Wild Rose Alliance leader visits Strathmore
Amy Gregson – Times Reporter
The leader of the Wild Rose Alliance party, Danielle Smith, was in Strathmore March 25 and spoke to a crowd of approximately 130 people at the Travelodge.
Smith has been touring across Alberta, visiting residents and listening to their concerns about what is happening in Alberta.
“I’m on a bit of a fact finding mission and it’s been helpful to hear in this community some of the same issues that keep coming up in other municipalities that I visit,” said Smith.
She was elected as the leader of the Wild Rose Alliance Oct. 17, 2009 and said the party is currently starting to prepare for an election to happen in 2012.
Currently, Wild Rose holds three seats in the legislature with Paul Hinman from Calgary-Glenmore, Heather Forsyth from Calgary-Fish Creek and Rob Anderson from Airdrie-Chestermere all holding seats.
Smith said that with only four elected members, it’s hard to hear all the issues constituents are facing across Alberta and that they want to start getting constituencies set up so they can start electing and nominating candidates.
“Once we have candidates in each and every riding, I think people will have a point of contact, to be able to get their issues heard,” said Smith.
Smith started off her day in the Strathmore area touring Namaka Farms to hear about the issues effecting local business people in the livestock sector.
“We have to find a way to take the regulatory burden off of our producers if we’re going to allow them the freedom to compete on the international stage,” said Smith. “The more we load them up with regulations, the more difficult it is we’re making it for them to be competitive.”
At the Travelodge, people were invited to have lunch before hearing Smith speak about the Wild Rose Alliance Party, their policies and some of their future plans.
Smith spoke about the Wild Rose Alliance’s view on the role of government and said that it’s a government’s job to set the rules, enforce them and then step aside, and the current decision-making process by the provincial government has to be decentralized.
“I think they’ve [the provincial government] taken a wrong approach,” said Smith. “I think they’ve taken a central-planners approach and I think they are going to end up with a lot of push-back from landowners and municipalities as a result of it.”
Smith said the decision-making has to be pushed back to the local level because they are the ones who know how to deal with issues that effect them.
Smith spoke about the Wild Rose Alliance policy platforms and how they would have addressed the $4.7 billion deficit the province is facing.
Smith spoke about how the Wild Rose would get Alberta back into the black financially after two years by reducing capital and operational spending, ending corporate subsidizes and changing the management to worker ratio in the public sector.
She also spoke about where their party stands on oil royalties, health care and a bit on agricultural and land-use planning.
“There’s concerns about the budget, the closure of health facilities or the lack of construction on new and needed facilities,” said Smith. “Strathmore is not the only place dealing with these issues, it’s happening all over the province. The fact that it’s happening all over the province and coming up again and again suggest to me there’s a big problem in the way decisions are being made right now under the current government.
Smith finished off her time in Strathmore with a question and answer section, where people asked more specific questions about the issues she already raised.
Smith said during her speech that the Wild Rose Alliance has “a unique opportunity to build something that has meaning and impact.”
She said the big test will in the next election.
“We’re hoping that once we’ve run a full slate of candidates that we’ll get a number of them elected and then we’ll be able to represent Alberta’s interest in the legislature,” Smith said.
amy@strathmorestandard.com