The below Questions and Answers are in the general order they arrived, not in the order of any particular importance. Where there were several Questions about the same topic, they are listed under the same heading, and listed together.

Topics:

Why do you run in Leduc-Beaumont-Devon, Q&A 1, 2, 3.

Rental and Housing Issues, Q&A 4.

Legal System, Q&A 5

Government, Q&A 6,7

Education, Q&A 8, 9.

Environment, Q&A 10, 11, 12.

Business, Industry and the Average Person, Q&A 13.

Abortion, Q&A 14.

Favorite Wildrose Alliance Policies, 15.

Professional Accountability, 16.

Fixed Election Dates, 17.

1. Why Leduc-Beaumont-Devon?

Q: Why have you chosen to run for election in Leduc-Beaumont-Devon rather than in your home riding?

A: When people rightly ask why I have CHOSEN to run as a candidate in Leduc-Beaumont-Devon I simply say, “This is the place that made a huge difference in my life. I hope that I can have just a small portion of the positive effect on it that it has had for me.”

I am here in Leduc-Beaumont-Devon not by birth or accident but by design. Make no mistake about it, I have enjoyed living in Edmonton-Glenora and have participated fully in my community there. But Leduc-Beaumont-Devon shares my nature and my personality. Farming is in my blood and business is in my nature ~ and I have found both of them here.

When I finally had an opportunity to make my first large, commercial/industrial real estate investment back in 1998-1999, I chose Nisku. Oil was $10.00 a barrel and people were fleeing Nisku like rats from a sinking ship. Frankly, that was the only reason that I could afford to buy there then. But, I had a strong feeling that would soon change and indeed it did, and my family’s fortunes with it. So, that decision at that time, when I was working 16 hours a day, raising my children alone and pinching every penny I could to find some financial independence for my young family, was a real turning point for me. And I have never looked back because of it.

2. Why Leduc-Beaumont-Devon?
Q: Some of the candidates here have been parachuted into our riding. Why have you chosen not to live in this riding?

A: I take exception with being described as a parachute candidate. My business is in Nisku, a central part of this community. The only reason that I have stayed in Edmonton since 1999, when I bought the warehouse, is because I have had other more labour intensive businesses to manage in Edmonton and because my daughters have remained very attached to the excellent schools that they attend and, this year, so my older daughter can stay at the U of A. If you listen to me much you will know that Education and Justice are my two biggest legislative priorities and what I place as the most pressing issues in our province ~ and so protecting and valuing my kid’s educational choices has governed a lot of my decisions in the last 15 years.

3. Why Leduc-Beaumont-Devon?
Q: But how do you feel about not being able to vote in your own riding?

A: Yes, I admit that is a disappointment. I can only hope that my constituents here will overlook that this time. Under no uncertain terms, it will not happen again. The day after I win this election I will make arrangements to open a constituency office here, likely in Leduc as the centre of the riding and closest to my business in Nisku. The day after that I will be finding a home to live in so that I can be close to my constituents and open up the lines of communication with them. I need to get to know you all far more intimately ~ your needs, your wants, what is meaningful and important in your lives. And I promise (and I hate that cynical electioneering word) that, unlike your present representative, I will translate what I hear into action. I am a trained communicator ~ and not through some patented training school but through my work as a teacher, manager, broker and negotiator ~ and, also, mostly as a single Mom - you listen all the time and you only get to speak occasionally! And, I translate what I hear into action. My success has, and will continue to, depend upon it.

I believe that you do not vote for someone merely because they live next door but because you seriously believe that they are the best person for the job and would be most effective at it. If you give yourself a chance to get to know me better by visiting my website, calling me up and talking to me and just hearing how I put “meat and potatoes” into my talk not just “fluffy custard” and “electioneering sweet talk” and empty promises that are so very easy to break. I challenge you to review the promises that were made to you last time about getting a seat in Cabinet and twinning Hwy 16 and all the other unfulfilled things that were thrown out there to see how they would float. They did float and you elected Mr. Rogers but did they come true? They never came true, ladies and gentlemen, and you know that they will be doubly ignored by Mr. Stelmach now, a man that Mr. Rogers fought diligently to defeat.

I do not make promises, but I DO get results because I make sense and, if for no other reason, because I am such a thorn under the saddle when I want something bad enough.

