tyrannical” federal COVID restrictions.

The poll aggregator 338 predicts Madu has only a 21 per cent chance of retaining the seat.

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Southern Alberta has a colourful electoral history—people in the Crowsnest elected communists in the 1930s—but for a few decades the region has been solidly Conservative or Wildrose blue. Lethbridge is the exception, with Liberals holding Lethbridge-East from 1993 to 2011, and the NDP’s Shannon Phillips representing Lethbridge-West since 2015 (and widely expected to hold the seat in 2023).

Livingstone-Macleod: Cracks in a conservative stronghold

Main candidates in 2023:

– UCP: Chelsae Petrovic is the mayor of Claresholm and a former nurse.

– NDP: Kevin Van Tighem is a biologist, former Banff National Park superintendent, writer and former Alberta Views columnist.

Livingstone-Macleod is a riding where people were furious at the UCP for proposing new coal strip mines.

This riding extends from High River in the north to Waterton Lakes in the south, with the Rockies forming its western edge and the Blood Reserve running down its right. One-time local MLA and Wildrose leader Danielle Smith famously crossed the floor in 2014 and subsequently lost her PC nomination race here. Voters stuck with Wildrose in 2015. In 2019, with new boundaries and with conservatives briefly reunited, Tim Hortons franchisee Roger Reid won the riding for the UCP over rancher and NDP candidate Cam Gardner (71 per cent vs. 21 per cent).

Things may be changing. Just a short walk south of the diner owned by now-premier Smith in High River is the town library, which on the night of November 29, 2022, saw its meeting room overflowing with NDP supporters. Many declared they were former conservative voters. This might seem surprising. But the Kenney government’s attempt to reinstate open- pit coal mining in the eastern slopes was fiercely opposed by local ranchers and town dwellers alike (also: Corb Lund). After Reid said he wouldn’t run again, Nadine Wellwood was acclaimed for the UCP. She was then promptly disqualified by her own party for equating vaccine passports with the Nazis and expressing support for Vladimir Putin. Reid said he wouldn’t vote for her. Even the founder of the far-right Take Back Alberta denounced Wellwood: “We can’t begin praising tin pot dictators.” Claresholm mayor Chelsae Petrovic eventually won a new, contested UCP nomination race.

The NDP has an active and organized local constituency and a strong candidate in Kevin Van Tighem. Resentment about the UCP’s coal plan continues to smoulder, with Smith in late 2022 refusing to specify whether she supported new or expanded coal mines, saying only: “I’ll meet with the involved ministers and discuss all the available options.” Poll aggregator 338 is calling Livingstone-Macleod a “safe” UCP seat. But that party seems to be trying as hard as possible to give conservatives in the area a reason to make a statement in 2023—to vote NDP perhaps, or just to stay home.

Lethbridge-East: Could this riding flip again?

Main candidates in 2023:

– NDP: Rob Miyashiro is a two-term Lethbridge city councillor.

– UCP: Nathan Neudorf is the incumbent MLA and a deputy premier. He formerly worked in commercial construction.

Nathan Neudorf was the infrastructure minister and one of two deputy premiers.

Lethbridge-East stretches from the city’s northern edge to its southern outskirts and from downtown to the east industrial fringe. Like a typical Alberta riding, it has old and new communities and lots of commercial activity. But it’s notable for its independence from oil and gas. The average riding in Alberta has four times as much employment in energy as Lethbridge-East does, which in turn has twice as many manufacturing jobs per capita. Big employers here include Sunrise Poultry, Southland Trailers, Kawneer (windows and doors) and Cavendish Farms, McCain and PepsiCo (fries, fries and Doritos, respectively). Concerns about oil and gas and “just transitions” don’t resonate the same way in Lethbridge-East. With food-processing instead so vital, the UCP government announced in 2021 it would spend almost a billion dollars on irrigation canals to expand the 4.2-million acres of farmland east of the riding in what is branded as “Canada’s premier food corridor.”

Oil and gas concerns don’t resonate the same way here.

