Green candidate spurred to action by coal issue

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on March 26, 2025.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Amber Murray, Green Party of Canada candidate says she wants to make federal water protection a priority.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Green Party of Canada has entered the electoral race locally through Lethbridge’s candidate Amber Murray, who is looking to make federal water protection a priority.

“I feel like I was literally pulled off the couch to do this. I am very interested in politics, but I was not interested in running until the coal issue came up again,” says Murray.

She says that based on her own research into the degradation of environments due to coal mining, she was very worried about the situation taking place in the Crowsnest Pass and how that would affect the water quality in the region.

“The government here in Alberta seems to be only on the coal side of the issue. I was living in Cardston in 2021 when the issue originally was brought up,” says Murray. “I got in touch with my MP and the response was ‘Canada has the highest environmental standards,’ which was the same answer I got from Lethbridge MP Rachael Thomas.”

She says she was a grower at the time, and she was worried about nothing being done to protect the water. So, when the opportunity came up for her to run as a Green Party candidate, she “got off the couch.”

“I felt like we need somebody from Lethbridge yelling and screaming about the water here, because of our water drinkers, our Agri-food business and our agriculture,” says Murray.

Now that Chris Spearman has entered the race as the Liberal candidate, and with his experience in the fight against coal mining provincially, she feels like she can focus on other issues as well instead of just focusing on protecting the water.

“He has gotten 7,000 signatures and has submitted it to the legislature here in Alberta, and he also wants to take that fight to Ottawa, which I think it’s just fabulous. That means that there’s definitely a push, people want that saved,” says Murray.

 She says thanks to this she can branch out a little bit and not just make it a single focus, and this will allow her to put some pressure on the big parties.

“Or at least the candidates of the big parties on where they stand on things like proportional representation, electoral reform, on protecting queer kids at the federal level, since we’re having a problem with that here in Alberta,” says Murray.

She also wants to see federal investment in techniques for renewable agriculture and decreasing the input costs for farmers, which goes hand in hand with increasing carbon emissions from the agriculture industry.

When talking about her qualifications, Murray says she has experience in multiple fronts, from landscaping, to education and project management.

“I have management experience, I have a lot of postsecondary education, I know the land and I’ve worked with the land. I also have an undergrad degree in liberal arts, have been interested in politics and the intersection of politics and religion for a long time,” says Murray.

 She adds that she took some education courses at the University of Lethbridge but left during the pandemic and never got back to it because she had a young child at the time.

“I’ve worked in healthcare, and I’ve worked in all different sectors. I keep coming back to the land and landscaping and working outside,” says Murray.

She says she wants to give the environment a voice, as she feels it doesn’t have one within the government.

“The reason why it doesn’t is because the big parties have never made it priority to reform our electoral process and that means the popular vote means nothing.”

Anyone who wants a voice in government can’t get it unless they go through one of the bigger parties, she says, but she’s hoping to change that.

“If there is an opportunity for myself and Chris and maybe Nathan Svoboda over on the NDP side for us to run a strategic vote campaign, then great, then I’m all in. But for now, I’m running for important issues that I would like to see picked up by one of the parties for sure,” says Murray.