Kevin Van Tighem: NDP candidate for Livingstone-Macleod

I was very impressed by the Rachel Notley government that we had between 2015 and 2019. In spite of record-low oil and gas revenues and major surprises like the Fort McMurray fire, the Alberta NDP kept all its campaign promises, delivered responsible government and was fiscally prudent. Then the UCP betrayed Albertans by opening our Eastern Slopes to coal strip mining and went on to waste billions on a pipeline that never got built, war rooms, a job-killing Sovereignty Act and seemingly-endless chaos and conflict. The contrast between the Alberta NDP’s serious, determined approach to serving Albertans and the UCPs increasing radicalization made it clear to me, as someone who has always been near the political centre, that in 2023, the NDP are the mainstream party of choice. It’s an honour to be part of the incredible team of candidates that Rachel Notley has assembled to give Alberta the future everybody needs.

Why do you feel that you are the best choice to represent your riding as MLA?

I have spent my entire life in public service, both professionally through my work and in various volunteer capacities supporting the work of the exceptional people I’ve come to know more over my thirty years in Livingstone-Macleod. I am not a career politician, in fact, I’ve sacrificed a retirement and a book project I was enjoying, and I have no ambitions to do anything more than serve the people, communities, lands and waters of a region I consider the centre of my personal universe. I’m not in it for me. I’m offering to serve. I understand how government works, and I believe the best kind of government is the kind you never notice because it just does its job and stays out of the way, but it’s there when you need it, and it’s always there for everyone who needs it. So I think my principles, experience and approach all qualify me to serve our communities well.

What types of personal or professional experience do you have that would make you a good MLA?

I know government well from having spent decades in public service, culminating in almost four years as Superintendent of Banff National Park. I’ve worked with First Nations on a variety of initiatives over the years, including signing a historic agreement welcoming the Stoney-Nakoda people back into Banff after nearly a century of displacement. For more than 30 years, I’ve collaborated with ranchers, hunting groups, environmentalists, small business operators and others on conservation projects from Waterton Lakes National Park through the upper Oldman to the rivers drain east out of our riding. I know the land like the back of my hand, and I care passionately for the people who live here.

What would be your top three priorities if elected?

1. Restoring principled, responsive and caring government. I plan to keep right on knocking on doors across the riding for the next four years. People deserve good government and a lot of people have told me they’ve pretty much given up hope of getting it. It’s critically important to restore faith and deliver results.

2. Bringing public health care back to the standard it is meant to be. We are on the verge of losing maternal care, people don’t have family doctors, medical staff are burned out and leaving, and we have a serious plan to fix that. I want to make sure our plan delivers results for rural towns and residents in Livingstone-Macleod

3. Protecting the most important strategic resource for our economic future: the water that rises in our mountains and foothills. I look forward to helping pass the Eastern Slopes Protection Act that will end the threat of new coal strip mines in our headwaters, and to helping to implement land use plans that deliver high standards of stewardship to our public lands.

What else should voters know about you and your campaign?

The Alberta NDP has broken fund-raising records, got more volunteers and more requests for signs, and generated more excitement than ever before in the history of Livingstone-Macleod. We are finding supporters in every corner of this riding — not just in towns but on farms and ranches. I’m just one of almost 200 volunteers working hard to make sure that our riding is represented in the next Alberta NDP government, not sitting across the aisle in the opposition benches. It really feels like there is a big change happening here, and it’s a change for a better future. It’s pretty exciting.

Full election coverage: Alberta Votes 2023

by LNN Staff

Kevin Van Tighem: NDP candidate for Livingstone-Macleod

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