Alberta Party hires Provincial Organizer

We are pleased to announce that we have hired a Provincial Organizer! Michael Walters joins our team as an accomplished community organizer. He is tasked with expanding the Big Listen process and developing dynamic constituency associations across the province. See below for an introductory video message from Michael and our recent press release.

August 25, 2010

PRESS RELEASE

The Alberta Party is pleased to announce that we have hired Michael Walters as our Provincial Organizer.

“Michael is a skilled and experienced community organizer with a great track record of engaging a wide range of citizens in political life,” says Chima Nkemdirim, Alberta Party President.

Walters, as Provincial Organizer, will focus on continuing the Alberta Party’s community engagement and policy development campaign known as The Big Listen. Additionally he will be organizing constituency associations across the province as well as developing a Community Organizing training program for all Alberta Party candidates, campaign staff and volunteers.

“Michael will also play an instrumental role as co-chair of our policy development committee leading to our November policy convention,” said Nkemdirim.

Walters was born into a farming family from Winfield Alberta and raised there and in Drayton Valley where much of his family lived and worked in the oil patch. He has lived in Edmonton since 1992 and has worked in the community service and community organizing fields for 15 years. He is married with two children.

Edwin Erickson
Leader

Chima Nkemdirim
President

Join Edwin in Vegreville at the Landowner’s Rights Panel Discussion

On Wednesday evening, August 25, I will be attending a meeting in Vegreville that will affect all Alberta landowners and virtually everyone that pays an electrical bill, breathes the air, drinks the water or has any concern for the resources of our province.

The meeting, sponsored by VALTOA (Vegreville Area Landowners’ Transmission Line Opposition Association), will deal with the effects of Bill 50 and its predecessors Bills 46, 19 and 36, all passed in the Alberta Legislature within a period of two years commencing on
December 5, 2007.

The regulatory and legislative procedures throughout this process have been contentious. Closed door hearings, lack of consultation and notification, and a hiring of private investigators to investigate landowners organizing efforts have all been part of this abuse of democracy in our province.

It is apparent that, until the need for these lines has been demonstrated in an open and transparent forum that includes ALL stakeholders, the issue will continue to haunt industry, regulators and the Government of Alberta

The meeting in Vegreville will feature a panel comprised of the leaders of the Alberta NDP, Liberal and Wildrose-Alliance parties, as well as a representative from the governing PC party. The Alberta Party’s request to be included on the panel was denied by organizers,
citing our party’s current lack of elected MLA’s as the reason for exclusion.

We expect that condition to change after the next election, as more and more Albertans come to recognize the Alberta Party’s earnest dedication to serve and represent them with respect, with accountability, with transparency, and in the best interests of the people of the province.

In the meantime, we will attend the Vegreville meeting, and speak from the floor, along with our fellow Albertans. I encourage all Alberta Party members and supporters to join us in Vegreville on Wednesday. The meeting is at 7:00 p.m. at the Vegreville Social Centre located at 4802 – 47th Street. Don’t forget to wear your BIG Listen buttons!

Edwin Erickson, Leader

‘Not a righty or a lefty’

Will Munsey of New Sarepta, Alberta blogs about why he supports the Alberta Party. The post originally appeared on Will’s Blog “The Berry Patch Perspective” and is republished here with his permission and our gratitude.

I lived in east Asia for 15 years. Many of my friends were other ex-pat Canadians. We had a lot in common. We played on local hockey teams. We drank beer together in local establishments, and gathered to celebrate the sorts of things Canadians celebrate. I was happy to be among them, and we will be friends forever. Yet being the only Albertan in the group, it never failed that when talk turned to Canadian politics, I would be singled out as the right-winged red-necked Albertan and made to feel somehow guilty about being Albertan.

In their eyes, it was Alberta’s fault that Canada wasn’t doing enough to combat global warming. Our petroleum-based economy was somehow evil and a drag on the good name of the country. When it came to stereotyping, my Canadian pals would target me as the least tolerant… someone who didn’t appreciate the arts, homo-phobic… and a male chauvinist, quad-driving, hunter of innocent baby moose. As the beers flowed, their wrath increased. As an Albertan, I took a lot of heat for what my “greedy, money-grubbing” province meant to my fellow Canadians.

Not only am I not any of the things they accused me of, my province is not made up of people who fit that negative billing. Yet those very same accusations have long stuck in my craw and when I brought my family back home, I recognised a number of trends that might have been at the root of the ill-feeling toward Alberta (though not always justifiably).

Indeed, Alberta still depends almost solely on petroleum exploitation… we lack an environmental balance to that exploitation… we don’t seem to support the arts as enthusiastically as other regions. We put constant pressure on health care workers and educators to “do more with less.” And anyone with a disability, struggling to get by in this fast-paced society is very hard-pressed to cope and receives little help… and less sympathy. I noticed, too, the diminished accountability of elected officials and the growing dearth of democracy. These things struck a negative cord in me. Were these the roots of the anti-Alberta wrath that sprouted in my Canadian pals?

When I brought my family back to Alberta, I started investigating how to become a little more involved in the system. The place I initially settled was the Green Party of Alberta. While its policies were a bit thin on the ground, the general direction of the party was one that interested me. The people involved were a mix of deep-green idealists and a good number of new members who seemed more pragmatic and ready to actually seek power and influence within the political system. It appeared to be a real option in a province hungry for something new.

Sadly, the Alberta Greens fell apart. That left me looking again. The PCs are not what they used to be under Peter Lougheed. In fact, they’ve pretty much been in the pocket of “Big Money” since Mr. Lougheed left. The NDP and the Liberals have proven themselves unable to inspire Albertans… and the Wildrose Alliance… well, it looks farther to the right than I am comfortable with, and it’s cozy relationship to funding from petro-interests is of no interest to me.

Among my friends from other parts of Canada I was always “right-winged, intolerant one.” A funny thing happened on the way to east-central (rural) Alberta. Among my neighbours now, I am seen as the whacky Green/Liberal. When I speak out about the need to protect the environment and look for new economic models for future growth, the people around me “tut-tut” as if I were a reincarnation of Karl Marx. When I say that I support the collective bargaining process of unions, I am eschewed as the second-coming of Mao-Tse Tung.

I know from experience that Albertans are wonderful, charitable, hard-working folks. It’s just that we’ve been conditioned into believing that the “Right” is right.. and the “Left” is some commie trap set by Pierre Trudeau before he died to destroy Alberta.

The truth is… I’m not a “Righty:… nor am I a “Lefty.” I’m simply someone who wants to see responsible leadership in this province that makes decisions based on research and evidence. I want to see a government that looks ahead farther than the next election and sees a horizon a hundred years away. It might be said of me that “I swing both ways,” (a dangerous turn of phrase itself in rural Alberta).

Because I’m not interested in what the established parties in this province represent… and because the Wildrose Party seems more of what I am not, I’m interested in the Alberta Party. It is (for now) neither right nor left… but listening to ALL Albertans. And as long as this party continues to listen, I’m interested in participating in the discussion. I think there are a great number of Albertans who are like me. We simply want the best ideas to prevail in policy and a responsible and accountable implementation of those policies… policies that are for the long-term good of this great province.

It is because I don’t self-identify as Left or Right that makes me seek out the best solutions for problems no matter where they come from. If the Alberta Party can be a party that presents an inspiring vision for the future, then I’m interested.

It also has the best name in provincial politics… and very little baggage.

Will Munsey