It took three tries but Malcolm Parker finally has himself a seat at St. Albert’s council table and the retired oil industry manager has since earned a reputation as a hard-working councillor who shows up prepared.
Parker twice ran unsuccessfully for a council seat before finally succeeding last October. Financial disclosure documents show that he spent $23,000 on his campaign, $8,000 more than the next highest total. This for the opportunity to work more than 40 hours a week at a job that’s supposed to be part-time.
“He’s dedicated and he’s a hard worker,” said Mayor Nolan Crouse.
Parker spent 36 years with Imperial Oil as a marketing manager. He’s a former chair of the St. Albert economic development advisory committee, was president of the St. Albert Men’s Slowpitch Association for 13 years and has been an active member of the chamber of commerce.
He’s always been a staunch proponent of economic development and continues to push that priority now that he’s on council.
“He’s always got his economic development hat on,” said Coun. Cam MacKay.
With his long corporate background, Parker has the ability to dissect an issue, often with a focus on the dollars and cents.
“He provides a pretty good analytical perspective to certain issues that come up,” MacKay said.
Parker might be the best on council at reading through all the agenda material that councillors face, said Coun. Roger Lemieux.
Parker shows up at every meeting with his trademark notes in the margins of the agenda documents.
“There’s nothing that goes by where he says, ‘Oh, I didn’t know about that,’” Lemieux said.
Every hour of council meeting time takes about an hour of preparation, mostly in the form of reading and understanding the reports that accompany the agenda, Parker said.
“I do my homework, almost to a fault perhaps,” he said. “But I don’t want to go into a council meeting … and not be prepared with some questions that I think we need answers to.”
Another noticeable Parker trait is he spends more time talking than the average councillor.
“He communicates a little bit differently than other people,” Lemieux said. “He likes to be a little bit longer in his explanation of things.”
For Parker, this is all part of his dedication to asking the questions that need to be answered and saying the things that need to be said.
“I feel I’m independent enough in my approach and thinking that I’ll not be fearful of saying what I believe is the way we should approach certain issues, based on my experience and knowledge and what I would like to see happen based on the research and information I have,” he said.
“And if I happen to be the only one there that thinks that way then that’s the way it is,” he added.
As the person in charge of seeing that council meetings run smoothly, Crouse has had to rein in Parker several times because the rookie tends to express his opinions during the time that’s allotted for council to ask questions of administration.
“That’s probably a bit of a learning [curve] for me, to understand the protocol in terms of when you ask questions and when you debate the motion,” Parker acknowledged.
Crouse noted he’s quite strict in enforcing protocol in council chambers. He feels Parker is effective at expressing his views but sometimes needs direction.
“I recognize when it happens and it’s not something that’s disastrous,” Crouse said. “I’m just trying to make sure that the message is being put in the proper context in the right situation.”
