Contenders for Brooks-Medicine Hat legislature seat, including Premier Danielle Smith, debate education
The five candidates looking to represent the provincial riding of Brooks-Medicine Hat squared-off for the first time Tuesday night.
The debate on education was held in Brooks, Alta., with Premier Danielle Smith hoping to earn a seat in the legislature.
Most of the talk was about funding and what each party would do to try and support teachers after a difficult three years.
Tuesday night marked the first time that Smith, who became premier just weeks ago, faced questions alongside the candidates running in the Brooks-Medicine Hat by-election.
“I think it's no secret we've had a bit of a bumpy relationship with our government and teachers over the last few years … I think what we must begin with is a position of mutual respect.” Smith said.
The other four people running for the seat say that respect hasn't been there, and it's meant a lack of education funding and challenges for teachers in the classroom.
“The government has not been paying attention to teachers themselves … We need to trust professionals to do their job and we need to seek out their wisdom when it comes to classroom management,” said Barry Morishita, a former Brooks mayor and current Alberta Party leader.
The NDP's Gwendoline Dirk, a teacher for more than two decades, hammered Smith on the United Conservative Party’s plan and rollout of a new curriculum.
“Forcing a curriculum … teachers to teach a curriculum that is backwards, that is 1950s, that they know is wrong, it is damaging for children. That hurts teachers,” she said.
Bob Blayone of the Independence Party of Alberta and Jeevan Mangat of the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta both touted choice and freedoms.
“We believe in parent's choice. We believe (in) homeschooling, charter schools, private schools and public education because choice will provide competition, competition will provide efficiency,” Mangat said.
“Let's never again mask our children, let's never again shut down our schools and let's have a conversation, please, about shutting down the COVID-19 vaccination program,” Blayone said.
Dirk and Morishita both pledged to increase funding and reduce class sizes.
The premier agreed more help is needed, but stopped short of promising more money.
“I am actively looking at ways we can provide more educational supports to our kids so we can bring them up to speed on the learning loss over the last two years,” Smith said.
Tuesday was the first debate or forum and advance voting in the riding has already started.
There's another debate Wednesday in Brooks and a third will happen in Medicine Hat on Thursday.
This by-election was only called three weeks ago.
By-election day is Nov. 8.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit natural gas levies to the federal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer filled with relief and grief following acquittal in death of Toronto police officer
'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
North Bay doctor accused of assaulting patient, threatening another
A North Bay doctor is facing charges after allegedly assaulting a patient with a weapon and threatening another person at the hospital, police say.