Donna Kennedy Glans

St. Patrick’s Day, March 17^th, 2014 was a lucky day for Alberta — mostly for the Calgary-Varsity con­stituents who have Donna Kennedy-Glans, as their MLA. Donna has resigned her posi­tion as Assoc. Min­is­ter for Elec­tric­ity and Renew­able Energy and her mem­ber­ship in the PC Cau­cus. Here is her statement:

“It is with great regret but also great opti­mism and hope that I announce that I am resign­ing my posi­tion as Asso­ciate Min­is­ter for Elec­tric­ity and Renew­able Energy and my mem­ber­ship in the PC Cau­cus today.

I moved to Cal­gary 30 years ago and I’ve been blessed to live in this incred­i­ble province ever since. My hus­band and I raised three sons here, I was a senior man­ager in large oil and gas com­pa­nies, and helped found a non­profit that brings hope to women, girls, and youth in Alberta and around the world.

As a lawyer, I have long been fas­ci­nated with eth­i­cal behav­iour in large orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing co-authoring a book on how com­pa­nies can act with integrity. So when it came time to enter pub­lic life, I was excited about the oppor­tu­ni­ties this afforded to put my pas­sions into prac­tice in another crit­i­cally impor­tant Alberta insti­tu­tion, the Alberta Pro­gres­sive Con­ser­v­a­tive party.

I’ve always been an active sup­porter of the Pro­gres­sive Con­ser­v­a­tive party as its core val­ues rep­re­sented my own desire for a bal­ance between care­ful man­age­ment of our finances with strong sup­port for the next gen­er­a­tion and social nets for our most at risk. In 2012, I was very happy to carry the PC party’s ban­ner to win back Cal­gary Var­sity. I was excited about the dream of gov­ern­ment in Alberta we talked about in that elec­tion includ­ing:
· A gov­ern­ment unafraid to make the dif­fi­cult deci­sions that we need to make today to ensure long term pros­per­ity for our chil­dren;
· A more trans­par­ent and more open gov­ern­ment will­ing to hear all voices; and
· A gov­ern­ment free of enti­tle­ment.
Since being elected, how­ever, and par­tic­u­larly since join­ing Cab­i­net, I am increas­ingly con­vinced that ele­ments of this 43-year old gov­ern­ment are sim­ply unable to make the changes needed to achieve that dream of a bet­ter Alberta.
So what hap­pens now? I still believe in pub­lic ser­vice and in pol­i­tics. I still believe in that dream. I’ll stay in my seat, sit­ting as an Inde­pen­dent, because, I believe, I can bet­ter serve my con­stituents this way.

It’s time to make pol­i­tics in Alberta better.

Sin­cerely,
Donna Kennedy-Glans
MLA, Cal­gary Varsity”

WOWSER! Now that’s lead­er­ship and a beau­ti­ful dis­play of ethics in a polit­i­cally charged poutine-mess! It’s a return to the idea of true democ­racy, and I believe that is some­thing we should all cel­e­brate with aplomb. Going against the cur­rent is never easy, but some­times required. I sure wish I would hear some­thing like this from every politi­cian. I’ve not been much of a believer in the party sys­tem for some time, hop­ing that a true demo­c­ra­tic sys­tem would some­day emerge. Thank you, Donna….for stand­ing up.

As artists, we are free to express our­selves in most coun­tries in the world. Never take for granted, this abil­ity to do so. It is inte­gral to the well-being of our soci­ety. The next time you take up a brush, an instru­ment, a pen… be reminded of how you can cross over and step boldly into the fray. It’s not just a paint­ing, a song….a book or story. It’s the way to be, it’s the fore­telling of how it is…how the future could be. Show the world what you’ve got so every­one can ben­e­fit from your brav­ery, dear artist.

And Donna….thank you for being an artist.