Jim Prentice's speech: A New Era for Alberta

5/20/2018 Jim Prentice's speech: A New Era for Alberta

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SPEAKING

NOTES

A New Era for Alberta

September 6, 2014Check Against Delivery


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Thank you. I want to begin by thanking my family who have been bymy side for this entire campaign.

When Karen and I were married many years ago I promised her a

motorhome trip across Alberta. It took me 31 years to fulfill that prom-ise but this was THAT summer.

I could not have done this without Karen, our daughters, my grand-children, and my extended family. Please then join me in saying thankyou to them.

Friends, I am standing here as an Albertan:

With a sense of pride;

With a feeling of humility;

and with a promise for the people of Alberta;

The END of this leadership campaign represents a NEW beginning.

Tonight, we begin the work of restoring trust in government andmaking Albertans proud of those who serve our province.

Tonight, we begin the work of advancing and protecting sound, con-servative fiscal principles.

And tonight, we begin the work of helping Alberta achieve its remark-able potential and secure our prosperity for generations to come.

I cannot do any of this alone but together... Well together we can doall this and more.

It is a great honour to be entrusted to serve as the leader of the Pro-gressive Conservative Party and the future 16th Premier of theprovince we love.

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I was a young boy when I first came to Alberta. From the moment Isaw the Rocky Mountains from the window of the family station wag-on I knew this was the place for me. I knew I would never leave it.More than 40 years later, I still cant imagine wanting to be anywhere

else. Nor can you.

I want to start by acknowledging the efforts and dedication of the twomen with whom I shared my summer: Thomas Lukaszuk and RicMcIver.

As I said throughout the leadership campaign there is absolutelynothing about leadership campaigns that are easy, and both of thesemen worked hard through the summer. So lets hear it for THEM andfor all those who worked so hard on their behalf.

I want to be clear.

As your leader, I will ask every volunteer who has worked on all of ourcampaigns to join with me in rebuilding our party.

We will all be governed by a test of loyalty for our Party and a com-mitment to support each other.

This leadership process wasnt perfect. While the results are over-whelming the process followed by our party has created frustrationsand disappointments at the very time that we did not need this.

Let me again be clear this evening.

My election as the leader of this Party marks the beginning of acommitment to integrity and the acceptance of responsibility.

Albertans expect excellence and performance from those who are in

positions of trust. They will not accept excuses. This must apply to theGovernment of Alberta, but first and foremost it must apply to our Par-ty.

As your leader and as the person accountable to those who are dis-appointed, there will be no excuses.

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I want to thank all those who took time away from their families andfrom their summer vacations to help me in my campaign.

The thing that I am proudest of are the hundreds and hundreds of

young people who comprised my campaign from the bottom to thetop. Young, talented men and women in their twenties and thirtieswho represent the future of our Party, and the future of our Province.

Our campaign had over one thousand volunteers, and there is onething about leadership races- they battle test you for the coming elec-tion.

I have been in this Party for over 40 years, I have never seen volun-teers work as hard as the volunteers on my campaign. Never.

I look out at the faces here tonight, and I see so many people espe-cially young people who gave their time, their energy, not only be-cause they believe in me, but because they believe in our party, ourprovince, our future.

We did this together -to all of you: thank you.

I have also had the tremendous support of people from our caucus.

And as an old hockey player, who believes passionately in teamwork, I have been struck by how hard caucus has worked, the unitedsense of teamwork, and the shouldering of heavy lifting. As someonesaid to me they have not seen caucus work this hard in a leadershiprace since 1985.

This is now a competitive and disciplined team and I am proud oftheir effort.

And I want to thank the people of Alberta.

For the past over 100 days I have criss-crossed this province andhave been everywhere.

People have often asked me what that has been like. For sure it hasbeen a lot of hard work. At last count I have given that stump speechabout my five priorities over 750 times.

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But let me tell you what it was really like. It has been one of the mostfun and rewarding times of my life because I had my jeans and mycowboy boots on and because I had the opportunity to meet with Al-bertans in every corner of this province.

To be sure, they have shared their disappointments with me, butmore importantly they have shared their confidence and their opti-mism about the future and the promise of Alberta.

I have been moved by this and by what I heard

In our cities;

the community halls like the one in Triangle;

in the auction mart in Consort;

and back home in the Crowsnest Pass.

It is that experience that will define the kind of Premier I will be.

I have been to rodeos, to ranches, and roundtables. In fact, I even didsome announcing at the Danes family rodeo in Innisfail. Frankly I

wasnt very good at it.

Ive been to local fairs and I have engaged the communities of faith inevery corner of this province, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Jew-ish and Hindu. I have engaged our First Nations and Metis communi-ties.

