MLA Report: What’s next?

By Medicine Hat News Opinion on May 21, 2021.

By now you have likely heard the news. I am no longer a member of the United Conservative Party caucus.

First and foremost, I want to thank everybody who has reached out to me with your kind words and support. I have received hundreds of emails and letters of encouragement, and I want you to know that I greatly appreciate all of your encouragement.

Secondly, I want you to know that my job has not changed. In the days ahead I will continue to represent the good folks of Cypress-Medicine Hat to the best of my ability as an independent MLA.

While the premier has spent much of the last year issuing ultimatums to his own caucus and party members, I do not see any value in these sorts of pressure tactics. That is the wrong way to unite Albertans, and it certainly won’t help us build an Alberta strong and free.

The most common question I’ve been getting from folks over the weekend is, “what’s next?”

My answer is simply this: It’s up to you. I want to hear your thoughts on the best way to proceed, and I will continue to reach out in the weeks and months ahead.

My top priority since being elected to represent the people of Cypress-Medicine Hat back in 2012 has been to always put your concerns and your interests first.

I was able to call attention to the former PC government’s lack of support even two years after the once-in-350 years flood in Cypress County. I also spoke out about the government’s string of broken promises when it came to the Medicine Hat hospital, as well as the disastrous royalty review that led to a collapse in oil and gas investment even prior to the global drop in commodity prices.

At the same time, over a span of nearly a decade now, I have consistently voiced your concerns about property rights. I challenged the former PC government on their draconian bills to strip property owners of legal recourse in defending their rights. I worked with my Wildrose and UCP colleagues to offer a constructive alternative during the NDP administration. Most recently, while serving with the UCP, I continued to push the issue and offered a private member’s bill on the issue. Rather than deal with property rights as promised in our 2019 platform, the Kenney government continues to play games with this fundamental freedom, now punting the issue to a committee. It appears my refusal to go with the flow and let this issue die did not make me any friends in the premier’s office. That may be unfortunate, but when it comes to defending Albertans’ property rights I will never back down. I pledged to put the people I represent first, and that’s not a pledge I will break just to appease a premier that has forgotten and abandoned his Reform Party roots.

Moving forward, I am more than willing to work with my friends in any and all parties, including the UCP, on initiatives to make Alberta the safest, most prosperous and freest jurisdiction in North America. However, I am not willing to put any premier or any government’s convenience ahead of the interests of our families and communities. If that is Jason Kenney’s litmus test for UCP membership, he’s going to be very busy tearing down his own caucus in the days and weeks ahead.

My hope is that the UCP will recognize the inherent danger in Kenney’s dictatorial approach and change direction. However, I don’t have the luxury of waiting idly by the phone. Our province faces very real problems, from runaway debt to a complete failure to garner a fair deal from Ottawa, and ignoring these won’t make them go away.

And so, to all of you who have reached out to me with your support in recent days, I ask only this: Don’t shut up. Don’t toe any party’s line. Keep on talking, keep on fighting, and together we can stand up for your families and your communities.

If we don’t, no one will do it for us.

One way or another, our province faces difficult decisions in the months and years to come. The good news is that it is still within us to control our own destiny.

Let’s be strong. Let’s be free.

Drew Barnes is the MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat

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