Liberal leader Raj Sherman admits that most Albertans don't know who he is, but he hopes that changes by the time the April 23 provincial election rolls around.
Sherman, who works as an emergency-room physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, is most known for his views on the health-care system and for criticizing emergency room wait times, which got him booted from the Progressive Conservative caucus in late 2010.
“Unfortunately, because I'm a doctor, everyone always asks me about health care,” he said, adding that his other primary concerns include education, taxes and trust in government.
Sherman was voted in as a PC with 55 per cent of the vote in the 2008 provincial election for the Edmonton-Meadowlark riding.
He grew up on a farm and was following in his father's footsteps working in a mill until it closed down in 1983. At that time, he decided to move to Alberta to pursue an education.
He has worked as an emergency-room physician since 1992, but also owns a small business designing and building homes.
“Any financial success I've had isn't because I've worked really hard as a doctor,” Sherman said. “It's because of the investment I've made in designing and building and contracting houses.”
He is a single father who is actively involved in community sports, having coached soccer and basketball teams for roughly seven years and has taken teams to provincial championships.
Sherman compared his forward-thinking vision to that of Premier Peter Lougheed, who stood at the provincial helm from 1971 to 1985.
“The new Raj Sherman Liberals want to return Albertans to the path Peter Lougheed put us on — a progressive path,” he said. “We can and will fix our public health system.”
Although St. Albert has been represented by Progressive Conservative MLA Ken Allred since 2008, the Liberal party is no stranger to the area.
Liberal Jack Flaherty represented St. Albert in the legislature from 2004 to 2008.
“This is a liberal area,” Sherman said. “You value community, you value education, you value health care, you value your family doctors and your ambulance service.”
Now, Liberal candidate Kim Bugeaud hopes to take the seat. Despite having just 23 candidates seven weeks ago, the Liberal party has expanded to include more than 80 candidates throughout Alberta.
“I want people who want to serve this province, not people who need a job,” he said. “I want people who aren't into politics, (but) people who are into community, who see problems and have solutions in the community.”
Many polls put the PC and Wildrose parties in a neck-and-neck race for leadership, with the Liberal party trailing in third.
“People are afraid of change because they don't know what the new system's going to look like,” he said. “We have two right-wing conservative parties. It's time to bring in a new government.”