Ive sat down for so many coffees that I probably wont sleep untilNovember.

Actually, there may not be any time for sleep until November anyway.

And hard as it may be to believe, Im pretty sure Ive taken more self-ies this summer than any one of your kids.

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In every city, in every town, in every farm and on every ranch, Ivefound this to be a province of honest, strong-willed, hardworking andindependent-minded people.

People of character.

They know what they want from government and believe me: Theyarent shy about sharing their feelings.

They want honesty and hard work. They want straight talk. They ex-pect their politicians to understand the difference between right andwrong, and to behave accordingly.

They want a Party and a Premier who reflect their values, shares

their hopes and has understanding of where the world is heading and how Alberta can make the most of its opportunities, in agriculture,in forestry, in tourism, and obviously in energy.

Above all else, they want their voices heard, because good policy andgood government always begin with the people.

Under my leadership, our new Progressive Conservative governmentwill begin immediately to address the peoples priorities. And in short

order, I will seek a seat in the legislature so I can continue to workand fight for the interests of Albertans.

I want to be candid with the people of Alberta those of you heretonight, those watching at home, and those who will hear or readthese words in the coming days.

Over time, the government has lost its way.

Watching from afar, I was as disappointed and as frustrated as any-

one.

I wasnt at the table when those decisions were made but I am atthe table now.

In fact, I will be sitting at the head of it, and I can tell you this:

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I will restore a commitment to fiscal prudence and ethical conduct.

I will enforce the rules and make the tough choices that need to bemade.

And I will provide the kind of principled leadership our province de-serves.

And yes, eventually there will be a general election and we will askAlbertans to judge our new Progressive Conservative government.Not on our words. Not on our promises. But by the actions we havetaken, the progress we have made and the integrity we have dis-played.

I will always put Albertas interests first.

Albertans have told me they want a lot less politics and a lot moreleadership.

They are going to get that.

With my actions and my choices, I will work to restore your faith ingovernment.

I will give it my all, and I will work every day to make you proud.

As Albertans, we share the good fortune to live in a province of al-most limitless potential.

And we all know that we are building something special here.

We can dream more than we have dreamt.

We can do more than we have done.

We can be more than we have been.

And it all depends on leadership.

As a people, we are proud of our history.

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We honour the mavericks and the courageous thousands who settledthe great and lonely prairie men and women of strong characterand opinion.

Some of you carry on their names. All of us carry on their legacy. Andwhether you were born here or whether you came from somewhereelse in the world, you have embraced the challenge of building ourprovince

But that job is not done. It is our privilege and it is our responsibility to define what comes next.

We will build partnerships with our fellow Canadians, with British Co-lumbia and with all provinces and territories across this great nation.

Je serai un partenaire constructif avec les autres provinces canadi-ennes. Nous devons - et nous allons - travailler ensemble pour faireavancer notre province et continuer btir le Canada.

Ours is a province that has experienced remarkable change andgrowth how will it affect us?

Ours is a place that hums with possibility and potential what will we

make of it?As I have said throughout this campaign, this is a pivotaltime in Albertas history. The choices that we will make over the nextfive years will define what Alberta looks like for the next 50.

An Alberta that is fiscally responsible, that lives proudly within itsmeans but an Alberta that is more than that.

A leader within Canada, forward looking and creative.

An aggressive and successful player in global markets, comfortable

in the world and subservient to no one.

An Alberta at the forefront of both energy development and environ-mental awareness.

A place of both tradition and innovation.

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Home to a people who know the satisfaction of hard work and whosegovernment embraces individual responsibility, community success,and promotes our peoples ingenuity.

Together we can fulfill the promise of an Alberta guided by time-testedProgressive Conservative principles.

We can affirm the value of our famously independent spirit while atthe same time taking care of our own.

We can define Alberta as a place where we respect the commonsense and rely on the common decency of the men and womenwho live here

and where we are motivated by the responsibility to make sure ourchildren get the highest quality education that will give them the op-portunity to succeed in a competitive world.

I was raised in the coal mining towns of this province. I worked underthe bins breaking rocks at those coal mines 16 hours a day.

Back then I dreamed big dreams and I still dream big dreams.

Now we are going to dream them together and we are going to fulfillthe promise of an Alberta that rewards ingenuity, promotes innova-tion, and, at times, gets just a little bit restless.

Ours is a new time. We face new challenges. We see before us newopportunities.

You can feel it across our province: Together we are building some-thing special here. Everyone knows it. Now, lets get this Party backto work.

Thank you.

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Jim Prentice's speech: A New Era for Alberta