Seeks NDP nomination for LSL
Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader
Former Lesser Slave Lake MLA and cabinet minister Danielle Larivee last week announced she will seek the NDP nomination in her home riding.
“I’m putting my name forward because Kenney and the UCP have made life worse for the people of our region,” Larivee said in a Feb. 3 news release sent out across the region. “From making things like utilities and insurance more expensive, to bringing in a curriculum that will hurt our kids, to completely mismanaging the response to COVID. That’s not the kind of leadership I want in the province that our kids are growing up in. Our families deserve better.”
Larivee has spent the past couple of years as first vice-president of the United Nurses of Alberta, advocating for members of her profession and speaking up often on health care issues. She previously worked several years as a public health nurse in Slave Lake before running for office in the 2015 provincial election. She was part of the ‘orange wave’ that swept the Progressive Conservatives out of power in Alberta after 43 years and the NDP into government for the first time.
Larivee hadn’t been an MLA long before Premier Rachel Notley promoted her to cabinet, as Minister of Municipal Affairs. She was in that position when the Fort McMurray wildfire happened in 2016. Subsequently, Larivee served as Minister of Children’s Services.
Larivee ran for re-election in Lesser Slave Lake in 2019, losing to Pat Rehn, the United Conservative Party candidate.
Speaking of the incumbent MLA, Larivee took the opportunity to take a few shots at Rehn in her news release. She says he “gained provincial notoriety for all the wrong reasons.” Those being that he was “kicked out of the UCP caucus and banned from running for the party following criticism from the area’s major municipalities for his apparent lack of interest in doing his job, and for vacationing in Mexico while Albertans were told to stay home due to COVID-19 and the High Prairie ER was temporarily shut down. He was allowed back in to the UCP Caucus in 2021 with little explanation.”
Larivee’s news release, not surprisingly, has a bit more on the health care situation. It’s not in safe hands with the Kenney government, she says, accusing the government of “moving forward with privatizing,” and attacking frontline health care workers instead of supporting them.
“I am prepared to fight for high quality public healthcare instead of dismantling it,” she says.
As to when the Lesser Slave Lake NDP constituency association plans to choose a candidate, a nomination meeting has been set for March 13. It’s likely nobody will oppose Larivee for the position, but if they do, the deadline is 21 days before March 13 (Feb. 20).
