Brooks-MH breakdown ahead of Tuesday
By GILLIAN SLADE on April 13, 2019.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade The six election candidates for Brooks-Medicine Hat are in the final lap before election day. Before the electoral boundary changes this riding was only “Medicine Hat” and Rob Renner was the MLA from 1993 to 2012 when he resigned. Wildrose candidate Blake Pedersen became Medicine Hat’s MLA in 2012 with 6,030 votes defeating Darren Hirsch who received 5,341 votes. On Dec. 17, 2014, Pedersen joined eight other Wildrose MLAs and crossed the floor to join the Alberta Progressive Conservatives under the leadership of the late Jim Prentice. A few months later in a provincial election Pedersen lost his seat to Bob Wanner – the NDP candidate. Wanner had garnered 6,159 votes, Val Olsen for the Wildrose received 5,760 votes, Pedersen 3,227, and Jim Black the Alberta Party candidate received 931 votes. Here’s a reminder of the candidates in the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding for this election: The Alberta Independence Party’s candidate Colin Pacholek, a carpenter who lives in Redcliff, advocates an exit strategy for Alberta allowing this province to be self-sufficient “and be prosperous and free.” The Independence Party claims on its website that full autonomy can be accomplished within four months of forming government. Jim Black with the Alberta Party is a former police officer and a retired school teacher, who has recently been teaching at the alternative night school in Bow Island. Black also served on the former Palliser Regional Health Board that was disbanded in 2008 when Alberta Health Services was established. Running as an independent candidate is Todd Beasley from Brooks who works as the technical director for an agricultural processing company and has a career in leading development of patented environmental technologies used internationally. He initially ran to be the UCP candidate for Brooks-Medicine Hat but was disqualified after controversial comments he’d made on Facebook came to light and he was disqualified. Jamah Farah, the Liberal Party candidate, is a Brooks resident and an engineer originally from Somalia. He is chairman of the Somali Community Organization in Brooks. The NDP’s candidate is Lynn MacWilliam. Her career in politics goes all the way back to 1993 and the Yukon when she worked with Audrey McLaughlin who was leader of the federal NDP at the time. She’s also worked on Parliament Hill for various MPs before moving to Bassano where she is serving a second term on as a town councillor. In 2015 she ran federally for the NDP and prior to that provincially in the Strathmore-Brooks riding, before the riding boundaries were changed. Michaela Glasgo, the UCP candidate, has a political science degree from Lethbridge and has worked for several years in the Cypress-Medicine Hat constituency office. She was born and raised in southern Alberta and believes she will bring new energy to the riding. Glasgo feels the key issues in this election are about getting Albertans back to work, scrapping the carbon tax and reducing red tape of businesses. 15-14