As to my not being a part of this constituency, that is patently false. I am as much a part and in some ways more a part than many. I do business here. I checked my list of contractors and service providers that I use in carrying out my business responsibilities and every one of them are local businesses themselves. I learned the importance of supporting the local economy from my Mom & Dad when I was a kid participating in our family farm operation. My Dad, and now my older brother who still farms, always said, if you want to keep business and services in your town you need to support them, even if you have a slightly better option in a bigger centre, or perhaps, especially if you do. If you don’t support them they will leave town and the convenience of doing business locally will, too ~ and besides, these people are your friends and neighbors and they too support their community. So, I don’t go to Edmonton when I need something done. I pick up the phone book and call a local business or I ask one of my other contractors who they think is a good local choice. That is how I do business and my business is here in this constituency.

And that’s another question that you need to ask Mr. Rogers ~ when has he ever done business anywhere, in this constituency or anywhere?

4. Rental and Housing Issues
Q: There has been a lot of talk about the over-heated housing and rental market in Alberta. What would you do to protect lower income people from the pressures created by our high rents and expensive housing?

A: First of all, I will address the question of high rents:
I question the entire premise of Alberta having a rental “crisis” and excessively high rents. I have been a Landlord since 1981 when I turned a very low-end, small condo that I had been living in into a rental unit when I could finally afford to buy my first house. Since then I have always owned rental housing and have seen far more months of high vacancy than low. There have always been ebbs and flows in the rental market as there is in any market and this is the way it should be. This is the way the market works and it is the way it should work. You do not cure short term challenges, like low vacancies, with market-crunching, economically destructive practices such as rent control, a suggestion being batted about by the NDs and the Liberals, as if it is a cure-all to a complex situation. This so-called solution is as short-sighted as the people and parties that present them. How in the world do you encourage developers to build more rental housing by telling them that you are going to cap rents. Indeed, even the suggestion puts an immediate “freeze” in the veins of developers as it did right here in Edmonton last year. While applications for development permits for apartments remained high hardly any of those were being developed as rental units but rather as ownership condominiums. While I, and my party, have no interest in market intervention of any kind, if they really want to help control rents, they could stop start by lowering taxes of all sorts on and permitting monopolistic utilities companies to gouge the public. As a Landlord, I can tell you firsthand, that today’s rents can not keep up with the myriad of increasing costs that Landlords have to absorb ~ from all levels of government. One example ~ in Edmonton Landlords pay a property tax premium of 25% over any other residential housing. Why, you ask? If you can figure that one out I’d love for you to share the answer with me.
b) As to housing costs:
The high demand for houses in our area is just another example of the fact that Albertans enjoy wages and benefits that far exceed those of other areas of the country. People can afford to buy homes in far greater numbers than most other places. Try buying a house in Vancouver where prices are far, far higher and wages barely compare to those in our market. This is the way to gauge actual real costs ~ not as the Liberals and NDs do by just taking a very limited and myopic view of the problem, making misleading and misinformed public predictions about it and then throwing money at it in the hopes that no one will notice.

5. Legal System

Q: Dear Sharon,
In the summer of 2004 I had a very unfortunate and painful experience involving the legal system. (As I am unable to check the details described here I must delete them in the interest of fairness to all parties. Suffice it to say that Mr. Armstrong’s legal concerns are cited here (S.M).) At the time, I was not overly concerned. I thought I would appeal to the law society and they, being a "professional" body whose sole interest was in justice, would sanction the lawyer ~~~ . How wrong I was! I appealed to the law society and asked them to discipline the ~~~~ lawyer ~~~.
(Details excluded here)
Let us consider the general proposition of a legal ombudsman who has the power to police lawyers. Legislation to create such a position could be passed by the provincial legislature. This kind of ombudsman is needed now. After such legislation was passed, a citizen who has a problem with a lawyer, instead of appealing to the law society, could appeal to the legal ombudsman. Such a measure would act as a protection for other citizens of the Province who might then be protected in future from the same or similar unfortunate experiences that I have undergone.

For information on the issue and academic support: justanotherunion.ca

Sincerely yours,
George Armstrong


A: Hello Mr. Armstrong;

Thank you very much for your letter.

