Alberta Party leader Glenn Taylor stopped in Jasper on July 22 at the Legion to speak with concerned residents and discuss his party’s platform.

The informal gathering covered many different topics and brought out passionate discussion from those in attendance. Taylor, who is also the mayor of Hinton, was elected as leader of the Alberta Party on May 28.

When asked about what’s next for the town of Hinton, Taylor said his experience as mayor of the town showed just how much change needs to happen for effective governing in Alberta. During Hinton’s fall election in 2010, he campaigned on the issue of post secondary education in the town of 10,000 people. He quickly realized that he had to change the minds of legislators in Edmonton before he would ever see a college on the ground in Hinton.

As leader of the Alberta Party, Taylor can still be the mayor. If he were elected to provincial government, he would have to step down from town council.

“They’d like me to stay on as long as possible,” Taylor said of his fellow council members. 

To make sure the transition is smooth should he have to move on, Taylor said they are talking about it already and planning for when the day comes. 

Taylor said the Alberta Party is all about the people. The idea is to hit the streets and meet real residents of Alberta and make policy decisions at the grassroots level to help rebuild the peoples’ trust in their elected representatives. 

“We have to go back to trusting people who are elected at the local level,” Taylor said, adding that the elected officials also have to start trusting the very people that cast the votes to put them in office. 

Taylor said that political ideas differ, and the Alberta Party is asking all Albertans what they would like their province to look like in the future. 

“I haven’t been in a coffee shop or a pub where everybody believed the same thing when it comes to politics,” Taylor said. “It’s about ideas, not ideology.”

While the Alberta Party is proposing changes to government, Taylor said they are not talking about dismantling everything. On health care, Taylor said they eventually want to change the way “superboards” work, but are not advocating getting rid of them all together up front. The leader said they hope to simply find a better way to use money in the system and advocate prevention methods. 

“Health care isn’t just about hospitals,” he said. “We don’t want the superboards, but we don’t just arbitrarily toss them out.”

The two-step plan is about encouraging Albertans to stay healthy and preventing accidents, and then helping people get better if they do become sick or injured. For seniors, Taylor said they hope to help them stay in their homes longer to keep them out of the system until absolutely necessary.  

The party has proposed scrapping the public affairs bureau and replacing it with an office called Citizen’s Action to get news out of the legislature and into the homes of Albertans – which means more access for news outlets. 

Alberta is facing tough critics on its development of the oil sands. Taylor said it’s an important resource, but the way it’s done could be reviewed. 

“We’re not saying don’t extract the resource, but what are the impacts?” he said. 

The idea for the Alberta Party was born out of a conference in Red Deer that brought together politicians from across Alberta to have a conversation. Taylor said the people at that conference realized there was a need for a new party that was vastly different from those operating already. 

“It’s a much, much tougher thing to do, but boy is it resonating across Alberta,” Taylor said of the creation of the party.

The Alberta Party name was already registered as a party in 1985. The new group of people had the old constitution thrown out and began the tough job of building the new party. 

“Getting a new party registered in Alberta is quite daunting,” Taylor said. 

Because it is a new idea, Alberta Party members are going to people’s houses and community events to start conversations in the same vein of the conference. Taylor said there are two reasons for the party’s approach: “One, we don’t have any money. The second reason? It’s much more effective.”

Taylor encourages Albertans to get out and talk about things that are important to them, and to “retake their citizenship”.

“Find one thing that matters to you, and talk about it,” he said.

The party is also taking lessons from recently-elected mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, who brought his campaign to the streets and the social networks. The Alberta Party hosts social events like the July 22 one in Jasper, and some members set up booths at farmer’s markets around the province. They also have a Facebook page. 

With Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach stepping down in September, the Alberta Party is preparing for a November election just in case. 

To view the Alberta Party’s platform, visit www.albertaparty.ca 

The Fitzhugh does not endorse any political party or ideology.