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Tuesday 25 May 2010

I might be having “crow” for lunch on Wednesday.

Four weeks ago I wrote a somewhat critical commentary on the PC’s “Cabinet Tour”. It appears one paragraph in particular has come back to haunt me. At that time I wrote:

For the average Albertan, there is zero chance you will get a face-to-face with one of these Ministers. Nor for the media get a chance to ask questions or see them interact with constituents. To date it looks as though they are meeting with local elected individuals and/or handpicked individuals.

Well I recently received an invitation to attend a luncheon with the Honourable Ted Morton, Minister of Finance and Enterprise.  He will be making a stop here in Calgary – North Hill and meeting with other local business people (like myself). I have graciously accepted the invitation.

This has left me in an unusual position though as I reflect on what I wrote a month ago in reference to who exactly would be attending these generally “hush, hush” meetings.

I do consider myself “an average Albertan”. I was born in Drumheller, raised on a farm near Strathmore and have spent all of my adult life in Calgary. I have raised my children here. I explored different career paths before starting my own business and now employ other Albertans.

Some might say; “Well, you are one of the ‘handpicked’ individuals.” And yes, there may be some truth to that; in so far as I did get the invite directly from my MLA, Kyle Fawcett. But in reality, me and my business are a very small minnow in the big sea of Calgary. Kyle certainly could have reached out to far bigger fish to meet with the Minister.

Kyle could have also kept the group to those who are close to him or at least “PC friendly”. I’m sure the possibility of me blogging about this crossed his mind when he sent the invite. I know Kyle is aware of my past connection with the Wildrose. And if Mr. Morton remembers; the last time we dined with him and his daughter; I was the CFO of the party and my husband was the VP of Policy.

It will be interesting to see if the group at lunch tomorrow is a diverse cross section of Albertans and determine just how much crow I might have to eat.

1 comment:

  1. Well Jane I think you probably got the invite because you were raising a ruckus about the closed tour. This so called tour with the public is a sham that taxpayers are having to pay for with no possibly of any dialogue with MLAs.

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