What I've Done Since 2021

Even though I was not elected in the 2021 election I kept following Council; I kept writing articles which led to a new career path. Here are a few highlights. In 2021 I joined the board of the Palliser Friends of Medicare. Councillor Van Dyke was stepping down as chair and she recommended that I join. I'm currently the Vice Chair and the Secretary. In 2022, I joined the Family Fun and Flight committee, serving with two former council candidates. (In 2024 I had a crisis with an elderly family member and had to reconsider my participation. My elderly family member requires my assistance; I had to make a decision about how to spend my energy. If I spread myself too thin then I accomplish nothing.)

In 2023 I joined the Strong Towns Local Conversation Group, I am now the co-chair. We look for small ways to improve our city. We were featured on the City's Shape Your City site.

Riverside Veterans Memorial Park (RVMP)

2023 - I took it upon myself to start weeding the flowerbeds in Riverside Veterans Memorial Park, they were sadly neglected. This is a great example of a Strong Towns principle - if you see a problem, do something about it, hopefully it will inspire others to do the same. As you can see, it worked. I had people come and help me; others stepped up to make this park more beautiful. All it cost me was some garbage bags and my time.

June 2023 Before I started

June 2023 Someone else had started pulling the weeds

June 2023 After the weeding

June 2023 The City planted flowers

I started with the Poppy Garden, then moved to the Tulip Garden and down all the way to where Duffy the Tank sits. (Technically I was breaking a bylaw by doing this, nobody is permitted to walk in the flower beds. Police officers and city workers saw what I was doing, nobody bothered me.) I noticed the People of the Park had been doing a lot of cleaning up themselves and I organized a corn feast for them to thank them. I invited all of Council to come and talk with them, Mayor Clark and Councillor Andy McGrogan showed up.

In 2025, the City is taking much better care of the park and planted poppies this year for the first time. The Poppy Garden has nothing but poppies this year - many, many poppies! Last year five local veterans groups banded together to install a plaque about Duffy the Tank after he had been repainted - it has been kept graffiti free since then by touching up the paint when necessary. The lights in the park are now on all night long and the broken lights were replaced - it is beautiful once again!

(My next project is to try to get the James Marshall Heron Fountain fixed.)

My Journalism Career

In April 2022, Thomas Fougere of Community TV (now the Medicine Hat Owl) approached me with a job offer. He had been following my writing and wanted to work with me. I accepted the offer and history was made. With my own social media page I was reaching dozens of people a day while Community TV was reaching hundreds, sometimes thousands. By combining our talents, our reach has been exponential; something we could not do alone. Later, another journalist joined us and our reach has expanded even more. 

Last month The Medicine Hat Owl website had 15,000 unique visitors. In the same time period our social media had over 2.4 million views with over 31,000 followers. Local journalism has been failing; we just lost our local TV News. Our investigative journalism at The Medicine Hat Owl keeps the public informed about local news in this media desert.

Over the past four years not only have my writing and interviewing skills improved but I‘ve become comfortable in front of the camera, co-hosting a digital news broadcast numerous times a week. My research skills are second to none. I've earned the trust of many residents. Because I am out there in the community, I now have contacts with a wide variety of people.

Freedom of the Press

The Owl has had to fight for Freedom of the Press in this city, a right which is guaranteed under section 2b of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. City administration has been trying to smack me (and ComTV/ The Owl) down for years, insisting that we are not media. In 2023 Colleen Graham, Director and CCO , Corporate Communications told a resident in an e-mail that we at Community TV “monopolize” her thoughts. Ms Graham seems to think that Facebook determines who is actual media or not (citing Bill C-18). She uses Facebook as the justification to not include us in or invite us to media opportunities.

A person starts to wonder if City Administration has something to hide and why they seem to be so afraid of us.

Graham stated that it would take too much time for the City to develop a media policy. I find this disingenuous; they don't have to reinvent the wheel. The Legislature of Alberta already has a policy which is included in this document. (Not once is Bill C-18 cited in this 122 page document but Facebook is.) Digital media outlets are included in this document.

I particularly like this quote on page 20 by Ric McIver . When this was published he was a member of the opposition, he is now Speaker of the House.

Government Should Keep Its Nose And Fingers Out Of The Issue Altogether And Not Try To Limit Who Reports On Them

If Elected

I plan to keep doing what I’ve been doing for the past four years. 

• Reading every publication the City puts out

• Attending all of the council and committee meetings

• Fighting for transparency to hold government and administration accountable

• Advocating for those without a voice or who are too scared to come forward in the absence of a Whistleblower Policy for the Public