I am attaching a picture of myself and Gary Mar. The last Premier of Alberta, Ed Stelmach has decided to step down as Premier on Oct. 1st. For the last two months 6 party members from the Progressive Party Gary Mar, Alison Redford, Doug Horner, Doug Griffiths, Rick Orman and Ted Morton
have been selling party memberships for $5. Any Alberta citizen who buys a $5 membership becomes a member to the Progressive Party for one year. Only Party members can vote for the new Premier. I have volunteered to work Gary Mar to help get him elected as Premier of Alberta by selling Party memberships. Gary Mar is Chinese. If he gets elected he will be the first Chinese Premiere in the history of Canada. When the first Party vote was held on Sept. 17 Gary won 42% of the total party vote but you need 50% plus one vote to be Premiere. The bottom three candidates are dropped after the first vote. Doug Griffiths, Rick Orman, and Ted Morton who were in the bottom three have asked their voters to vote for Gary Mar on the second ballot. The second voting day will be on Oct. 1.
Gary Mar in past Alberta governments has been the Minister of Education, Minister of Health, Minister of Culture and Ambassador to the United States. If Gary Mar becomes Premiere he will hold a general election next year and all the political parties will run candidates and all Albertans will go to the polls to see which political party they want to govern our Province. Our political parties are: The Progressive Conservatives, The Liberals,
The New Democratic Party, The Wildrose party, The Alberta party and The Green Party. The Progressive party has formed our government for the
last forty years. Knowing people in government is very helpful when you need personal references . People who run for government offices rely on volunteers to get them elected because they cannot use government money to run their elections campaigns. I noticed that people who volunteer to help get government officials elected are usually from the business community or older retired people. These people are also free to join the government members organizing committee that advises him on the concerns of the people. By volunteering to help get a government person elected
you have a direct influence on how the government should serve your citizens . For example, Health care, education, the oil sands, the environment and the economy are my concerns that the government members will listen to me because I helped to get them elected. This is one way in which democracy works in Alberta. Everyone in Alberta is free to join or not to join a political party and work to get them elected. It is the candidates that win the nomination in their voting district known as a riding that run for government office. There are 85 ridings in Alberta that creates 85 government representatives. The party who has the most officials elected ( they are called MLA's or members of the legislative assembly) form the government.
Presently the Progressive Conservatives have 70 elected officials in the Alberta government and they decide how are Province is run.
Most people in Alberta complain about our government not doing a good job but do not take an active part in contacting their government representatives. They take their right to vote for granted. When a general elections is called only 40% of the population will come out to vote.
I thought you might be interested in how democracy works in Alberta. The same system is used for the Federal Government of Canada that has 265 elected government officials across Canada. I helped a Federal Conservative named Jim Prentice who was Stephen Harper's Finance Minister and many people thought Jim Prentice would replace Stephen Harper. JIm Prentice recently resigned from politics and is now a Senior President of the Royal Bank of Canada and is making much more money . It is amazing how any citizen in Canada can meet the leaders of your country if you are willing to volunteer.
