With the Easter weekend upon us, I thought it a perfect time to share a positive political story with you. Don’t laugh …there is such a thing from time to time.
Last week my Wildrose colleagues and I were able to share details on a principled decision that we made a while back and I’m thrilled to be a big part of it.
You see not long after the election, a PC dominated legislative committee voted to increase MLA pay by 8%. Yes, in an era when we’re asking everybody else to hold the line or take rollbacks, they voted themselves a raise! Well, we didn’t approve and didn’t vote to support it. In fact, we feel so strongly that it is wrong and sends the wrong message to Albertans, we decided to do something about it.
We have created The Wildrose Caucus Foundation so we can give the money to charity. Every one of our 17 Wildrose MLA’s is donating that PC mandated pay hike to the foundation. I an honored to be a co-chair of the foundation, and I’m proud to be part of a team that is putting our money where our mouth is. It’s too easy in politics to criticize and demand leadership while not showing it yourself. Our leader, Danielle Smith, summed it up like this:
“Our caucus was united in our opposition to the MLA pay hike the PC’s brought in and we are united in deciding to do something about it. I am proud of every single Wildrose MLA for stepping up and doing the right thing and I look forward to being able to help out hard working charities that do invaluable work in our communities.”
And boy did it feel good to write our first cheque to a much deserved charity. We wrote our first cheque, in the amount of $25,000.00 to The Little Warriors Foundation. This charity directly supports children who have been victims of sexual abuse. The donation will go toward the creation of the Be Brave Ranch, a first of its kind long treatment facility for kids who have been sexually abused in Canada.
Our hope is by donating the pay hike to charity, we can help those that make a difference in society, make even more of a difference. It’s also our hope that MLA’s from all parties will follow our lead, although it seems highly unlikely.
In any event, look for more positive announcements throughout the year from our Wildrose Caucus Foundation.
And with that, I wish you the very best Easter one could hope for. And maybe, just maybe, the Easter bunny will bring us a nice long stretch of warm spring/summer like weather to go along with a few goodies this year.
