You may or may not remember a blog post I wrote in February of last year called Dear Me - if not, I encourage you to click the link and have a read.

I wrote this blog from the perspective of a municipal politician, and well before I made any decision to run for provincial office, though the experience did factor heavily in my eventual choice.

Today’s release of the letter from Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths is at the same time disappointing and validating. I want the “new” PCs to be different from the PCOBC (PC Old PC Boys Club) and it’s disheartening to see the same old kind of behaviour. But I guess it validates my decision to join the Alberta Party and my choice to run for MLA in Innisfail Sylvan Lake .

I’m told that building a new political party is a lot of hard work. Of course, this being my first time at such an endeavour, I wouldn’t know otherwise, but I do agree it has many challenges. I’m sure it is an uphill battle no matter where such an activity is undertaken, but it sometimes seems particularly daunting in a province where there is a large majority monopolizing government for decades.

Red Deer and Calgary got some good news last week: 100 new continuing care beds for each of the two cities, to provide a “continuum of care” to seniors requiring everything from supportive living to long-term care. While I think 100 beds might be a rain drop in a river, it’s at least a place to start, and may take some pressure off of hospitals, where a chronic issue of seniors requiring long-term care are forced into acute-care beds due to lack of space in appropriate facilities. You can read the Alberta Party’s media release on that subject here.

Thursday night we had a community conversation out in Sylvan Lake, the first of three we have planned (one coming up in Penhold and one in Innisfail). I can’t stand poverty and I hate seeing the effects it has on people and communities, so I’m really interested in hearing what others think and what they want to do about this scourge.

As certain as I am that the title will provoke more than a few great zingers, it’s actually true: I need urgent care. If you live in Central Alberta, you do too.

Originally posted January 18, 2012.

Today’s announcement of Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline application should set the teeth of every Albertan on edge. I know I was more than a little irritated when I heard the news.

Originally posted January 9, 2012.

The good ol’ boom-bust cycle is a way of life in Alberta, it seems. You’d hardly know we’re a landlocked province: we’ve been riding an up and down economic wave like pro surfers since the oil sands became our bread and butter in the 70s. Though the whole world has been grappling with the impact of the recent recession, which has caused some wild fluctuations in markets and caused tremendous global economic and political instability, Alberta is pretty much used to a roller coaster economy. We like the money we make when times are good, so we put up with the uncertainty and say things like, “You have to take the good with the bad.”

Originally posted January 2, 2012.

I recently read a very refreshing letter to the editor in the Red Deer Express from Dr. Michael Rachlis. It was nice to hear a perspective that challenges the idea that a better health care system requires more money.

Originally posted December 18, 2011.

Yesterday I climbed a rock wall for the first time in my life. Both while hanging on the wall and in reflection after the climb, I realized that there are some life lessons to be had for me here, some parallels between campaigning and rock wall climbing. Here’s what I came up with:

Originally posted December 6, 2011.

A recent article written by Keith Gerein in the Edmonton Journal asked the question, “What happened to the Alberta Party?” He says the party seems to have “gone quiet”.