There’s an old adage that the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. It is easy to spout election promises and present as the superior candidate. We are lucky that two of our mayoral candidates have shown their true colours in the recent past. It is very informative to view the attendance at council meetings and committees, including the actual participation on committees recently published by the Gazette. Councillor Cathy Heron missed one council meeting while Cam MacKay was down 30 meetings. Councillor Heron's participation on committees (163/182) far outweighs Councillor MacKay’s (37/64). My personal experiences with each of them are equally lopsided. I once approached Councillor Heron about starting up a community project I felt passionately about and she went out of her way to support me. Councillor MacKay, on the other hand negated the hours of planning, emails, calls, meetings and organizing I had done and said he’d like to see me get some ‘skin in the game’ before he’d support it. The project has, thankfully, been embraced by many local organizations, businesses and citizens. Thousands of local dollars and hundreds of person hours have been invested to create a community space for sharing skills and food. Cathy Heron signed up for our summer edible garden tour fundraiser, paying for her spot even though she was unable to attend the full tour. Cam MacKay dropped in, unregistered, to check up on us at one of our courses and never paid a dime to support us. This may seem like a case of sour grapes, but there is more to it. Not only did Councillor MacKay refuse to support the project, insult met, he actually treated me like a scoundrel who had absconded with tax dollars. The money our organization (St. Albert Urban Agriculture) received via council ($4,500) came out of the Environmental Initiative grant fund which was undersubscribed. This unorthodox solution only occurred due to the rushed nature of the situation and city administration and the majority of council got creative to support our project. Being a grant, there was no protocol for us to repay it and so it was deemed seed money. As I have said, it upstarted a wonderful community project. Sadly, Councillor MacKay persistently emailed me and ever more aggressively requested I repay the money. In fact, he emailed city staff cc’ing me and accused me of “fraudulent misrepresentations." He also cited my husband’s career: “Consdering (sic) that her husband is a medical doctor who earns a very good living I fund (sic) this a bit disrespectful to demand tax dollars from the public and to not be willing to put in any of your own money.” These facts and my personal experiences indicate Mr. MacKay is neither so committed nor so heroic. What’s his vision for St. Albert? St. Albert needs to be represented with maturity, by solution- and community-oriented folk with vision and true leadership skills so we can get on with making our world a better place. Jill Cunningham, St. Albert Urban Agriculture
