Liberal candidate giving a voice to the middle ground

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on May 23, 2023.

Herald photo by Ian Martens Liberal candidate Pat Chizek answers a question during a Lethbridge West election forum earlier this month at the library.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Pat Chizek knows she doesn’t have any chance of being elected to represent Lethbridge West in the Alberta legislature when voters go to the polls on May 29.

Chizek also doesn’t believe in knocking on doors or knocking down other candidates’ signs which the candidate said in an interview this week is happening.

“I personally don’t like to door-knock because I found the door-knockers come at supper time between 6 and 8. People just get home from work, they want to relax, they want to have supper, they want to spend time with their kids and it’s ‘knock, knock, knock.’ I don’t like that,” said Chizek in an interview Monday.

Chizek, a retired educator who ran in the 2019 provincial election, believes that Albertans won’t win if they keep re-electing the UCP or NDP to power.

The Alberta Liberal Party, she said in the Herald interview and repeated at this week’s Lethbridge West candidates forum at the Lethbridge Public Library, is not associated in any way with the federal party.

Chizek said she “had so much fun” in her first election campaign but the same issue with signs being destroyed has been happening again.

She said she’s seen some signs stepped on and ripped out of the ground this year.

“I could never could figure out why a sign is so threatening. I’m going to say probably two-thirds of the signs I put up last election did not come back,” Chizek said.

“I have no idea” why, she said.

Chizek said one reason she has chosen to run is because of the polarization in the province and the frustration people have that nobody is listening to them.

“I feel that most of the people in this province are somewhere in between the left and the right and they’re not being listened to because once these parties get elected they can do whatever they want and no one can stop them,” said Chizek.

“We’ve got to have other voices. I personally would like to see our legislature have four or five different parties represented just to have another voice.”

She said the legislature is missing the middle ground and is missing common sense, co-operation, collaboration and “definitely compromise when it comes to politics in this province.”

The Liberal approach is to first listen to Albertans and not steamroll into a campaign saying the party has all the answers to all the questions, she said.

“That’s our first and foremost priority – to listen to the people. We’ve got to have a system – maybe a system of change. We’ve got to at least discuss changing our system because right now our elected UCP or NDP people, they’re representing their party, they’re not representing the people because their party says you can’t vote against their party or speak out against their party” because if they do they kicked out of office, said Chizek.

“We want to take the approach we’ve got to do what’s right for the people of our constituency, we’ve got to do what’s right for the people of Alberta. But if we always do what’s right for the party, the frustration builds because people feel they’re not being listened to,” added the Liberal candidate.

“Here in Lethbridge, we’re a unique city of this size because we have a university and a college.”

Chizek said she heard a statistic that shows 51 per cent of people in Lethbridge are working for some form of government – education, healthcare, provincial or federal governments and “that’s not normal for most cities to have that high but we need to be supporting those institutions so we need to make sure that we have the proper support for them. And not outrageous but reasonable. Sit down, talk, listen and come to some kind of conclusion. Maybe it’s compromise on both parts, maybe it’s a negotiation but this is what I want to see. Let’s bring some common sense back to governing,” said Chizek.

The candidate says the only way Alberta will become less polarized is if the NDP and UCP are willing to sit down and “maybe end up not having as much power as they do because it shouldn’t be about power. Being elected and serving in government at best is a temporary job” but now there is a power grab by both parties from each other and other parties.

Chizek said young people she’s talked to are frustrated with the party system.

“The party system doesn’t seem to be working for a lot of young people. They’re issues-based. This is the issue, this is the issue they want to focus on. And when you’re in a party system, if that issue isn’t in your top four, it’s not being addressed,” Chizek added.

The candidate has issues with the blame game, saying every party has made mistakes but she doesn’t know if any has admitted them.

“They really like to blame somebody else for bad decisions that they made. You make a bad decision, if you don’t acknowledge it, if you don’t recognize it, you are going to make it again.”

Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter