Contender becomes the first identified candidate for the riding south of Calgary.
HIGH RIVER, AB – With an expected early provincial election, the Alberta Party has selected a candidate for the Highwood Constituency, making them the first party to officially do so for the riding.
10-year High River resident Joel Windsor has been selected as the Candidate for the Alberta Party in the Highwood Riding. Throughout his time in High River Joel has been teaching at Notre Dame Collegiate of the Christ the Redeemer Catholic School Division.
The Alberta Party Highwood Constituency Association held a press conference on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 to introduce their candidate.
“We believe Joel to be an excellent advocate for our constituents as well as for the principles the Alberta Party stands for,” said Highwood Constituency Association President Mitch Lindsay.
Those principles include prosperity, fiscal responsibility, social responsibility, sustainability, democracy and quality of life, according to the Alberta Party.
Windsor says it was the party’s guidelines for its MLAs that attracted him at first.
“If I’m elected, I’m required by my party to consult with constituents at least once a month,” said Windsor. “This simply puts in writing a value that I already held, and a commitment I make immediately to constituents.”
Windsor says that constituents in Okotoks, High River and Heritage Pointe simply want to know that their opinion matters.
“The Alberta Party, and I, do not believe that government’s job is to tell the people what is happening. The government’s job is to listen to constituents, gather data and information, and make informed decisions to help Alberta move forward.”
Joel Windsor’s Biography
With an expected early provincial election, 10-year High River resident Joel Windsor has been selected as the Candidate for the Alberta Party in the Highwood Riding. Throughout his time in High River Joel has been teaching at Notre Dame Collegiate of the Christ the Redeemer Catholic School Division.
Joel is a musician, educator, clinician, adjudicator, composer/arranger, speaker and advocate of the Arts and Education. He has been a musician since the age of 3, and began teaching privately at 16. Joel completed his music and education degrees at the University of Lethbridge in 2005, and is on course to complete his Masters in Music Education summa cum laude through Boston University at the end of Summer 2015.
As a strong community advocate, his approach to education has always been as a way of participating in community, and he has organized 12 different festivals promoting the arts and culture in High River since 2005. Early in 2013 Joel applied for and was appointed to the Town of High River’s Arts and Culture Board, now known as the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee, and later that year was appointed Chairperson. Following the 2013 Flood he also participated in the Business Renewal Advisory Committee, consulting arts and culture community members to provide considerable feedback for the use of the proposed Economic Development Plan for the town.
Joel has also been involved in a number of provincial organizations, including the Alberta Teachers’ Association, Alberta Band Association, Alberta Music Education Foundation, Music Conference Alberta, and the Alberta Society of Music Festival Friends. With the Alberta Party he has been involved in constitution and bylaw amendments, and was a key member of the Education Policy Review Committee. He is currently scheduled to speak at three Teachers Conferences on the topic of “Musicking” and “Music Education Professionalism”.
Joel is a born, raised, and educated Albertan having first lived in Carstairs, then Didsbury where he graduated from high school in 1998. He has set up his home in High River with wife Tamara and children Nathaniel (6) and Sebastian (4). He is a passionate Albertan, and is excited to work for an Alberta that his children can grow up and live successfully in, just as he has.
More on Joel Windsor’s campaign:
Website: http://www.vote4windsor.com
Email: joel@vote4windsor.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Vote4Windsor
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Vote4Windsor
Box 45125, High River, AB, T1V 1R7
Phone: (587) 287-6390
Joel Windsor Candidacy Speech, February 18, 2015
It gives me great pleasure to announce that I am the Alberta Party Candidate for the Highwood Constituency for the upcoming election, whenever that may be.
I first moved to the area in 2005, and was attracted to it because of how welcoming it was. I was a University student on a Greyhound north to visit family on a number of occasions, and even in those few short moments as we paused in both High River and Okotoks, I felt something different about the area.
Stars aligned and I moved with my wife less than a month after we were married to High River. We immediately fell in love with the natural beauty of the community. Even through all the challenges we’ve faced as a community, High River is home, and will be for many years to come.
We heard the phrase “High River Strong” as a sort of call to arms following the flood. To me that phrase became more. You can be strong like an ox, you can be Hulk Smash Strong, but neither of those compare to being High River Strong. We banded together as a community, lifted ridiculous burdens, both physically and mentally, pulled from each residents’ strengths, and the town is well on the way to recovery and prosperity. Not there yet, but certainly well on its way. I’ve been involved as best as I can in this recovery, and now I’m offering my service to constituents to help bring it to prosperity.
The Alberta Party is different. No other party articulates a set of principles as we do. These values are not our policy or platform planks, they are the litmus paper we use to test each of our decisions on before we move forward. In that way, voters can know which direction the party is likely to take before anyone even asks.
Every policy we make will be agreed upon because it helps us achieve prosperity, be fiscally responsible and socially responsible, target sustainability both economically and environmentally, reignite democracy, and ensure a strong quality of life for every Albertan, regardless of circumstance. We can no longer put all our eggs in one oil barrel, and must diversify our way off this resource revenue roller coaster. We must adopt a “spend smart, spend once” attitude, where schools such as the one behind me, are built for a future. Westmount, a school whose grand opening was less than 3 years ago, is already overpopulated, and has no space to add on. Kids should go to school in their community, and shortsightedness in planning is putting that at risk. Our party wants to see everyone have the opportunity to succeed, including the working poor, and while current policies don’t prevent that, they certainly don’t enable it either. Okotoks is a community that seeks out sustainability, the rest of the province needs to follow suit. Arts, Culture, sport and recreation brings vibrance and quality of life to communities, and need to be nurtured.
But the one truly different value the Alberta Party brings is a drive to return to functional democracy. The Alberta Party’s Guidelines for MLAs put into writing something I have firmly believed, but have not always seen. It becomes my first campaign promise; to engage regularly with constituents. As an Alberta Party MLA, I am required to do so. Albertans have not always felt like they are engaged by the people who represent them, instead they often feel as though government is telling Albertans what they want, not the other way around. More to the point, my first campaign promise is to meet monthly with constituents, and not require them to pay $75 a plate to do so. I am here to serve you, your needs, your wants, and your vision for the future. I can’t do it without you. I’m looking forward to meeting more constituents right now in preparation for an election, whether the writ is dropped tomorrow, or when it is supposed to be in 2016.
More on the Alberta Party:
Website: http://www.albertaparty.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AlbertaParty
Twitter: www.twitter.com/AlbertaParty
Email: info@albertaparty.ca
Phone: (780) 800-7285