Rob Miyashiro wins NDP nomination for Lethbridge East

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on November 23, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

He spent two terms on Lethbridge city council and now Rob Miyashiro is looking to serve residents in the Alberta legislature.
The executive director of the Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization won the NDP nomination for Lethbridge East Sunday night on the second ballot.
Miyashiro was running against Kevin McBeath, Amanda Jensen and former Lethbridge East MLA Maria Fitzpatrick.
Miyashiro announced his candidacy for the riding in late August at the LSCO. He said Monday that he had decided eight years on city council was enough and his decision to run for the NDP came about in the spring while watching the news when his wife told him if he was going to get involved politically again, he had to run for that party. A couple of weeks later, Lethbridge West MLA Shannon Phillips called, he said, to discuss various political things and the topic of the Lethbridge East nomination came up.
“It wasn’t this long-term plan for me to get involved in (provincial) politics,” Miyashiro said.
He decided to leave council in part because he was becoming more involved with provincial and federal initiatives involving seniors.
“My board of directors, my staff have put up with me being on council for two terms, eight years, which was enough,” he said.
“It’s pretty exciting. It’s a lot of work. I had a great team,” he said of his nomination.
“This is a ‘we’ campaign, it’s not a ‘me.’ I’m the one out front and I’m the one that’s hopefully going to get elected. But I had a great team of supporters behind me,” he said.
Miyashiro said he thinks people are tired of the negative effects of the UCP government and “it’ll take a concerted effort by the new Notley government to undo all the bad things that have been done by this government and to move ahead with the Rachel Notley agenda,” he said.
“I really look forward to working together with Shannon to serve the people of Lethbridge and during such a critical time in our province,” Miyashiro said at the Geomatic Attic’s downtown location.
“I am honoured to accept the Alberta NDP nomination for Lethbridge East. And like Shannon, I want to thank Amanda, Maria and Kevin for a really hard fought and collegial nomination campaign where people talked about issues, they didn’t talk about each other.
“I look forward to working with those three champions of our community to build Alberta’s future and a bright future for the people of this great city,” he said.
“It’ll take real leadership to protect and properly fund public health care, to grow and diversify our economy and to reverse harmful UCP policies that threaten our treasured national parks and our critical headwaters to the harmful proliferation of coal mines in our Rocky Mountains.
“And make no mistake about it, Lethbridge faces a health care crisis. There are currently more than 20,000 residents in our city without a family physician and without access to one. And I’m one of them and it doesn’t feel good.
“This is unacceptable; public health care needs to be available for all Albertans when they need it. We’ve also seen serious delays for critical health care lab work and we see major concerns emerge with the EMS consolidation,” he said.
Lethbridge residents need reassurance an ambulance will be available if an emergency arises, Miyashiro said.
“We’ve heard lots of horror stories during my time on council right up until the last couple weeks of some really serious issues with the EMS dispatch in our area,” he added.
“These health care problems have been building for months and nothing has been done by the current UCP government. They have forgotten about the people of our city despite the fact that Lethbridge East is currently represented by a UCP MLA in Nathan Neudorf.
“When I decided to put my name forward to challenge Jason Kenney’s UCP, it was health care top of mind. For the seniors that I represent in my work, for the new families that have come to call Lethbridge home and for everyone in between.
“We cannot grow our community and secure our economic future without real access to quality health care. From there, we must also grow our economy. Jason Kenney’s policies, his so-called economic plan, has failed, Miyashiro added.
He also called cuts to post-secondary education institutions in the province unacceptable.
“This isn’t a Lethbridge issue,” he said. “This is not a Lethbridge West (issue), this is a Lethbridge issue and this is something we want to work together to fight. Everything that happens in Lethbridge affects Lethbridge, it doesn’t just affect one area of Lethbridge.
Miyashiro said he supports economic growth through supporting renewable energy and high-tech and “through actually funding post secondary educations so they can fully realize their role as their engine of Alberta’s economic recovery. And through building major infrastructure projects that have been promised to the people of this community,” he said.
“We must protect our beautiful parks and natural landscapes for future generations. We have seen a serious threat posed by the UCP’s push for open coal mines in the Rocky Mountains. We know that these mines will have a devastating effect on our water and will destroy southern Alberta agriculture.”

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