Strathmore-Brooks stands tall at Wildrose AGM

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

 

The Wildrose Party held its annual general meeting in Red Deer on Oct. 28-29 and party members voted overwhelmingly to adopt several of the policies put forth by the Strathmore-Brooks Constituency Association.
“I think all five of ours that were put forth that were passed went through pretty unattested,” said Ronda Klemmensen, president of the Wildrose Party’s Strathmore-Brooks Constituency Association (CA). “I don’t think any of them were totally unanimous, but a few of them were very close. It was excellent support.”
Five policy resolutions were adopted: repeal the carbon tax; repeal Bill 6 and engage in consultations with farmers to draft more reasonable farm safety legislation; restore the single-rate flat income tax that was replaced by higher taxes by the PCs and NDP; implement income-splitting for families and seniors; reform public sector pensions to address unfunded liabilities.
Klemmensen said the board worked really hard and that Logan Vaughan, VP Policy Strathmore-Brooks CA, did an outstanding job putting it together.
“He does a lot of the legwork for the board, researching and writing the policy, and he did a really good job. I’m really proud of him,” said Klemmensen.
“Wildrose is a common-sense, grassroots political party that stands up for ordinary, hardworking Albertans,” said Vaughan. “Our policy process, and the success of the policies that we put forward, together illustrate this character of our party.”
Natasha Lausen, secretary for the Strathmore-Brooks CA, did the writing for Bill 6 while Vaughan wrote all the other policies put forward.
“We were really, really proud of her and the one that she put together,” said Klemenssen.
Klemmensen said that once a year, each Wildrose constituency association reviews a policy and constitution book and each respective board determines if there is anything that they would like to see amended or changed.
In addition, at this time the board also decides on new policies.
Klemmensen said Vaughan put approximately 20 policies forward to the Strathmore-Brooks board and the board ranked these in terms of importance.
The Strathmore-Brooks board discussed the policies, put them in writing and then came up with a unanimous vote to put the policies forward at the AGM in Red Deer.
Next, all the Alberta constituency association offices, including Strathmore-Brooks, sent all the proposed policies to the Wildrose Party’s head office, where the list was compiled and sent back to all the various constituency offices and each office ranked the overall compiled policies.
Next, these policies were sent back to the Wildrose head office and prioritized. The policies “came to the floor” at the AGM in ranked order of highest to lowest.
“So what actually hits the floor, is what the CA’s want based on how they ranked everything,” said Klemenssen.
Sixty-two policies went to the floor during the AGM but only 30 got heard, and only 20 were passed.
In addition, five out of the 20 policies were passed from the Strathmore-Brooks CA and this rendered the association quite successful in getting its proposed policies heard and adopted.
“So five of ours actually got to the floor and got read and got voted on and all five got passed,” said Klemmensen. “We were quite excited about it.”
Klemmensen said because the policies were adopted so easily with little opposition made it pretty clear that the policies were standard, “pretty common sense” policies that need to happen.
The Strathmore-Brooks CA also won the most memberships sold for the party out of any constituency.
“We won that award and we won the award for fundraising,” said Klemmensen. “We made a pretty good splashy show at the AGM this year. Everybody knew who Strathmore-Brooks was.”
Klemmensen said the association’s main focus going forward is trying to continue the membership drive and get as many members as possible. “We’re totally focusing on membership and trying to increase the membership,” she said.
According to Klemmensen, the Wildrose Party stands for a fair, honest, conservative government that represents their constituencies.
In the province of Alberta there are 87 constituency associations along with 22 sitting MLAs for the Wildrose Party.
“Wildrose is still trying to get the boards going in all 87 constituencies so that in this next election we can get candidates and make sure that there is one in every constituency,” said Klemmensen.
The next provincial election is scheduled for 2019.