The newly elected Alberta government is unique in a number of ways.
It will have a 12-member cabinet, compared to the Conservative’s 20. Half the ministers will be women. In fact, almost half the NDP caucus are women.
It is also a young government, the average being 40, down from 53. Three newbies are in their 20s. One turned 20 on election day.
B.C. has 20 ministers. I don’t know their average age but eight are women.
When a large number of young people were elected from Quebec in the last federal election, critics doubted they’d be up to the job. By all accounts they are at least as effective as the older MPs. It will be interesting to see how this young/new Alberta government makes out.
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Speaking of young people, you often hear complaints that they don’t get involved in community affairs.
They don’t volunteer to sit on the boards of non-profit organizations and there are precious few in local politics. Maybe we’re looking in the wrong places. This last weekend a passel of younger persons participated in the Capital One Race for Kids raising money for the Boys and Girls Club. It was a challenging event. In teams of four, the participants had to follow clues to find the 10 checkpoints, then perform a task at each one.
The tasks included building a tower from raw spaghetti and marshmallows, picking up a balloon with the Jaws of Life, and hitting a target with a fire hose while dressed in fireman’s gear. The race was timed of course at one point the contestants had to run up Johnson Street.
Three of my granddaughters participated. They thoroughly enjoyed it. The event raised a goodly amount of money all of which stays with the local Boys and Girls Club.
Hats off to the organizers, it must have taken a humungous amount of time and effort to get this show “on the road.”
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.