I have at least two personal examples of attempts that I have made to seek redress for wrongs by lawyers through the Law Society and how it has managed to sidestep its responsibilities in one way or another. I also know many examples of others who have the same concerns. The Law Society of Alberta's lack of oversight and absence of interest in controlling and disciplining its members is gaining notoriety more and more every day.

The practice of law and conduct of members of this profession - and I hesitate to use the word, as fewer and fewer of them these days can be placed in that category ( a professional is a practitioner whose use of their knowledge is oriented toward society - an obligation of that profession to put the interests of the people they serve ahead of their own private self-interest) is a concern of every one of us as we are all effected in one way or another by it whether we use a lawyer ourselves or just watch them use us - think the millions of taxpayer dollars drained through one of thousands of costly government legal battles or another. WE pay for the abuse of a system that has become hide-bound and self-serving. Worse yet, the legal system has become so certain of its unassailability that it shows little interest in the concerns of the public. What with lawyers being proven to bill 76 hours of work in a 24 hour period, neglecting to perform even the most basic of inquiries on their clients cases prior to making court applications and presentations, making neglectful mistakes in presenting their client's case, encouraging client's, as in your case, to produce untruthful affidavits, etc. our legal community has entirely lost it's way. And the worst of it - what can we, as individuals do about it when our existing government has abdicated its responsibility to regulate the legal community by passing that regulation off to the very lawyers themselves in the form of The Law Society of Alberta ~ sort of like the fox watching the hen house.

I hope that you do not interpret this as simply an ad hominem attack on an entire group of professionals because it is not. I know many fine lawyers and have many lawyer friends and supporters and most of them know my concerns. Several of them, very privately I add, have many of the same concerns I do. After all, people inside any profession can identify the ills of their industry a lot quicker and more clearly than we outsiders can. I am heartsick that the profession, a once proud profession, simply closes its eyes and keeps its head down and allows the ills to continue to fester. I had hoped, and still do, that the cure will come from within.

The thing that worries me, perhaps the most, is that lawyers are, without question, the most politically powerful of all professions. The halls of our legislative chambers are rife with them, they are the chickens, the eggs and even the roosters in the court system. Everywhere you turn in our legislative and court chambers you find lawyers. Whenever they are challenged they simply attempt to muzzle their detractors by throwing expensive lawsuits at them. So, it is absolutely imperative that people act together, in great numbers, to arrest this legal fall from grace. A few at a time and we will be trampled by the golden (as colors go, I think it is a good color to describe them) wave because of the power they control. Good luck in even finding a decent lawyer to act against another lawyer (I've tried) and most of us couldn't afford him/her even if we could. The only way is for the public to join together in great numbers and use a strong voice to force changes in this arena. I am heartened by a few of the media (eg. Maclean's magazine) taking up this cause, but in the end it is up to us.

Please continue to talk about your story and help me, if you can, to get elected, so that I can do whatever is possible to change this situation, and together we CAN create positive change. I am convinced of it. Besides, it is the only hope, the only way, to make things better.

6. Government
Q: Because your Party has a platform of small government and low taxes, how would it find the money and bureaucracy to provide for the big service industries like Health Care and Education?

A: No one is going to deny it ~ these are the two most important social services that we provide to our communities. Short-changing them is not going to buy anyone many votes but, more importantly, is ethically the wrong thing to do. And I would not be a part of doing any such thing. After all, friends, I have spent many, many hours working and volunteering in the field of Education as a Director with Alberta Home and School Councils Association and Adult and Family Literacy and just constantly at the school level. Although my kids and I rarely go to doctors, I know that health care is all any of us really care about when the chips are down and we are helpless to take care of ourselves. Everything else just pales in comparison and we depend upon others to help us ~ just as we should. Good governments who make good decisions, not political decisions, are crucial at that time.

