Susan Ferner – Heather MacIntosh – Sarah Arthurs
Calgary Centre North Green Party of Canada Candidate
Last night I attended a Green Party “Meet the Candidate” event held at the common room of the Prairie Sky Co-Housing Project in northeast Calgary. Heather is a person of integrity who is passionate about her work and highly intelligent. She has dedicated much of her time working to create a better world.
Heather lives in Collingwood and has been has been a resident of Calgary since 2001. She has a BA in political science and French from University of Alberta and a Master of Public Administration from Carleton University.
Heather is the Program Director; Democratic Development and Human Rights at the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership, a small, private non-profit organization. In this role, she serves on the Democracy Task Force with Public Interest Alberta. She researches and writes about democratic integrity, compulsory voting, women in politics, and alternative democratic models like proportional representation.
Her human rights focus includes forced marriage, temporary foreign workers, and free speech/hate speech. She also holds a special interest in creating a more transparent government which is accountable to their constituents. She would like to see more responsible administration of the oil sands development based on facts rather than emotion. Other highlights of the discussion were focused on job creation and pollution/renewable energy incentives for business, proportional representation, and water conservation.
In 2008, Heather travelled to Bolivia through Centre d’étude et de coopération internationale (CECI) for a one year stint. While in South America with her family, she worked with several fair trade networks and was an international election observer. Before that, she worked at the University of Calgary’s International Centre for five years in project development.
Being somewhat of an entrepreneur, she also ran her own part-time consulting business with such clients as the Food Aid Centre at the Canadian International Development Agency, World Vision Canada, several universities and Agriteam Canada Consulting. Heather previously lived and worked in Southern Africa, and speaks French and Spanish.
Heather is proud of her small-town roots which nurtured her commitment to community and volunteering. She was born and raised in Barrhead, Alberta.
Her current volunteer involvement includes Amnesty International (since 1987), Triwood Community Association, NW Ringett, and Calgary Youth Singers. She enjoys her book club and Flamenco dancing, and is a strong proponent of fair trade.
Heather MacIntosh is the nominated candidate for the Green Party in the riding of Calgary Centre-North. She and her husband have two daughters in junior high, a dog and a hamster.
With the recent resignation of Conservative Environment Minister Jim Prentice, in order to pursue a plum position with the CIBC, it creates a rare vacancy in the Alberta Cabinet.
With a by-election not yet announced to fill this precious position, Heather is already gearing up. She feels that if the Green Party of Canada is able to garner even one seat, she can give voice to previously ignored constituents who are concerned about the long term, sustainable development of our resources which will benefit future generations for years to come. Calgary Centre North has a chance at having the first seat to go Green in Canadian history!