The race to represent the NDP was hotly contested. Rob Miyashiro won against three other candidates. MLA Nathan Neudorf was then named by Danielle Smith as Infrastructure Minister and one of two deputy premiers—an indication, perhaps, that he needs all the extra profile he can get.

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From Peace River to Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray to Cold Lake, the oil, gas and forestry industries are dominant, and a majority of voters have reliably voted for conservative parties for generations. In 2015 the NDP did win several northern seats and could regain them with a vision of stability and a good ground game. But it’ll be tough—whipped-up fear of vaccines and an oil and gas “transition” have inflamed polarization.

Lesser Slave Lake: Poor UCP representation signals a close election

Main candidates in 2023:

– NDP: Danielle Larivee is a public health nurse and First Vice-president of the United Nurses of Alberta. She was a cabinet minister, 2015-2019.

– UCP: Scott Sinclair owns an auto glass shop in Sherwood Park. He grew up in Slave Lake and played junior hockey.

Main Street in Slave Lake. Lesser Slave Lake could be the only competitive race in northern Alberta.

“Our communities have really suffered from poor representation since 2019,” said Lesser Slave Lake NDP candidate Danielle Larivee when nominated to run in the upcoming election. Larivee won the riding in 2015 with 43.2 per cent of the vote. The UCP’s Pat Rehn won the seat in 2019, garnering 57.7 per cent. Rehn served a turbulent term in which he vacationed in Mexico at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and spent so little time in the riding that the mayor and all six councillors in Slave Lake publicly called on him to resign. Former premier Jason Kenney kicked Rehn out of the UCP caucus in January 2021 but reinstated him six months later. Rehn is not running for re-election in 2023.

That Rehn was a poor MLA is a point of agreement between the NDP and the UCP. Rehn’s former constituency office manager, Martine Carifelle, ran for the UCP nomination, telling the local paper that while serving under Rehn she “came to believe people were not getting the representation they deserved.” Another candidate, Scott Sinclair, said he was running “to restore trust in our community’s Member of the Legislative Assembly.” Sinclair won the race over Carifelle by five votes.

The largely rural riding has two municipalities—Slave Lake and High Prairie—11 First Nations and three Métis settlements. Nearly 56 per cent of the population is either First Nations, Métis or Inuit, making it Alberta’s only constituency where a majority of the population is Indigenous. Pearl Calahasen, the first Métis woman elected as an MLA in Alberta, won seven elections here for the Progressive Conservatives, holding the sprawling north-central seat from 1989 to 2015.

In 2023 the riding is one of the few in the north that is up for grabs; poll aggregator 338 has the NDP only a few percentage points behind the UCP. For the NDP’s Larivee, a nurse in Slave Lake, healthcare and economic issues are top of mind. “How do we make sure people in this community have the jobs they need to take care of their families?” she asks. “And how do we ensure we continue to have strong communities?”

Central Peace-Notley: Convoy politics cloud rural issues

Main candidates in 2023:

– NDP: Megan Ciurysek is an analyst for the public sector in northern Alberta.

– Alberta Party: Lynn Lekisch is an environmental scientist from Fairview.

– UCP: Todd Loewen is the Minister of Forestry, Parks and Tourism.

Fox Creek is one of few municipalities in the largely rural Central Peace-Notley riding.

From Fox Creek to Fairview and the BC boundary, this vast riding encompasses six rural municipalities, several towns and a lot of boreal forest. All three main candidates in 2023 grew up on farms in the region, and rural concerns dominate this race—in different ways. A policy analyst, Megan Ciurysek acknowledges “the unique challenges rural Albertans face” and advocates for “quality healthcare, long-term job growth and opportunities, maternity and emergency care, and a competent government steering the ship.” Todd Loewen, who joined the “Freedom Convoy” to Ottawa after he was kicked out of Jason Kenney’s UCP caucus for opposing vaccine mandates, is calling for a “volunteer citizen corps” to help police fight rural crime. “It would not be an avenue for vigilante justice,” he assured the legislature. “We want volunteers to assist police in getting the bad guys behind bars.”

