Miyashiro looking to run for NDP in Lethbridge-East
By Al Beeber on August 24, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com Outgoing city councillor Rob Miyashiro has announced his intention to seek the NDP candidacy in Lethbridge-East in the next provincial election.Miyashiro launched his bid to carry the NDP colours at the Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization on Monday.
A two-term city councillor, Miyashiro is currently executive director of the LCSO and says he has spent his entire career working to improve lives.
In 2013 when Miyashiro announced his council candidacy, “there wasn’t anybody like me at the time running for office, someone with my background, someone with my long community service experience. And at that time, I was very happy that I did. And in two terms, I think I’ve accomplished a lot. And the things I wanted to accomplish personally,” he said Monday.
“When Mayor Spearman announced he wasn’t running, he asked me if I was going to run for council and I said no I wasn’t running for council. I didn’t say I wasn’t going to run for mayor and I’m not running for mayor.
“The other thing we have going on right now is a federal election. There are some parties that aren’t represented in the Lethbridge constituency and there are some things I think we need to talk about…but I’m not running federally either.”
He said he has numerous reasons for seeking the Lethbridge East nomination in a seat currently held by Nathan Neudorf of the UCP.
“The one thing is that being a municipal councillor and being in the work that I do, a lot of things that I do in my life are affected by provincial government decisions and some of those decisions that have been made in the past couple of years I think have really negatively impacted on our municipality and some of the work I do in the seniors centre, as well.”
While not everything the UCP has done is negative, Miyashiro said, “I can fully support Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP and what they’re trying to do for our province.
When the NDP was elected in 2015, “I was very impressed by the way that they wanted to work with all sectors, especially to diversify our economy. Also I was impressed by the way they were looking at a way to diversity away from oil and gas” while still supporting those industries “as best they could,” he said.
During COVID, Miyashiro said he saw “the current government was fighting the doctors and now they’re fighting the nurses and they’re decimating the education system.” A government, he said, needs to support its people.
He chose to announce his candidacy now because “there could be a nomination meeting this fall and if there is, if I announce my intention to run two weeks before the nomination, there’s no way I can get the nomination. So I want now to have my name out there; people can know what my intentions are. So when I call people in the community and want them to support me, they know what it’s for. Also I believe if there’s a nomination meeting called this fall, it gives a lot of time to connect with the people in the city.” Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter 4
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