| August 12, 2011 Guest Speakers MLAs and PC Alberta Leadership candidates Alison Redford and Ted Morton.
President Grant Ritchie introduced Dan Doherty as the moderator for the programme. Dan introduced the candidates, gave the two candidates 10 minutes to speak about themselves and their platforms and then opened the floor for questions.
Introductions:
 Alison Redford www.AlisonRedford.ca
was elected as MLA for Calgary-Elbow in 2008. She was appointed to cabinet, serving as the Justice Minister and Attorney General. Alison holds a law degree from the University of Saskatchewan.
 Ted Morton www.TedMorton.ca
has worked in Alberta for over 30 years in a variety of capacities and was elected as MLA for Foothills-Rocky View in 2004. Ted was appointed to the cabinet in 2006 as Minister of Sustainable Resource Development and in 2010 as Minister of Finance and Enterprise.
Candidate Comment Summaries:
Alison Redford stated she lives in her Calgary riding in Garrison Woods. In addition, Alison worked internationally for the federal government and participated in overseeing Afghanistan's first parliamentary election.
She feels a change in the culture of party and government programs is required to increase trust, and show that she and the party are open to feedback. During her time as Justice Minister, she contributed leadership in establishing the Alberta Safe Communities Secretariat and bringing a number of departments to work together to improve the courts system, anti-gang strategies, and helping the vulnerable.
She noted that she has seen government act as if they know best. Alison wants to see the leadership use the knowledge of the constituencies and experts.
She wants Albertans to be able to share their view of what Alberta should be like going forward including its role in confederation.
Ted Morton has been active in pubic activities for many years. Ted served as Minister of Sustainable Resource Development from December, 2006 to January, 2010. He spearheaded the development of Alberta's land-use framework and its implementing legislation, the Alberta Land Stewardship Act. He became Minister of Finance and Enterprise in January, 2010.
He reviewed many of the PC government's accomplishments and feels there are many good things that have taken place and there are opportunities to do better. He stated that bad politics undermines good economics.
Ted presented the five principles he would use to revitalize the Progressive Conservative Party.
- Bring back the Alberta Advantage.
- Fiscal responsibility by having a balanced budget and rebuilding the savings.
- Democratic reform, including senate reforms, salaries for elected representative by an independent body and adoption of best practices.
- Defending Alberta's strengths - energy and resources.
- Conservation should be put back in the Conservatives - reduce environment damage, do not leave unpaid bills.
Q & A
| "What separates your strategic initiatives in health care from previous administrations and how will this ensure the quality of health care?" |
| TM |
- Add financial accountability to regional boards. It was a bad idea to centralize "operations".
- Subcontract procedures to private clinics and keep funding under the public funds. |
| AR |
- Look to give the mandate to look after the delivery of health services to local levels.
- Public funding clinics and be able to give better continuous service and better long term care. |
| "Specifically, how will your policies be implemented to support the "new generations" as a fifth avenue of service in regards to funding, systemic changes and who will be accountable." |
| AR |
- Staff contracts should be lined up with funding. |
| TM |
- Implement a post-secondary tuition tax credit that would be an incentive to study and remain in Alberta. The credit would be staged over seven years from graduation to a maximum of $20,000. |
| "Some candidates have caucus support, some don't. What would you do to reverse bad decisions in caucus?" |
| AR |
- What Albertans want should be understood and built into better legislation. The job is to have MLAs represent the views of constituents and this needs to be recognized as a value by caucus. |
| TM |
- Caucus needs to support the leadership. Some supported decisions will be revisited to reflect personal views. |
| "What should be done to prevent weak candidates from being elected to leadership positions?" |
| TM |
- We should avoid negative interactions.
- Calgary needs to be more involved. |
| AR |
- Candidates need to have Calgary support. |
| "What do you think needs to be done to preserve Alberta's wetlands?" |
| TM |
- One of the side effects of the land stewardship legislation was realized to be affecting the preservation of the wetlands. This needs to be amended. |
| AR |
- Consultative planning would not have let this be introduced. Comprehensive work is needed to refine the act. |
| "What steps will you take to protect the oil and gas business for the next 15 years?" |
| AR |
- To be the global energy capital means we need to invest in innovative research including solar, wind and clean coal. We need levels of skill in our post-secondary education and we need a plan to keep exploration in Alberta. |
| TM |
- AR's response was seconded. We need to also focus on a new relationship with Ottawa to support growing our exports. |
| "How does increasing the number of MLAs fit in with a Conservative fiscal policy?" |
| TM |
- The aim is to keep rural Alberta's representation at an important level. |
| AR |
- The value that a voter gets is the important question. What needs to be done is to find ways to integrate constituents' input in a valuable way. |
reported by David Hamilton |