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BACK TO ELECTION

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Klein wanted to silence the Parkland Institute after a speaker at our conference harshly criticized his government’s response to growing poverty rates in the province. It wasn’t the first time the premier reacted publicly to a Parkland book, report or event, and it wouldn’t be the last. Throughout Klein’s tenure as premier he referred to Parkland as “factually challenged,” “communist,” and “spending too much time in liquor stores.”

Klein’s reaction to Parkland’s work is important because it speaks directly to the institute’s reason for existence. Parkland was founded in 1996 as a direct response to two dynamics. First, after the 1993 provincial election, the only political parties represented in the Alberta Legislature had run on platforms of severe austerity and privatization. At the same time, the media landscape in Alberta had changed to the point where the only ideas being reported on and talked about were those coming from far-right sources such as the Fraser Institute. The Parkland Institute was created with the explicit purpose of broadening the scope of debate in Alberta by challenging the dominant paradigm and the regressive policies coming from the Legislature with well-researched and evidence-based alternatives.

Of Parkland’s many “practical accomplishments,” perhaps one of the most significant is the creation of progressive debate and policy alternatives. Since the 1997 launch of our first book, Shredding the Public Interest, by Kevin Taft, Parkland has published six books and more than 100 peer-reviewed reports, held numerous conferences and events, and worked tirelessly to get an airing in both mainstream and alternative media. All of this work has not only resulted in the development of public interest alternatives to government policy but served to put those alternatives into the hands of individuals and organizations across the province—people and groups willing and able to use that information to influence public discourse and ultimately government policy.

One of the best examples of Parkland’s influence on public discourse over the years is the issue of natural resource royalties. In 1999 we published a report highlighting how little Alberta was collecting in royalties compared to Alaska and Norway. At the time, no one in Alberta had thought to question whether Albertans were receiving a fair amount for their collectively owned resources, nor dared suggest that royalties should be much higher. Although the report received a rough ride from government and industry, Albertans noticed. By 2006, after continued research and active dissemination, the notion that royalties were too low had entered the mainstream to the extent that it was debated in the Progressive Conservative leadership race. Premier Ed Stelmach felt compelled to launch a high-profile review. Since then, Parkland has continued to promote alternative royalty policies, but also expanded our energy research to include analysis of the economic and political power of fossil fuel corporations in the province and the serious implications for our democracy and the global climate crisis.

Parkland has also had significant influence on the debate over the privatization of public services. Municipally, Edmonton city councillors were able to use Parkland research to stop the privatization of EPCOR, the largest municipally owned power and water company in Canada at the time. This has resulted in significant economic returns for Edmonton. To this day, every time the idea of selling EPCOR or other municipal services is considered, Edmontonians, the media and city councillors reach out to Parkland Institute for its research and commentary.

Thanks to Parkland’s assessment of the failures of liquor store privatization in Alberta, it has also become the go-to source for information and media commentary when any provincial government, anywhere in the country, considers the possibility of increasing privatization in their liquor retail sector.

Two areas where Parkland’s work against austerity and privatization have had the most impact are healthcare and seniors care. With two bestselling books and dozens of reports making the case for public funding and delivery of healthcare, Parkland research has been critical in helping Albertans fight back against the numerous incursions by our governments against the public healthcare system, from stopping Klein’s “third way” to challenging Kenney’s privatization of Alberta’s lab services.

Likewise, Parkland’s ongoing exposure of inferior results in private elder care compared to public care—which outcomes have led to today’s crisis in seniors care—has been at the core of the pushback by community advocacy groups against increased privatization of seniors care.

Parkland research, commentary and events will continue to play a central role in providing Albertans with the information and alternatives they need to actively engage in the issues and decisions that affect their lives.

Given that Albertans now face a UCP government agenda of austerity and privatization, the work of the Parkland Institute seems more important than ever. As the Kenney government brands any dissent as anti-Albertan, uses its war room to attack any questions about Alberta’s energy and environmental policies, and brings in legislation such as Bill 32 to silence the voices of working Albertans, the space for public debate narrows. Unfortunately, given the mainstream media is less open to dissenting voices, the health of our democracy and vibrancy of our public spaces are at risk.

