It is extremely important for PCE supporters to understand an essential principle:
Those who are actively engaged members of a political party will exert a much greater influence over the direction of our province, including our education system, than those who are not.
The choice is yours:
1) You can be among those who exercise a greater influence over the direction of our province.
2) Or, you can leave that influence to others, who may or may not share your values or concerns.
As someone recently told us who purchased a membership to a political party and became involved in the board of his local constituency association, it is “shockingly easy”.
For those who are not yet members of a political party, but want to get involved, we have provided links at the end of this email to the websites and membership pages of the four parties with current representation in the Legislative Assembly in order to help you discern which party will best reflect your values and priorities.
UCP MEMBERS: IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITIES
It has been said that 80% of success is showing up.
That said, we encourage PCE supporters who are members of the United Conservative Party (UCP) to show up and participate in the following two opportunities that will help make a tremendous impact as we advocate for excellence in education through maximum parental choice.
Keep in mind you can only participate in these opportunities if you have a current membership in the UCP. If you are not yet a member, you can invest in a membership here.
1. Second Online Survey / Regional Conferences
Several excellent education-related policy proposals are being considered for inclusion in the UCP founding documents.
Policy proposals that receive overwhelming support through online surveys will then proceed to the last step of the policy development process, which will be final debate/voting at the AGM in May. Details of the full process are available here.
There are 10 surveys in total - 3 for governance and 7 for policy.
Each of the 7 policy surveys focuses on different topics and includes approx 125 member-submitted proposals that you can vote "YES" or "NO", or leave blank.
At the very least, we recommend completing the following three surveys:
- STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES, GOVERNMENT & RIGHTS Ranking Survey
- JUSTICE, COMMUNITY, and INDIGENOUS SECTIONS Ranking Survey
A UCP membership number will be required and if you don't know what it is, please contact [email protected] or 1-888-465-2660 ext 5.
Note that it is extremely important for UCP members to complete as many of the online surveys as possible to ensure their voices are heard.
Deadline to complete: April 23, 2018
In addition to the online survey, there will be 5 regional conferences happening across Alberta.
Discussion at these conferences will be for attendee information ONLY and will "not have any bearing on the ranking process for the Founding AGM, which will be done exclusively by the collective survey results." (full details here).
The shift from the original purpose/format of the regional conferences was due to the overwhelming number of proposals received and to ensure fairness and integrity to the process.
If members choose to attend the regional conferences, a $10 fee and online pre-registration are required. All regional conference locations, dates and registration links are available on the UCP website.
2. UCP Annual General Meeting (AGM) May 4-6, 2018
Final decisions regarding policies, governance by-laws and Executive Council will be decided at the AGM, based only on the votes of the members who attend.
These decisions will be critically important to the future direction of the UCP and we encourage as many PCE supporters to attend as possible.
The decision-making part of the AGM takes place on Saturday May 5th and Sunday May 6th in Red Deer. Tickets are $249 and can be purchased online.
Anyone 14+ years of age who becomes a UCP member prior to midnight on April 13th is eligible to attend and vote in the AGM.
PCE has booked a booth at the AGM exhibit hall and we look forward to meeting many PCE supporters in-person that weekend!
For any of our supporters who purchase AGM tickets, please let us know by signing up here (or use the button below) so we can keep you up-to-date about critical votes and exclusive opportunities happening that weekend.
WANT TO GET INVOLVED?
The first step in becoming more engaged politically is to purchase a membership to a political party.
To assist you in that process we have provided the websites and membership links below for the four political parties in Alberta which currently have representation in the Legislative Assembly:
Alberta Liberal Party – main website and become a member
Alberta NDP Party – main website and become a member
Alberta Party – main website and become a member
United Conservative Party (UCP) – main website and become a member
We encourage you to discern which party best represents your values and to purchase a membership using the links provided in order to have a much greater opportunity to impact the direction of education in our province.