Herald Editorial

LISA SYGUTEK

The next Provincial General Election is scheduled to be held on May 29, 2023.

Roger Reid, our current Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Livingstone-Macleod, has chosen to step back from politics.

The United Conservative Party nomination for Livingstone-Macleod opened on January 26, 2023, with applications due at 5:00 p.m. on February 9, 2023.

I’ve been asked several times if I was going to run and I seriously considered it. I love politics, more federally than provincially, but I really do love it.

I enjoy federal politics because the federal responsibilities interest me more than provincial ones. Really a provincial government’s main issues are health care, education, and infrastructure. I’m not meaning to minimize what is done, but really those are the big-ticket items.

While making the decision to run I had a long talk with Pat Stier, former MLA and the conversation was very interesting.

Our riding of Livingstone-Macleod is huge as it includes the Crowsnest Pass, Pincher Creek, Fort Macleod, Granum, Claresholm, Stavely, Nanton and High River. Believe it or not the Crowsnest Pass is the second largest voting community in the riding.

Pat was very frank with me. He said that he spent a tremendous amount of time in his car driving to the legislature, approximately 70,000 km a year. He also said for the months you are in Edmonton; you live in an apartment or a hotel and are in office Monday from 6 am until you are done. You can then come home on Fridays, and must be back Sunday night.

That put a lot into perspective for me. I would miss most of Quinn’s Grade 12 year and I would have to give up the Pass Herald. As the Crowsnest Pass is the farthest south community in the riding, I would probably have to add in at least another 35,000 kms a year than Pat had to do. He lived just outside of Calgary.

This made the decision simple. The most important people in my life are my kids and I’m not willing to forgo any time away from them if I don’t have to.

I’m a bit sad. I would have loved to run. We haven’t had a female representative ever and we haven’t had one from the south since David Coutts, who was from Fort Macleod. We haven’t had a representative from the Crowsnest Pass since Fred Bradley.

It’s interesting times in politics. I don’t know if it was COVID or just humanity, but people are meaner than they used to. I see it at a municipal level, so I can just image what it would be like on a provincial level.

During Jason Kenney’s tenure as our Premier, people snuck into his mother’s nursing home to tell her what a horrible person he was and hand her pamphlets stating her son should be prosecuted for war crimes.

I’m a tough girl, I know that I’ve said things I should not have, but fundamentally I know I am a good person. I am kind and giving and I try very hard to lead this community with the citizens best interests in mind.

Politics is a slow-moving machine and people are often frustrated that things don’t get done at the same pace as they would in a business environment. It frustrates me as well, but it’s the nature of the beast when you add policy and procedures into decision making. I can’t image how slow it would move at a provincial level.

So, I’ll conclude with … I feel moments of sadness that this wasn’t my time, but then I think of all the things I will miss in Quinn’s life if I leave it early and that decision gives me a lot of peace. My time will come, just not today!