But thanks to Parkland’s many supporters and growing network, its work of publishing and disseminating policy alternatives will continue to inspire a healthy progressive vision of the future of Alberta. By creating space for public conversations such as our 25th annual conference, running November 19–21, 2021, we hope to inspire people to make their voices heard about the Alberta and world they want. This is the accomplishment Ralph Klein and other political and corporate elite feared—and failed to silence. The Parkland Institute is proud of our accomplishments and we know we will continue to be an essential voice in our democracy.

Ricardo Acuña is on leave from his position as the long-time (from 2002) executive director of the Parkland Institute. Bill Moore-Kilgannon is the acting executive director.

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In March 2020 the Government of Alberta announced the removal of 164 parks and the closure of 20 campsites and day-use areas, impacting a total of 175 parks and recreation areas. The lack of clarity and consultation left many, including myself, feeling confused and betrayed. These parks helped foster my love for the outdoors and inspired my degree and career in the environmental field. Delisting protected areas can cause irreversible environmental damage. In response, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society alongside the Alberta Environment Network launched their Defend Alberta Parks campaign to raise awareness and encourage Albertans to send letters to their MLAs.

Flashforward to May, into my home-office cluttered with art supplies and stacks of unfinished artwork. In my spare time I create art inspired by the outdoors. I’m certainly no professional, nor had I ever used my art for activism. But the government’s decision and its continued lack of clarity was weighing on me. Due to the pandemic, any gatherings to protest the decision had been postponed. While Defend Alberta Parks had gained traction, and Albertans were spreading the word, there were so many more people to reach. I felt I could channel my frustration and creative energy in support of the cause. I decided to make a commitment: to create one painting for each affected park and donate any sales to CPAWS Northern Alberta (my home chapter) and Defend Alberta Parks. That extra cup of coffee swayed me into posting to social media some videos outlining my “master plan.” 

And then the magnitude of the issue and my goal sank in. Since 175 parks were affected, this meant 175 paintings. Uh-oh. But before I had time to second-guess my decision, my phone started to ping. To my surprise, people immediately reached out, offering to donate artwork or spread the word. While this support was reassuring and motivating, it was also intimidating. I now had to follow through. CPAWS also reached out to connect. That was huge. We teamed up to launch Art for Alberta Parks and were off to the races.

What started as an impulsive idea evolved into a grassroots art project whose goal was to foster awareness, share the beauty of Alberta’s wild spaces, and help keep parks public and protected using passion for art.

We planned an online art sale. Word spread and encouragement came from people I’d never met. Still, I had self-doubt, questioning my abilities and the project’s worth. But as the art began to come in my confidence was restored. Seeing how each artist represented the parks gave me bursts of optimism and inspiration. Some told stories of their connection and memories of family outings to parks. People really believed in what we were doing.

In the end, 25 artists created over 80 works to celebrate Alberta’s parks and protected areas. Each came from a different background, contributed an original style or had a different relationship to the issue. Together we raised over $6,000—and nearly sold out within hours! I was shocked. Whatever expectations we’d had were far exceeded.

Did we end up creating a piece of art for every park No. Was $6,000 enough to reverse the government’s decision No. But I now realize it was less about the art created or the money raised and more about the people we connected. Art for Alberta Parks created a platform. Whether someone made art, bought art or just shared our posts, they were engaged. And that is so powerful.

We used this project and our passion to speak up for a cause we believe in. And those who bought a piece of art have a lasting reminder of the beauty and importance of these places. 

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The post Creating Art for Alberta Parks appeared first on Alberta Views.

Born: Innisfail

Education: “Studied economics and political science at the U of A”

Quote: “Working with a team to achieve a common goal is no different in football than in politics”

Connections: Dreeshen is the son of Earl Dreeshen, Conservative MP for Red Deer Mountain View

Work experience: policy adviser to federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, 2008–2015, “advocating for agriculture trade, improved rural infrastructure support, and leading the effort to end the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly”; ag. consultant; farms near Pine Lake

Other experience: director, Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association; board member, Crossroads Ag. Society

Political experience: volunteered with Trump’s campaign for eight months in 2016, travelling to 28 states and shadowing Ivanka Trump

