“Why am I running? For the past year I have been working for MLA Darshan Singh Kang in Calgary-McCall, doing everything I can to help all the people who come in day after day with problems with everything from WCB to child welfare to Alberta Health Services to the courts. It is so incredibly frustrating to see good, hard-working Albertans who have their lives torn apart because they were injured on the job or because their children have problems or because something terrible  that was no fault of their own just happened. And I can tell you from personal  experience that Albertans are not getting the help they need and deserve from  the government. These are things that could happen to any of us, at any time, and I think we can do better to help people hit by misfortune. That’s why I’m running.”
–Kirstin Morrell

Kirstin Morrell believes that Alberta needs an Alberta Liberal government that isn’t going to be afraid to make improvements to how things are run in this province. We need to fix health care. We need to help injured workers get back to being productive and happy Albertans. We must help at-risk youth before they become tomorrow’s tragic headlines. And we need a government that will act responsibly with our money, instead of throwing it away on reckless campaign promises.

Kirstin’s background is in corporate communications, but she took a year away from the corporate world to manage a constituency office for MLA Darshan Kang. She worked on the business side of the arts for two years, as Managing Editor of Red Deer Press. Having worked since she was thirteen years old, delivering morning papers, as a waitress while in school, as a seismic jughound, she has developed a strong appreciation and respect for the sacrifices Albertans make to earn a living.

She has volunteered in the speculative fiction community for over ten years. Kirstin was part of a delegation that bid for and won the western North American Westercon in 2005, bringing tourists from around the world to Calgary. She chaired the local speculative fiction literary festival in 2007 and served on the board for that organization for multiple terms. She has served in various capacities for different festivals in Calgary, and currently serves in a programming advisory role and a  management role on the Calgary Expo. Additionally, she has served on the board of directors for the nonprofit Calgary Unix Users’ Group, and has volunteered for a variety of community projects.

Kirstin and her partner Don are avid students of taekwondo and motorcycle enthusiasts. They have no children of their own, but they work to be good role models for his grandchildren.

The Alberta Liberals, who pledge to fix health care wait times within two years, within the current system. The Wildrosers are instead proposing quite radical changes, but when they are examined closely, they won’t be to the advantage of the average Albertan, and will have the Alberta taxpayers footing the bill for wealthy Albertans to get treatments outside of the system.

The Wildrosers are saying that if you can’t get treatment in a timely way in Alberta, you can go to a private clinic in Alberta or elsewhere and the Wildrosers will have the government reimburse you up to the amount that it would cost to have the procedure done in an Alberta hospital.

Problem#1 — The Wildrosers’ plan won’t help you if you don’t have the spare cash lying around to go to the private clinic and pay for the up-front cost.

Problem#2 — The Wildrosers’ plan won’t reimburse you completely, either. Only to the amount that it would have cost in an Alberta hospital. You will be on the hook for the rest of the cost.

Problem#3 — The Wildrosers’ plan is restricted to ten types of “common procedures” as identified by the Wildrosers. That obviously cannot include emergency room wait times (which is one of the more significant problems in the current system).

Problem#4 — The Wildrosers’ plan, by definition, won’t help you if you need something other than one of the ten chosen “common procedures”.

What the Wildrose health care promise amounts to is that if the Wildrosers are running the government, Alberta taxpayers will pay to reduce the cost for those wealthy enough to pay for private and foreign medical treatments for the ten chosen procedures. The average Albertan will have the same long waits, because they either won’t be able to afford the up-front charges by the private clinics or they will need emergency treatment.  Even the rich will be out of luck if they have a condition that the Wildrosers don’t have on their ten “common procedures” list.

All in all, a pretty hollow promise. But that is the Wildrosers’ playbook in this election — make promises that sound great, until you look into them a little further.

See the Calgary Herald article:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/politics/6417219/story.html

Don Thompson raised his family in MacEwan and now, as the Alberta Liberal candidate in Calgary – Mackay – Nose Hill, Don is asking for your support in this election.

Currently a practicing management consultant, Don’s career has been focused on management of public and private organizations, both large and small.

