The Alberta NDP has nominated its candidate for the Chestermere-Strathmore riding for next year's provincial election.
Raj Jessel, a Chestermere resident of 15 years and a long-time public transit operator and executive board member with the local ATU 583 union, will be the party's representative for the riding.
Jessel said he's been an NDP member since 1986, initially drawn to the party for its "policies for the working class, and supporting Alberta workers." He added he has been a member of the party for nearly four decades, and previously assisted his brother's campaigns for the NDP in the 1990s.
"Through my time with Transit, I became involved with my union and came to understand how policies can affect everyone," said Jessel in an emailed statement to the Rocky View Weekly, when asked what motivated him to enter politics.
According to a news release from the NDP, Jessel has been a transit operator for the last 24 years. Before that, he worked as a cab driver in Calgary, and before that, he worked as a teacher in his native India.
"I believe in the NDP’s policies, and the vision that Rachel Notley has for the province, so I wanted to be part of that work and help in any way I could," his email stated. "Residents in Chestermere-Strathmore are tired of the UCP’s drama, and they’re tired of the UCP’s policies that are impacting family budgets. I believe that Chestermere-Strathmore residents deserve better, and we will deliver them a brighter future with an NDP government.
"The NDP also are champions for good public health care and have a clear plan to invest in health care going forward so we can recover from the chaos the UCP introduced into our system."
Since his candidacy was announced in late September, Jessel has been door-knocking throughout the riding, and said what he's heard most from local voters are concerns about the UCP's draft K-6 curriculum, ambulance availability, and the ongoing rise in the cost of living.
"Talking with residents in Chestermere-Strathmore, it’s very clear that they cannot trust the UCP," his email read. "From waging a war on doctors in the middle of a global pandemic, to threatening to strip mine coal in the Rockies, to the bad gambles they made on [the Keystone XL pipeline project] and with their jobless corporate giveaways, the residents here have lost their confidence in the UCP."
Currently, Chestermere-Strathmore's MLA is the UCP's Leela Aheer. She ran in the recent leadership race for the party, but was one of the first of seven candidates eliminated from contention during the vote on Oct. 6.
Danielle Smith ultimately won that leadership race with 53 per cent of the votes on the sixth and final ballot. As a result, she will lead the UCP into the next provincial election, and also assume the role of premier from Jason Kenney. In order to obtain a seat in the legislature, Smith intends to run for the UCP in a byelection for the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding.
Jessel said a Smith premiership concerns him, and he predicts the former Wildrose Party leader will bring more "cost and more conflict" in the months leading up to the provincial election.
"She has no interest in the real issues facing Alberta families," he argued. "Residents in Chestermere-Strathmore are tired of the drama, the division, and the chaos, and many feel like they don’t have a home anymore."