Quote: On volunteering for Trump: “It wasn’t picking a particular candidate; it was just to see how the American system worked.” (Mountain View Today, 2020/7/18)

Elected as MLA: 2018/7/12 (in a by-election; UCP MLA Don MacIntyre had resigned following charges of sexual assault and sexual interference)

Riding: Innisfail-Sylvan Lake

Sworn in as minister: 2019/4/30

MINISTRY RESPONSIBILITY

• policies, legislation, regulations and services necessary for Alberta’s agriculture, food and forest sectors to grow, prosper and diversify

• inspire public confidence in wildfire and forest management and the quality and safety of food
• support environmentally sustainable resource management

• lead collaboration that enables safe and resilient rural communities

MINISTER’S RECORD

• repealed Bill 6, the NDP’s farm safety legislation, to “reduce the regulatory burden on farmers and ranchers while still ensuring basic safety standards”; removed agricultural workers’ right to unionize; exempted small farms and ranches from safety standards

• created “Champions of Agriculture,” a committee to “break down myths and misunderstandings of our sustainable agriculture practices and highlight how Alberta leads on a global stage to feed people around the world”

• compensated cattle and hog producers, beekeepers and potato farmers for pandemic-related costs (e.g., backed up inventory), including $25-million for pork producers

• gave $40-million from the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction Fund “to accelerate innovation” and “help farmers, ranchers, industry and innovators navigate the economic repercussions of the pandemic”

• deferred timber dues for six months “to help forest companies continue operating… during the pandemic” and raised Alberta’s annual allowable timber cut by 13 per cent “to provide security for forest companies” (which in 2020 saw “record-breaking prices… despite COVID-19 initially reducing demand”)

• launched Agriculture Jobs Connector, a website for Albertans to find jobs in
ag. and for businesses to find workers

• gave $27.8-million to an agri-food hub at Exhibition Park in Lethbridge “to create jobs and spur investment”

• gave $300,000 to Yellowhead County through the Mountain Pine Beetle Municipal Grant Program (part of the $560-million the province has spent since 2006 attempting to control the pine beetle)

• increased the lending capacity of the public Agriculture Financial Services Corporation by $800-million

• gave $81,000 to the Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association to improve its online producer directory

• to “cut red tape,” amended Meat Inspection Regulation to allow consumers to buy animals directly from farmers, slaughtered on-site; allow licensed facilities to salvage and sell meat by-products; and allow pre-slaughter inspections by video in emergencies

• cancelled the provincial carbon credit program, which had compensated farmers for practices that reduce GHG emissions (from the Western Producer: “From the farmers’ perspective, the expiry of the protocols couldn’t have come at a worse time. The value of a market-ready carbon offset… is at $30 per tonne and scheduled to rise in increments to $170 a tonne by April 2030. With the carbon offset market gone, grain and oilseed producers [will] be expected to pay carbon taxes on non-exempt farm fuels while no longer being able to recoup their costs through beneficial cropping practices, such as low soil disturbance crop production.”)

• hired trade officers for Invest Alberta in Mexico, Singapore, the US and EU

• gave $244.5-million to irrigation districts to improve infrastructure and increase water storage (see article p 36)

• cut the Agriculture and Forestry budget by $88-million, or 9 per cent;
laid off 247 ministry staff

• transferred AB Irrigation Technology Centre and Brooks Greenhouse to Lethbridge College and three ag. research programs to University of Lethbridge

• gave $10.5-million to Olds College to house Agriculture and Forestry’s field crop development centre

• created Results Driven Agriculture Research (annual budget: $37-million), which will “lead to tangible benefits for farmers, including higher profits”

• amended the Forests Act to cut “red tape” and allow industry to “create long-term economic growth and diversification” while “preserving our forests for all Albertans to enjoy”

CRITIQUE

• Retired agronomy research scientist Ross McKenzie on UCP cuts: “It was a huge, huge surprise, when Alberta Agriculture has done such a lot of great work over the last 40–50 years with research and developing technologies to help farmers… The cuts are devastating. More than half the staff at [Lethbridge’s and Brooks’s research centres] will be cut.” (Global News, 2020/10/23)

