Edmonton Mill Woods Liberals
The Liberal Party will nominate its first candidate for the next election on October 2 in Edmonton-Mill Woods. According to an email from constituency President Paula Stein last week, former MLA Weslyn Mather is the only candidate to have declared their intention to seek the nomination. The Liberals held Mill Woods under MLA Don Massey from 1993 to 2004 and under Mrs. Mather from 2004 until 2008, when she was defeated by PC candidate Carl Benito. Since becoming MLA, Mr. Benito has become the centre of controversy after he reneged on his election promise to donate his entire salary to a scholarship fund. The Liberals have placed Mill Woods in their key target constituencies in the next election and recently flooded the constituency with volunteers to remind voters of Mr. Benito’s promise.
Tory staffers migrate to more conservative pastures
The Wildrose Alliance will claim that they are a lot different than the Progressive Conservatives, but a quick glance at their caucus staff list reveals that a number of former PC caucus staffers are now employed by the tiny insurgent conservative caucus. Brock Harrison worked in the research and communications branch of the PC caucus until he recently joined the Wildrose caucus as their Communications Co-ordinator. Wildrose Legislative Assistant Jeffrey Trynchy was previously employed as a Legislative Assistant in the PC caucus. Shannon Stubbs, Staff Coordinator for the Wildrose Alliance Caucus is the former VP Organization of the PC Party and was a candidate in 2004.
Alberta Health Act
Is it simply legislative housekeeping or an agenda to increase the role of privatized medicare in Alberta? Edmonton-Rutherford PC MLA Fred Horne‘s travelling committee released a report last week that declared the need to ‘putting people first.’ Instead of including the mixed reviews that were voiced at the public consultation meetings, Mr. Horne’s report focuses on motherhood and apple pie. There are some good points in the report, but it is clear that this report is an exercise in the Tories reporting what they wanted to hear.
Trust me. Really.
NDP leader Brian Mason is setting off on a mission to Earn Your Trust in a fall province-wide tour where he will make a series of policy announcements on fiscal responsibility, the economy, and health care.
Read more in the Alberta Politics Notes archive.
