Disillusionment and frustration with the provincial government were the main reasons local residents attended the Alberta Party's first constituency association meeting in St. Albert.
Almost 20 residents, ranging in ages from young adults to seniors, attended last week's meeting.
Barry Barclay, a resident of St. Albert for 10 years and a former professor of molecular biology, was elected president of the constituency association. Barclay said lowering taxes is an important issue to the people of St. Albert.
"The way I would go about that is, not so much cutting back on services, I think city hall is doing a good job. I think we should try to diversify the economy, we should attract more business and lower the tax base that way," he told the Gazette.
Diversifying the province's economy was another top issue.
"We rely far too heavily, as we all know, on the oil industry. We have so many other things that we could be doing," said Doreen Blair. "We have the best water in the world, wheat, barley — we should be making scotch."
"We should be doing all kinds of things. We raise cattle, we don't make anything out of the hides, we export our hides. We need to draw some manufacturing here and diversify, there are a lot of talented people," she said.
Other concerns included democratic renewal, health, education and the environment.
Barclay, who previously served as chair of the department of environmental health at Concordia, said he has major concerns about the Heartland Transmission Project. The project, if built, involves a 500-kilovolt double-circuit powerline that would cross Sturgeon County along one of two routes.
"There are some very good scientific studies that suggest these towers post a health threat to children and I hold that as a very high priority," he said.
Barclay said he was a Liberal supporter for 40 years prior to joining the Alberta Party.
He attended the party's policy meeting on education last year and decided that, if attendance was low, his affiliation wouldn't change.
"But there were about 30 people there and it was a very enthusiastic group," he said.
After attending two more policy meetings, Barclay decided to join the Alberta Party.
"I feel very strongly that the MLA from here should represent the constituents from St. Albert and not so much any particular party," he said.
The association also elected Tim Osborne as vice-president, Robert McDonald as chief financial officer and Krista Osborne as secretary. The group will hold its next meeting on Feb. 7.
Organizers are planning a constituency association meeting for the Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert riding and said the details will be announced shortly.
Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock
On Monday, Jan. 10, a handful of people came out to the inaugural meeting for the Alberta Party's Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock constituency association in Morinville.
Thomas Holmes, a guidance councillor at Namao School, was elected president of the association.
His wife Lisa, a Morinville town councillor, and several other members were also present.
Holmes has been politically active in the community for the last eight years and was formerly a Liberal supporter. With no Alberta Liberal constituency association in the area, Holmes said the Alberta Party is the only party in the riding that's left of the Progressive Conservatives.
"You have to have a voice for both sides and right now I don't feel I have a voice," he said.
Trevor Meister of Morinville compared the current bickering between political parties to kids in a kindergarten class.
"Why do we have to have such a hard, fast partisan system?" he asked.
"I think there is so much more that could be accomplished … if parties collaborated."
Kevin Baron, who made the trek from Westlock, said Alberta was in danger because increasingly anything left of the PCs is considered "not Albertan, and that worries me."
Members at both constituency association meetings said the government's decision to pass Bill 44, which allows parents to pull their children out of class when sex, sexual orientation and religion are discussed, made them want to get more involved in local politics.
The Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock constituency association will elect a vice-president, secretary and chief financial operator at its next meeting in February.
