Skip to content

NDP candidate declares for Banff-Airdrie

FB Foothills
Anne Wilson

A long-time Canmore resident has thrown her hat into the Banff-Airdrie race for Canada's NDP.

Wilson, who has lived in Canmore since 1980, and has been a lawyer for the past 16 years, has considerable political experience under her belt.

She has worked for the NDP provincially and federally for 26 years and is currently the vice-president of the Alberta NDP.

“The Banff-Airdrie constituency, including Cochrane, is lucky to have someone as experienced and committed as Anne,” said constituency association president Andy Marshall. “She has an amazing record of standing up for the needs of ordinary folk.”

Wilson, whose practice has a strong focus on legal aid, said she was drawn to run in the federal election because she believes in standing up for "ordinary Canadians."

"I was attracted to run this year with Jagmeet Singh's (federal NDP leader) declaring he is working for ordinary working Canadians as well and not the the super rich," she said, adding the Liberals and Conservatives have failed to address the needs of those not in the top one per cent.

As a Canmore resident, Wilson is cognisant of affordability issues that she says while extreme in her community is an issue across the constituency.

"This riding is just so expensive to live in," she said, adding one of her goals is to bring more affordable housing to the region, which aligns with the NDP platform of adding 500,000 affordable housing units nationwide.

More affordable housing, Wilson said, will help young families starting out and address the issues, especially in Canmore, that has caused people to live in their vans to make ends meet.

Other top-of-mind issues for the candidate, who rounds off the race between the Conservatives, Liberals and People's Party of Canada, include climate change expansions in medicare and the NDP's promised pharmacare program.

"I'm particularly interested if people feel their vote is being taken for granted by the Conservatives," added Wilson who feels incumbent Blake Richards hasn't done enough during his time in office to address the needs of the constituency.

While the last provincial election caused a major shift back to the province's more conservative base, Wilson believes there are still strong positive opinions about the work the NDP did provincially and could do nationally in terms of the environment and improving access to services.

"The NDP will also build a future where Indigenous communities have safe housing, clean water, high-quality education and full access to health care," stated a news release announcing Wilson's candidacy."The Party also is pushing plans for a job-rich clean economy that will create at least 300,00 new jobs and help Canada meet its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is unequivocal in its position that our response to global climate change is one of the most significant aspects of the Oct. 21 election."

Before entering law, Anne was a landscape gardener, and maintained the Canadian Wilds section at the Calgary Zoo.

Anne has been instrumental in growing Canada’s NDP in Alberta. She has held positions on the executive in Wild Rose (now Banff Airdrie) for many years. She has run for the NDP in Wild Rose three times, recruited executive members and candidates for Wild Rose and Macleod (now Foothills), fundraised, and she has door-knocked in every election, provincial and federal, since 1993.

She is married to Jeff Eamon, and has two daughters, Sophy and Ellen.



Comments


No Facebook? No problem.

Here is how you can stay connected to the Airdrie City View and access local news in your community:

Bookmark our homepage for easy access to local news.
Pick up a copy of our newspaper and read local news that you cannot get elsewhere.
Sign up for our FREE newsletters to have local news & more delivered daily to your email inbox.
Download our mobile icon to have access to our news right at your fingertips.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks