Smith excited about role as director of UCP
By Gillian Slade on May 11, 2018.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade One of the 17 recently elected people on the board of directors for the United Conservative Party (UCP) lives in Medicine Hat. Cathy Smith, a former alderman, is one of two southern Alberta directors along with John Voorhorst from Coaldale. “I feel really excited about it,” said Smith. Together, Smith and Voorhorst have a large geographic area to cover. “We go from Airdrie over to Cochrane and to Oyen and down to Cardston,” said Smith. It is likely they will each cover one half of the region for the first six months and then switch, she said. Smith said the new directors’ initial tasks will include making sure that the various constituency associations are established correctly and that they hold annual general meetings. “We’re going to be very busy and we’re probably going to have a lot of meetings because we will be in discussion about the rules for nominations and all of those kinds of things,” said Smith, very much aware that a provincial election is a year away. Those elected to the UCP board had to complete an extensive questionnaire and identify the position they were seeking. Initially there were five candidates for the two positions as southern Alberta directors. One pulled out. The number of votes received at the party’s conference last weekend in Red Deer dictated the winners and whether they would serve a two- or one-year term, said Smith. “The person who got the most votes got the two-year and that was me,” said Smith. For a while after the process began to merge the Progressive Conservative party with the Wildrose, Smith admits to feeling disillusioned. However, she has known the UCP leader Jason Kenney for decades. “I thought it was a really good opportunity to … be involved in a new conservative party,” said Smith who along with Voorhorst are some of the oldest members of the board, bringing a lot of experience. The UCP board will probably meet once a month, or even more, in addition to holding teleconference calls, said Smith. “There is still the whole operation of the party as well that we need to deal with,” said Smith. 16
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