An active volunteer, Don has been a member of development appeal boards, community services boards and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce’s Health Care Committee. As the chair of the Fort McMurray Community Services Advisory Board, Don led the development of a Recreation and Culture master plan that laid the foundations for that city’s facilities and program offerings throughout the 1990s. Don has also served as a member and in various executive positions for a number of amateur athletic associations.

Politically Don has worked with organizations at all levels from municipal to federal, supporting those candidates promising the best service to their constituencies. He appeared before the House of Commons Finance Committee, as a member of a Canadian Cooperative Association delegation that won important dividend tax concessions for all Canada’s cooperatives.

An Alberta Liberal MLA is a local MLA. Don will work hard to provide strong representation in Edmonton and deliver superior service to the people of Calgary – Mackay – Nose Hill.

See Don on facebook.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/world/Alberta+leaving+much+table+Liberal+leader+says/6010573/story.html

Clearly the PCs have been letting corporations in Alberta run off with the loot while it looked the other way.

Would it be any better under the Wildrose? I doubt it. Perhaps even worse, as the Wildrose is all about “smaller government” meaning less oversight of corporations. It is hard to believe that there could be less oversight given the way the PCs have given away the farm. But the Wildrosers are planning on doing just that.

But less government regulation does not necessarily mean more efficient or less costly. Look at the disaster that energy deregulation has caused and cost in Alberta — more than $2 BILLION!

See the Calgary Herald story:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/alberta/Electricity+deregulation+among+Tories+biggest+mistakes+Sherman+says/6460829/story.html

If that’s what “smaller government” is, it is not for me. It is not in the best interests of Albertans. We cannot let “smaller government” mean we ruled by large, privately-controlled corporations that the public has little control over.

And now that deregulation has happened, the egg is so completely scrambled that it cannot be fixed without it costing billions and billions more. The Alberta Liberals are promising a partial solution, which is the best that can be done in the short-term.

See: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/alberta/Electricity+deregulation+among+Tories+biggest+mistakes+Sherman+says/6460829/story.html

Deregulation has not brought power bills down, nor has it improved supply. Plus the PC government, if re-elected, is going to get the taxpayers to pay for a transmission line system that private industry will use to further enrich their private businesses after the taxpayers have paid and will continue to pay the costs for the delivery system.

See the effects of early childhood education:

http://www.albertaliberal.com/infographics/earlychildhood.html

Early childhood education is part of the Alberta Liberal platform. Just another good reason to vote Alberta Liberal!

See the platform: http://www.albertaliberal.com/platform.php

I’ll admit: this process is new to me. In my 30 years of human services work, in and around Lethbridge, I am used to conversations about our actual work on the ground. (Click here for my bio)

Sure, we discuss “policy”. But our policy discussions are about how our direct services work for our clients and the community more broadly. And also how they don’t – and what we can do to improve them and make them work, practically, in the real lives of people in Lethbridge.

Now I find myself in a new world. There’s certainly a lot of talk in this world. But the conversations seem disconnected – removed, by a couple of steps, from the real lives of Albertans and Lethbridge-East residents. When I talk to people around town, I find that people want to know: how are the provincial programs in place serving them, their families, and their community?

“How will seniors programs affect my mother’s financial circumstances?”

“How will education policy impact my daughter’s opportunities to make a better life than my own?”

“How does health care administration impact my grandfather’s care?”

My fellow candidates – some much more seasoned – are all great campaigners. They know their parties’ platforms. They know the rote answers that the party leadership has instructed. And this is often the easiest way to answer the questions at our public forums.

But I find that people want to know a little more about what I think. And, based on my considerable experience with these programs in Lethbridge, I have my own thoughts on these issues – the important everyday issues in peoples’ lives.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve looked at the party platforms too. And the Alberta Liberals’ platform makes the most sense; the common-sense policies ring true in light of the challenges and opportunities I have seen in delivering these programs.

But when people ask the practical questions about the important provincial programs in their lives, are they asking for me to read my platform back to them? Do they expect me to have the exact right answer memorized to recite back? No. They are looking for an indication that I have a practical sense on how to use the Alberta Liberal Party platform to make services better; and that I care about their situation.

I’m lucky – with my work in the community, I can speak from a good mix of experience and the heart. And by trying to do this more, people can get a better sense of what I’m really about. This campaign is an opportunity for the people of Lethbridge-East to get to know me.