Our Party believes that the only effective way to improve our services, these and all others, is to be very vigilant about growing and maintaining efficiency. Not only because efficiency saves tax dollars, which means we end up with more to give, but because it adds value to the delivery of these services. In fact, my friends, sometimes throwing more money at a problem without fixing the underlying inefficiencies is the worst thing you can do because it just makes the problem worse and covers up the symptoms ~ much like poor medical care itself. So, firstly, we would constantly be assessing the efficacy of our service industries. And whenever we needed to, we would be putting more money into the system ~ perhaps not just dumping it directly into the system itself but perhaps, when necessary, into support agencies and services that contribute to the improvement of the system, such as education, training, infrastructure, technology, etc. Service industries are often intertwined. Let me give you an example, an example that you may never have considered. When we improve legislation and service delivery in the justice system our policing, investigation and correctional services experience far less stress upon them. The same goes for health care. If we address issues and concerns in Health Care at the level of training, retraining, education, coordination, technology, infrastructure, etc., you can improve things in fairly short-order in health care and in all industry. We know these things and we need to be assessing them all the time ~ keeping a more pro-active and global view in all areas and resist the myopic, hysterical reaction of the perpetual “under-funded” mantra that we hear constantly from the other liberal parties ~ and, lets face it, they are ALL liberal parties.

It’s tough being a conservative party in a sea of liberals because liberals can always paint you us as uncaring, unfeeling ogres. Gee, listen to her, she won’t give the poor and the helpless more funding ~ she is an awful person. What nonsense. I will tell you one thing that I have learned hanging around life for 57 years ~ people benefit the most in the long run, and subsequently in the short run, too, when they are led and directed by disciplined people with some vision and foresight. Think about it in your home. If you responded by running out and buying every last thing that your kids demanded because they just “can’t live without, because Johnny and Mary and everyone else has it” you would be broke and on social assistance in no time. What a lose/lose situation that would be. Sometimes you just have to watch the bank and make better choices to help bring long-term strength and stability to your home. The same applies to everything you do, especially medical care which consumes over 30% of this province’s budget. And that is what Sharon Maclise and the Wildrose Alliance will do.

7. Government

8. Education
Q: You have complained about the Stelmach government’s decision to pay for the unfunded portion of the teacher’s pension plan and yet you hold yourself out as a big supporter of public education. Can you explain?

A: Spending huge amounts of our money on bills that we never incurred is simply unconscionable. This supposed $2.1 billion dollar deal for our benefit is going to cost you, my friends, the following: A teacher earning an average salary will receive the following over the next five years: $62,000.00 in pension contributions, $19,000.00 in salary increases, and a $1,500.00 signing bonus for a whopping total of $82,500.00. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and dozens of other credible sources, calculate that this cost balloons to a total of some $6.4 billion ~ a grand legacy that you and I will leave to our kids. I don’t even want to calculate what this will cost our taxpayers ~ they say something like $600.00 per person but of course we know that only a small number of all of our citizens pay taxes what with children and unemployed, etc. And this is not an end or a final amount – there is more, way too much more for me to even spend your valuable time reciting. If this makes your blood boil as it does mine all you need to do is Google Alberta Teachers Pension & Stelmach on your computer and you will get such a raft of unhappiness that you can’t read it all. And for what, so that Mr. Stelmach could keep the powerful teacher’s labour union quiet during the election and Mr. Rogers could get up here and brag about this daring and visionary decision by his government.

Now this is not an indictment of teachers. I have often said, and I will repeat here, that I consider teachers the most important professionals in any society. Before doctors or lawyers or any other. Never be confused about what comes first, the chicken or the egg, because whichever it is, it always takes the form of a teacher. There are no good doctors or lawyers or farmers or welders … without good teachers. They are the motivators, the illuminators, the facilitators. Although we may forget others we never forget our teachers because they guide us and inspire us and lead us on to great things. We are all blessed when our communities are blessed with good, with great teachers and luckily here in Alberta we have so many of them. Because I worked among them I know that many of them too understand what I am saying when I question the sense of this bad decision ~ and I also know that many of my own teachers would cheer me and think that they had taught me well.

Enough said. This is done now and can’t be undone and more’s the pity for that.

A voter submitted this on the teacher’s pension payout:

• There are approximately 35,000 teachers in Alberta and they make on average $75,000 per year. The teacher's portion of the unfunded liability, according to the 1992 agreement between the government and the ATA, stands today at $2.1 billion.
• This amounts to about $60,000 per teacher.
• Rather than simply picking up the debt for them, the Alberta government should have allowed them to pay it off, without interest, for whatever term-up to 60 years that they desire.
• For example in 30 years each teacher would pay $2,000 per year while in 60 years each teacher would pay $1,000 per year.
• This way they would have been responsible for their own debt, which is only fair, but would have been saved from paying the interest or penalty for allowing it to remain unpaid and then they could have decided how much they would expect teachers who are benefiting now from it would pass off to future generations of teachers instead of the rest of us.

