Voters hear from local candidates during provincial election forum hosted by Red Deer Chamber

Red Deer-South:

UCP-Jason Stephan
NDP-Michelle Baer
Green-Ashley MacDonald (not in attendance)
WLC-Jesse Stretch (not in attendance)

The event was sponsored by Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis), which according to the organization represents Alberta municipalities where over 85 per cent of Albertans live.

Krista Gardner, Director of Towns West, Alberta Municipalities, says ABmunis represents 285 municipalities throughout the province, and their campaign for Alberta’s 2023 General Election is ‘Think Alberta. Vote Local’.

“We really want all of our voters and our candidates to be thinking about who has the plan to really provide those needs for our local communities,” she explains. “We believe in the importance of communities and we want to see those needs being met.”

She says the organizations top three priorities are:

1. Community Safety

2. Community Building

3. Community Healthcare

“Those priorities are across the board for our communities, from our local officials and our councils, and then what really meets the needs of the people in Alberta,” says Gardner. “From a local elected official level, we really want to see the provincial government address these local needs.”

Fourteen questions were posed to the panel of candidates during the forum, with each candidate having 60 seconds to answer during their opportunity.

Questions to the panel ranged from government spending and debt servicing, to healthcare costs and access, plans for expansion of Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre or the need for a second hospital, school curriculums and class sizes, post-secondary funding and programming at RDP, initiatives to address the current cost of living, strengthening Alberta’s tax advantages while reducing regulatory burdens for businesses, and how best to interact with the federal government.

During their opening remarks, Red Deer-North UCP candidate Adriana LaGrange highlighted the government’s $3 billion in infrastructure investments including $1.8 billion for expansion of the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre which is currently in the design phase.

Red Deer-North NDP candidate Jaelene Tweedle noted the importance of healthcare remaining public in Alberta and the need for constituents to feel seen, heard, and represented at the legislature.

Red Deer-North Green Party candidate Heather Morigeau suggested Albertans are tired of divisive politics and a two-party system in the province, with her party offering an alternative for voters.

Red Deer-South UCP candidate Jason Stephan also highlighted the government’s investments in Red Deer Regional Hospital, and the Red Deer Recovery Community – a recently opened mental health and addiction recovery facility containing 75 treatment beds.

Red Deer-South NDP candidate Michelle Baer, focused her opening remarks on the importance of community, healthcare, education and making the cost of living more affordable.

Scott Robinson, CEO, Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce, says as a leadership organization, it was important for the Chamber to host the event so both citizens and the business community could hear from local political candidates and learn more about them and their party’s plans if elected.

“We’re a non-partisan organization so it’s important for us to have a fair forum here tonight and I think we did that, so we’re pretty happy with that,” states Robinson.

“I think what you get out of these, you certainly understand the personalities of the candidates, and I think you do get a bit of their value systems that come out,” adds Robinson. “Then of course you hear a lot of the party positions. Obviously the governing party has a current record to play off of and new candidates may not have that, but they have an idea of where their party’s going. So you do take away a better sense of whether they’re aligning with what you’re believing should happen or not.”

The Alberta Election is Monday, May 29, 2023.

by Sheldon Spackman

Voters hear from local candidates during provincial election forum hosted by Red Deer Chamber

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