I am running to lead the Alberta NDP and to be your next premier. While the election is three years away and we don’t know what disastrous things Danielle Smith and the UCP will do to us during that time, it's important that you know what I believe in.
For 11 years, I served as Mayor of Calgary, which was named the third best city to live in globally and our residential property taxes were the lowest in the country. I believe that I have the skills and the experience to make Alberta better for all of us.
Over the next three years, if I am selected as leader, I will work with our elected MLAs, NDP members and all Albertans to develop a detailed platform that both meets our needs and allows us to dream of a much better future for ourselves and our children.
Our platform will focus on the following themes. Here are my values and priorities. For Alberta. For all of us.
A More Prosperous Alberta - Securing our Future
Alberta’s future prosperity requires a strong economy fueled by innovation and entrepreneurship, supported by high quality public services and infrastructure.
I have a strong track record of economic and social development and will focus on the following:
Protecting and expanding Alberta’s position as an energy superpower (oil & gas and renewables) while reaching net-zero emissions no later than 2050;
Working with our energy sector, both oil & gas and renewables, to not just weather the transition, but to lead it;
Supporting entrepreneurship and small business, the largest source of employment in Alberta, and encourage innovation and investment in multiple sectors;
Helping both medium and large sized businesses grow and create good jobs;
Protecting the right for workers to organize and bargain collectively;
Investing in our post-secondary education institutions to ensure access for qualified Albertans, while also attracting the top talent from around the world; and
Ensuring that Alberta remains a magnet for the world’s best talent to live, work, and invest here.
A More Affordable Alberta - Making Life Easier for Everyone
We are stronger when all our neighbours succeed. Yet too many Albertans are struggling to make ends meet while costs skyrocket under Danielle Smith and the UCP. We need a smarter government more focused on how to help ordinary Albertans.
I will focus on:
Ensuring utility rates are manageable and affordable;
Protecting and expanding housing affordability as one of Alberta’s key advantages by building the right homes, at the right price, in the right place and addressing labour shortages in the building trades;
Helping newcomers unlock their full potential to live a great Canadian life and fill critical gaps in our labour market; and
Fully implement $10/day child care and train more early childhood educators to open up more spaces.
A Healthier Alberta - Supporting Albertans’ Well-being and Success
For my family, the public health care system was always there when we needed it. We must ensure that it's always there for everyone. Sadly, Danielle Smith and the UCP’s mismanagement and lack of respect for healthcare workers has brought our system to the breaking point and beyond. Few Albertans would disagree that AHS needed reform, and no Albertan trusts Danielle Smith and her health minister to do it properly.
I will focus on:
Treating all healthcare workers with the respect and dignity they deserve. We can make Alberta a place where doctors and nurses want to work, not where they flee from;
Ensuring our publicly funded, publicly delivered healthcare system is there for you with more family doctors, nurses, and smarter approaches within our public system to reduce bottlenecks;
Fixing our broken homecare system so it actually delivers the services patients need so that more Albertans can stay at home; and
Expanding our long-term care system to ensure that all Albertans, especially seniors, have access to dignified care.
A Smarter Alberta - Restoring the best public education system in the world
Every Albertan must have access to high quality public education and skill training so that they can meet their potential.
I will focus on:
Funding public K-12 education properly to meet population growth, reduce class sizes and ensure that complex learners have their needs met;
Respecting and valuing our teachers and other education staff; and
Restoring funding to post-secondary education, including research, trades, and apprenticeships, to ensure that Albertans have the skills for a changing economy.
A Fairer Alberta - Caring for all Albertans and Looking After Each Other
Every Albertan must live a life of dignity. Danielle Smith and the UCP don’t stand up to bullies; they are bullies. I will protect the most vulnerable, defend their rights and ensure that everyone on this land has the chance to live to their full potential.
I will focus on:
Creating evidence-based pathways for those with mental illness and addictions, based on the world leading plan in Calgary that I championed when I was mayor;
Ensuring that we keep the promise of Alberta - that regardless of what you look like, where you come from, how you worship, your level of ability, how you identify, or whom you love, you belong here and deserve a good life here;
Reversing Danielle Smith’s and the UCP’s policies that target 2SLGBTQ+ youth and their families;
Exploring inclusionary legislation for persons with disabilities and the programs that support them;
Continuing the path from reconciliation to true reconcili-ACTION by implementing the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls; and
Taking real action on homelessness.
A Greener and Safer Alberta - Fighting Climate Change and Protecting our Province from Fire, Drought, and Flood
We can’t be bystanders in the global fight against climate change. Alberta has been and can reclaim its rightful place as a leader. The world should look to us for the best climate change solutions and as the producer of the world’s most sustainable energy - conventional and renewable.
I will focus on:
Supporting our oil and gas industry in developing and implementing new technologies to meet our 2050 emissions targets and hold industry accountable for cleaning up their environmental messes;
Reversing Danielle Smith’s disastrous policies that are driving away billions in investment in renewable energy;
Prioritizing water security and planning for both drought and flood conditions;
Establishing an effective provincial disaster preparedness and response plan, resourced to meet the challenges of the future;
Increasing the reliability and resiliency of our power grid;
Stopping coal mining on the eastern slopes;
Protecting our parks, pristine natural areas, and heritage sites; and
Investing in public transit, including intra-city transit and passenger rail.
A More Liveable Alberta - Investing in all communities, small and large
Every Albertan, no matter where they live, deserves to live in a safe, prosperous and welcoming community with access to the services they need. For too long, Danielle Smith and the UCP have taken rural communities for granted.
I will focus on:
Canceling Danielle Smith’s and the UCP’s expensive experiment with a provincial police service and properly funding the RCMP, and existing Indigenous and municipal police services;
Ensuring that our municipalities have stable and predictable funding to deliver the services that we all need;
Identifying and reducing the obstacles that healthcare workers face in smaller communities;
Enforcing the laws that require polluters to clean up their messes;
Working with local economic development agencies to build more resilient local economies, including growing our agriculture sector;
Assisting small municipalities recover unpaid taxes from resource companies who have not met their obligations; and
Investing in rural broadband and other digital infrastructure.
Together, we can deliver a smart, capable government that respects all Albertans.