What is your position on global warming and climate change?

While the environmental stewardship of our planet is the responsibility of all of us and should be of a high priority, I have many sound reasons to question the efficacy of much that is reported on the issue of climate change and, most particularly, the methods proposed of dealing with it. But most alarming of all, to me, is the extent to which the environmental lobby will go to convince us of its theories. This alone has set me off the entire issue and given me, and thousands of others, good cause to feel a hardening of our position on this issue ~ even, I could say, a sense of backlash.

As a parent and an educator I am alarmed by the methods used to pass off “debateable truths” as accepted scientific fact to uneducated and unsophisticated children in our publicly-funded classrooms. Free copies of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth are passed out to teachers in classrooms with the intention that the “film” be shown in science classrooms as if it were scientifically tested and a sound representation of facts. And yet, almost on the very day that Mr. Gore was receiving his Nobel Peace Prize a judge in Britain was reminding educators that his movie must not be viewed in classrooms uncritically as it represents only one view of an, as yet, unproven scientific theory. Dr. Tim Ball, a serious and respected international scientist who is a sceptic of the global warming theory and publishes his views unwaveringly has received death threats against himself and his family by fanatics in the climate change camp. This all is, to me, far more frightening then any apocalyptic promise of us all dying a slow, agonizing death in the next 50 years if we don’t make huge, radical and economically destructive decisions to prevent this impending disaster.

All this being said, I am unable to get past these facts ~ my daughters being subjected to climate change propaganda in their schools in the guise of unquestionable scientific fact, proponents threatening the lives of their opponents – scary combinations of fanaticism and idolatry. When all the hysteria dies down, perhaps we can all, myself included, look at the issue sensibly and critically. Until then, I will reserve judgement ~ but certainly I will say that I feel no fearful push to decide and will not be rushed into a destructive economic decision on this matter any time soon. And, most importantly, I believe the way we deal with this issue is a provincial decision and only a provincial decision and I will resist unwaveringly any attempt by the federal government or any or all of the other provinces insinuating themselves upon it.

11. Environment

Do you have no concerns about the state of the environment and or unwillingness to protect it?

Indeed I do. I have been an environmental advocate longer and sooner than most who spend their time talking about it. I grew up on a farm where we took nothing for granted when it came to the environment. We understood first hand the concerns surrounding issues such as over-use of pesticides and herbicides, fertilizers and animal growth hormones, the implications of genetically enhanced seeds and foods, erosion due to the clearing of land and the removal of plant life and the cautions of waste of all sorts, particularly water, direct awareness of removal of sewage and debris, the balance between sound animal husbandry and exploiting one’s resources in order to gain maximum long term benefit from your farming business. There is no better way to learn about the environment than by living close to it and depending on it for your survival. So, I came by my environmental activism naturally and honestly, not like many city environmentalists who have never even been outside on a rainy day. The ones who read a book or see a movie made by an “industrial environmentalist” (someone who makes a very successful personal industry out of creating climate and environmental hysteria). So, I, and now my kids, have always recycled, always cautiously saved water, especially expensive treated water; we have always preserved and conserved. I make wise purchasing decisions based upon my personal concern for the environment and I have helped my daughters to learn to respect and treasure our exceptional Alberta and Canadian environmental bounty.

So, do I care about the environment? You bet I do. Without a thriving and healthy environment we will lose all of our resources and our wealth and our excellent way of life.

12. Environment

Q: You speak of securing our children’s future. Wouldn’t we be able to do this best if we stopped depleting our resources and left at least some of them in the ground?

A: It is quite surprising how often this idea has been suggested to me in the last couple weeks. Now I am no economist but I have never heard a serious business venture where people discover a product, develop it, create or find a market, build the infrastructure or means to deliver that product/service and, after all that, say, oh well, we’ll just leave that behind and exploit it at some later day ~ that is, if there is still a market for it.
Here in Alberta we have oil and gas, not cod fish. The world will be eating cod fish 50 years from now, a century from now so maybe controlling the harvest of codfish would have been a good idea for Newfoundland. But, I’m not so sure they will be using oil and gas even a decade or two from now, especially not in the abundance that they use it now and certainly not if the environmental lobby has anything to do with it. And, arguably, maybe the world is better off if it finds other products to power our engines and our hydro-plants and our industrial machinery. But, in the meantime, we have a product that the world needs, that our best friends and allies need and, if we don’t want to wake up one morning and find that nobody wants it anymore and we don’t have anything else to sell them and we’re broke, we need to do what business people do and sell our product and use it to improve our future by diversifying our economy so that when the day comes that nobody wants oil anymore we have something else to sell them. Our kids, whether they know it or not, are depending on us to do that.

