Premier in city to campaign with Middleton-Hope
By Lethbridge Herald on October 21, 2024.
Lethbridge West UCP candidate John Middleton-Hope and Premier Danielle Smith campaign on a snowy Monday evening on the city’s westside.
Herald photo by Al BeeberAl Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
Premier Danielle Smith and Lethbridge East MLA Nathan Neudorf joined West Lethbridge UCP candidate John Middleton-Hope for some campaigning in the snow on Monday.
The premier and Neudorf, along with throngs of volunteers, joined Middleton-Hope as he walked through neighbourhoods drumming up support for his candidacy in an as-yet-to-be announced byelection.
Smith said at Heritage Pointe Park that a byelection has to be called within six months of a candidate stepping down so the Lethbridge West election has be called by Jan. 1.
The premier said she is waiting for a member of the NDP caucus to step down so its new leader Naheed Nenshi can seek election, adding “in the interests of taxpayers it would be nice to have both of those byelections at the same time. He has a few more weeks to see if one of his MLAs will step up and make way for him so that he can be in the legislature. And if that doesn’t happen, we’ll call the byelection,” the premier added.
Smith said Nenshi has an obligation to get elected to debate policy and the fact there is no open NDP seat yet for him suggests to her that he either doesn’t want to get into the legislature, which means he doesn’t take his job seriously, or he has a caucus that doesn’t want to move aside for him.
“We are happy to call an election if they can find someone who will step down for him,” said the premier adding “it’s a lot easier to have two byelections at once rather than do this one and then in a couple of months do another one. If he wants to get into the legislature, now’s the time to do it.”
In response to a question about the comprehensive care agreement with the Alberta Medical Association, Smith said “we’re very close to getting to the finish line on that but we have told the doctors because we’re seeing our doctors’ budget increase beyond inflation plus population each year, to invest in primary care we need to find savings within the doctors’ budget envelope and so those conversations are ongoing,” said Smith.
“Our intention was always to bring in the new funding model in April of 2025 so there’s some time for us to continue those discussions and we’re really hopeful that we’ll be able to have a great model that will attract more primary care practitioners to our province,” the premier added.
Smith said the party is “delighted” to have Middleton-Hope as a candidate.
“We, of course, know that law and order and public safety is an increasing concern and to have a candidate with on-the-ground experience running a police force “is going to give a lot of insight to our decision making at the caucus table. And in addition to the work that he’s done as a city councillor, he knows what the needs of the community are and that will elevate those so we can talk about it at the table,” said Smith, who also called Neudorf – the UCP’s Minister of Affordability and Utilities – a strong voice for Lethbridge.
Middleton-Hope said the big issues among constituents that his campaign has heard include healthcare, infrastructure “to a certain extent” and education.
“We’ve met with both of the school boards, we know what their issues are. The government has made a number of announcements here in regards to accelerator funding which is going to be very helpful. The City needs to be working with the school boards to ensure that we’re well prepared when we have an opportunity to apply for additional grants for our students, our teachers, our educational assistants and our parents which are all part of the equation and it’s a very very important equation for us,” said Middleton-Hope.
He said many residents are concerned about healthcare but his campaign has been telling people at their doors the situation that presently exists didn’t occur overnight.
“Healthcare has been a challenge for a number of decades. The Conservative government has worked diligently with our municipality, with our municipal leaders and so forth to ensure that we’re getting the doctors that we need. We’ve had 61 doctors come down here in the last two years, 27 in primary care, we have a total of 252 doctors in the city and that includes specialists as well.
“So we’re working hard to ensure that our citizens have access to primary health care all across the board,” he added.
17-16
Your choice for Lethbridge West:
John Middleton-Hope
OR
Rob Miyashiro (NO Hope)
We’ll see what his platform is and then I’ll make my decision. Hopefully he has his own mind and isn’t another foot soldier for TBA like Danielle is.
“In response to a question about the comprehensive care agreement with the Alberta Medical Association, Smith said “we’re very close to getting to the finish line on that but we have told the doctors because we’re seeing our doctors’ budget increase beyond inflation plus population each year, to invest in primary care we need to find savings within the doctors’ budget envelope and so those conversations are ongoing,” said Smith.”
