St. Albert resident and Run for Reconciliation organizer Amanda Patrick is the latest to put her name forward for city council in the municipal election this fall.
Patrick, 46, has lived in St. Albert since she was nine years old. She moved away briefly but returned in 2018, and has stayed ever since. She said an urging from others is what drew her to run for council.
"I always have loved St. Albert, and I'm trying to be a proactive thinker," Patrick said. "I was finding that there's little things that I would see and complain about to family members or friends. And I was like, 'How do you make these changes?'"
"Someone suggested, 'Well you've got to get on city council, then you can really make the change.' So it kind of got my brain thinking," she said.
Patrick has history in a sales career, before eventually moving into insurance and getting involved in the non-profit business.
"I really love to be around community and around people, and I found that I wanted to figure out how to get paid to do that," she said. She's also worked as a program coordinator for the St. Albert-Sturgeon County Metis Local 1904.
Of her complaints, she said that a lack of wayfinding and accessibility — such as access to public washrooms or drinking fountains — on walking trails in city parks was a common one for her. Another issue was revitalizing the downtown core.
"Our downtown is very quiet and I often wonder what we could do to help bring some energy down there," she said. As a mother of four sons, she said affordability in the city is also an issue she wants to help address.
"My sons are now adults and they want to live here, but the rent in this city is really high. It's difficult. It can be difficult to get around if you don't have a vehicle sometimes," she said.
When asked what she felt she could bring to St. Albert as a councillor, Patrick said she wanted to hear from people about what was important to them.
"I'm really interested to hear what people like that our current council is doing and what they dislike, and what they think is missing," she said. "But I do think that with the growth, we will need to think about things like recreational facilities, public bathrooms... but also being really mindful of affordability for our residents and for our businesses."