13. Business, Industry and Average Person

You seem to be mostly for business and industry and the rich not so much for the average person. Is that because you are a business person?

There is no separation between business and industry and the average person. We pretty much all are “business” people if you parse the old chicken and egg theory. Business provides our jobs (even those of us who work in government wouldn’t have jobs without taxes being paid), our wealth and most of our taxes (without a job none of us would be paying taxes).

In the several forums that we candidates have attended I have heard repeatedly the other candidates talking about “the average person” not getting his share of benefits from Alberta’s boom. They talk about people “falling through the cracks”, “not sharing in the Alberta Advantage”, “the rich getting rich and the poor getting poorer” – every old, tired cliché that you can think of. They do this, not because it is true or because they care whether or not it is true but because it can pit “us and against them” and they can then say that they care about “us” and conservatives only care about “them”. This is just electioneering hogwash.

First of all, these clichés are simply wrong ~ check out the comparisons between our province and others: the average income here is higher, the comparison between income and cost of living is among the most beneficial (and this is partly because we pay the least taxes), more people can afford to own their own home, there are fewer unemployed despite the fact that many have come to this province with the intention to remain unemployed and share in the wealth, we have the best education and health care systems in Canada, all of this and yet we DO NOT take as many days and weeks of holidays as people in other provinces (except for Saskatchewan farmers who seem to work 52 weeks of the year!).

Now, do we think that a healthy economy such as this happens somehow without the success of business and industry? No, it simply does not work that way. We are employed by this sector, our mortgages and food bills are paid by us because of that employment income, our taxes are paid because we have a job in business and industry and business and industry pays the vast majority of taxes in our province and our country, despite what you are told repeatedly by the Liberals and NDPs. Here is an interesting fact as reported in Maclean’s Oct 8/07 – The richest 5% of Canadians make 25% of the money but pay 36% of the taxes! Now, I understand that it is useful for socialist political parties to create bogeymen out of the successful and wealthy among us but I, for one, am grateful that they are around. I will keep trying to get the most I can out of them so that you and I can live well but I will not bite the hand that feeds me and kill the golden goose. I want my businesses busy and healthy and mostly I want them to stay right here in Alberta so I can enjoy their jobs and their taxes. And you should want that, too.

14. Abortion

Daniel K. asks:  I will be voting in your riding this Monday. Since I do not want this to be a trick question I want to state that I am against abortion.

As far as I can ascertain, however, your party as well as yourself takes no stance on abortion. Yes I realize that abortion is not a provincial issue per se but I do believe that as (potential) governmental official you do have a responsibility to protect the lives of the citizens of your province.

If your party takes no stance I presume you would be free to vote one way or another if the issue ever came up. May I ask: what is your stance on abortion?

Thank you for this question, Daniel. May I publish it on my website along with your name? Either way, you will get the same answer.

Our Party takes no position on this issue in our present policy incarnation since the merger of the Wildrose Party (my Party) and the Alliance. The Wildrose Party included the abolishment of abortion in our policy debate ~ a policy that was defeated knowing that we would be willing to take this issue to the electorate in the event of a referendum application. What was included and passed by the Wildrose was a policy removing abortion as a medical procedure covered by our public health care providers. I voted with the majority on both issues. This policy was dropped under the merger as being an issue that our membership was so closely divided on that we would need to bring it to our first policy convention after the merger in order to find a consensus among our merged membership.

Again, thank you for this question. It has been one that I have heard a few times at people's doors and so it is likely that many others would like an answer to it also. I will publish my answer whether or not you allow me to publish your name ~ but it would be better if the public sees a motivation for its inclusion on my website.

15. Favorite Wildrose Alliance Policies

Q: Of all the policies of the Wildrose Alliance, what are a few that really “light your fire”, Sharon?