But, it is all well and good in Smith’s view of the world, and by extension Neudorf and Middleton-Hope, to spend:
and etc…
I don’t agree with Middleton Hope running as a UCP candidate while still on the taxpayers tab as city councilor. His focus is likely more on the UCP election then helping run our city so he should resign as councilor and our council should introduce a bylaw which forces a council member to resign if they persue another political position. I don’t think taxpayers should pay for any employee whom cannot focus fully on the job they were hired/elected to perform.
Agreed
Mr. Middleton-Hope should have resigned his seat on City council when he won the Lethbridge-West UCP nomination. Sadly, this behaviour seems to be the warp and weft of the fabric of this party with precedent set by Jason Kenney, who continued to draw his salary as a sitting MP while he was stumping across Alberta uniting the right.
Are you serious? You might want to call City Hall and ask for an explanation of the code of ethics for City Council. Mr. Middleton-Hope is absolutely free to accept the role of being elected by UCP members as candidate for Lethbridge West. I would rather question Rob Miyashiro (No Hope) as he has sat in his full time position with LSCO WHILE he was suppodidly a City Council Member…. and then ran for Federal MP position (lost) and again for Provincial MLA (East Riding) (lost)…. now he is still full time at LSCO and trying to challenge Lethbridge West ( a constituency where he doesn’t even reside! ). What do they say, “Three strikes and you are out”.
When Jeff Carlson ran for a Liberal position in Lethbridge east back years ago, the council accepted that he took a leave of absence. Whether it was paid or not I don’t know. Rob put his name forward for that election as well, but he was not on council at the time.
Rob also ran for NDP east when he was a city councilor as well. It was never made public to my knowledge how the paper work went down on that one,but he didnot step down. He lost that election as well, so he just continued being a councilor. But Rob had been a city councilor and head of the LSCO at the same time for years. It is my understanding that technically a city councilor is socalled part-time employment. Well the manager of LSCO is full time-supposedly?
What Middleton- Hope’s plans are,I don’t know.
We can assure you that John Middleton-Hope’s plans are to be the best MLA for Lethbridge West that we have ever seen before….certainly better than the previous NDP (absentee) MLA that was supposidly serving Lethbridge West, we defintely do not want to go there again!
I remember Ralph (a retired policeman) tell me why he retired early. He said he was seeing too many things in black and white, and said after he had served he started seeing things in Technicolor. If there is hope for Middleton-Hope, we hope that he sees things in Technicolor. Maybe it is too early for him.
I sent an email to our mayor and council asking why the Lethbridge taxpayers are paying Middleton Hope’s $65,000 salary when his primary interest is the UCP and not the city of Lethbridge. Also asked for them to enact a policy that an elected city official must resign should they run for another political position. This would avoid the perceived or real conflict of interest. Awaiting their response but not overly optimistic.
Good luck getting an answer to that question which satifies you! This council has a team in its media relations ready to censor people who do not agree with them and FOIP requests are often never fully answered unless you want to spend hundreds of dollars. I don’t remember a time we had a council with such a lack of transparency and a group who requests media censor opposition!
I have watched Councilor Middleton-Hope over the last year work more than full time hours when city Coucilors are only required to work 20 hours per week, “the mayor’s job is identified as full-time while the time commitment for council members is identified as an average of 20 hours a week “but may be more or less than this, at the discretion of each councillor.”
He is one of the hardest working Councilors I have seen, often exceeding full time hours and is fully engaged with the community! Personally I wish he would run for Mayor and clean up the issues on our streets that the current Mayor promised in his campaign for Mayor.
Leadership issues have caused much of the lawlessness issues continuing on our streets, and the current Police Chief refuses to act to finish the job many have worked hard to get to where we are today compared to other communities.
There is no conflict of interest here!
Hey, why don’t you peel the onion skin just a bit more and watch the archived videos of City Council where then, City Council member, Miyashiro bullied his fellow Council members, in particular Joe Mauro and yes, our current Mayor, Blaine Hyggen!
I can not even imagine the tainted rapport of Miyashiro interacting with Mayor Hyggen, in ANY capacity, and definetly not as a MLA for Lethbridge West.
Good luck with that! By the way we live in a democracy and people do have freedoms… you might want to read “Montreal13” comments earlier in this posting. If you are not too embarrassed, once you get your response from City Hall, please share it.