Local election candidates who can demonstrate they are fiscally responsible can get a little help from a new committee that has formed in St. Albert.
Gord Hennigar, also president of the St. Albert Taxpayers Association, announced Thursday in an e-mail that the Election Action Committee has both launched a website and opened an office in Campbell Business Park in anticipation of the October election.
“The goal is basically to elect and support fiscally-responsible candidates,” said Hennigar.
The group also wants to increase voter turnout to 40 per cent. Only 34 per cent of eligible electors bothered casting a vote in 2010.
Hennigar was quick to point out the Election Action Committee “has nothing to do with” the St. Albert Taxpayers Association.
“This group would be a little more radical and the board of (the St. Albert Taxpayers Association) doesn’t want to be perceived as radical,” Hennigar said.
What will make the group radical is the assistance it lends the candidates it supports, Hennigar said. Members of the group will help put up candidate signs, and will help cover costs for pamphlets and some media. Candidates will also be able use the office in Campbell for their campaigns.
“We’re a support group,” said Hennigar. “We’re organizing a couple of little rallies, that kind of thing.”
The Election Action Committee consists of approximately six to eight members at this time, Hennigar said. The office in Campbell will officially open in a month. It is also seeking donations from the public for its operations.
All the committee asks of candidates is to prove that they are fiscally responsible.
“Show some fiscal restraint,” said Hennigar. “Don’t spend taxpayers’ money.”
Hennigar cited the growth in city staffing, which he said has doubled to 600 employees since 2004, and the $500,000 study the city commissioned to examine how an LRT line might run through the city, as examples of wasteful spending.
“Those are some concerns that are on our minds,” Hennigar said.
The website is www.stalbertelection2013.com. The office is located at 102-25 Chisholm Ave. Anyone interested can call 780-407-7437.
