A lot of people were surprised and confused about why I bought a membership and why I decided to take part in the PC Leadership over the last few months, but there are a lot of reasons why I did this.
First off, I live in Alberta. It is a strange place sometimes for someone who is from Ontario (and Ottawa at that!) I don't like hearing all the Ottawa bashing and when I folks bash the east, I don't know why (but it sure helps me understand why the east bashes Alberta).
Second, my job. I work with government on a daily basis, and knowing that there would be changes, no matter who got elected, was one thing; but knowing that my field would get changed drastically (and for no good reason, IMHO) meant that my work would be not only much more difficult, but things could be changed so much that my organization could fold, or we would be facing terrible situations every day.
While at the begining of the race there were several candidates' vision of Alberta that I could "live" with, when the field narrowed to Dining, Morton and Stelmach, I was really worried. One candidate was going to take one of my member schools and turn it into a university right away (and he may have turned a second one into a university later too); meanwhile the other candidate was going to implement some of the craziest and untested policies and mechanisms (for no other reason than he felt it was the "right thing to do") which would make post-secondary education as a whole very very difficult to work in. So, on the one hand I had a major shift in my organization, accompanied by a significant financial loss and a potential reason for folding; and on the other hand, I had an Alberta where work would never be successful and coming to the office every day would be awful.
Ed Stelmach, in comparison, will expand my sector of PSE and will be much more thoughtful when it comes to making changes. I think my work world (as well as the world in which I live in outside of work) will be so much better in this situation than it would have been if the 1st and 2nd place winners from last week's vote had held their positions.
Selfish? A little. But the hundred-thousand students I represent won't be disappointed either.
posted by traxis @ 8:53 a.m.
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