• Farmworker advocate Eric Musekamp, on UCP safety exemptions for small farms: “We believe farm workers are the same as and equal to every other Canadian, and we’re entitled under the law to be treated as such.… One of the very big factors in retaining workers is treating them equitably, so if you take away their rights and protections, it makes them not want to work in that sector.” (Calgary Herald, 2019/11/20)

• Innisfail farmer Alana Randol, on Dreeshen: “He won’t take meetings. He has secretaries answering his emails with form letters. He doesn’t appear to be in Innisfail. He doesn’t answer constituents’ meeting requests or phone calls. He doesn’t seem to have any kind of focus on the Innisfail and Sylvan Lake area at all.” (Mountain View Today, 9/3/2020)

IN THE LEGISLATURE

Dach (NDP): “Given [they’ll] struggle to pay their bills and might well lose their homes, can you tell these 247 [ministry staff] you’re firing why they’re paying for your $4.7-billion corporate tax cut…?”

Dreeshen: “Like so many businesses across this province, government has to make sure that they can offer their services in a very efficient manner.” (Hansard, 2020/10/27)

MINISTRY CONTACT

#229, 10800 97 Ave, Edm., AB, T5K 2B6

780 427 2137

af.minister@gov.ab.ca

The post Devin Dreeshen appeared first on Alberta Views.

My foggy memory of the early days of lockdown won’t allow me to pinpoint the exact moment a bolt of insight changed my view. But when it hit me, it hit me: Much of what causes people and families to fall through the cracks in our society is outside their control, and their needs should be met regardless—as a human right. Further, if every citizen’s basic needs were automatically met, it would empower us all to build richer lives and put our time and energy into endeavours that enrich our communities and stimulate the economy. (Full disclosure: I’m a newbie in a movement that many far-sighted people have been committed to for decades.)

I began to feel a fire in my belly, so I got to work researching, poking around to see what kind of UBI advocacy was being done locally and nationally. Through a Toronto-based advocacy group working to spearhead rallies all over the country for International Basic Income Week (in September), I found myself volunteering to organize a rally in Edmonton, because no one had yet done so. I knew a rally was a big thing to take on, with two small kids at home (full time, given school closures) and with the pandemic’s ever-changing circumstances. But I’d become passionate enough that I needed a concrete and useful thing to pour that energy into. And as an independent musician, I’ve organized plenty of events—creating a rally seemed a reasonable enough fit for my skill set.

Organizing felt pretty daunting at first, because I didn’t yet know the lay of the land in terms of the advocacy community. As a solo singer-songwriter who for a long time preferred to work alone, I’ve learned the hard way that creative endeavours are always stronger when done in and with community. I knew I had to figure out who in Edmonton was already doing work around UBI, and then put a team together to plan the event.

I was lucky to get filmmaker Don Bouzek on board right away. We agreed that for the rally to be a success we had to involve the UBI advocacy community as much and as soon as possible, particularly because we were both upstarts in the movement. We spent a good two months reaching out, making connections, meeting on Zoom and getting a sense of the huge variety of sectors and populations with a vested interest in the issue (and what their shared and differing priorities are). Only then did we get down to the nitty gritty of programming the rally.

It was challenging to assemble a lineup that represented the full scope of people and communities who’d benefit from UBI—because that’s pretty much everybody! But we were very pleased with how it panned out, with speeches from former city councillor and Coalition Canada Basic Income member Michael Phair, Cynthia Palmaria of Migrante Alberta (which advocates for migrant workers) and Julie Heffel of the Self-Advocacy Federation (representing the disabilities community). We had fantastic performances by singers/drummers Chubby Cree, poet Kaz Mega, and Tzadeka (a.k.a. Maigan van der Giessen, who also emceed).

Since music is my primary mode of communication and activism, I performed my song “Cry Out,” which is about the strength in vulnerability, and how sometimes we have to let things fall apart to gain the wisdom and insight to build them back better. COVID-19 has shaken our society at its foundations and exposed gaping cracks in our social systems. It’s time we created a Universal Basic Income as the first step in building a more equitable, just, compassionate and functional society.

The post Rallying for Universal Basic Income appeared first on Alberta Views.