With an election sure to be on the horizon in the near future, in the Little Bow riding, candidate Bev Muendel-Atherstone is taking up the banner of the provincial NDP.
Muendel-Atherstone has been involved with the NDP for over two decades, and previously worked in the educational field before her retirement.
“I’m retired now, but I’ve been a school psychologist with Palliser Regional Schools. I live in Sunset Acres, which is right in Little Bow, directly west of the city of Lethbridge. It’s a tiny little group of homes — it’s not even a hamlet.”
Muendel-Atherstone felt compelled to fight against what she considers the corporate domination of the present P.C. government of Premier Alison Redford.
“I’ve been a resident of southern Alberta for about 34 years, and I’ve been watching what the government has been doing in reducing more and more of the services to the people in terms of education, health care, social services. As a psychologist and educator, my field, my whole life’s vocation has been devoted to helping people. And I’ve found that this province was not devoted to helping people at all. They’re more interested in serving the corporations — the corporations are their masters.”
Of special concern to the former school psychologist is the plight of special needs children within the current educational system in the province.
“I’ve been helping other candidates to run, and learning more and more about the political process itself,” said Muendel-Atherstone. “When I retired, I actually felt that I could help to change things for the kids in the schools who are not receiving the kinds of education that they needed to, in particular, the children with special needs. By making my voice heard, perhaps we could get some more funding for those children who could go on to serve a meaningful and productive life.”
Fluctuations at the provincial level in education funding have had detrimental repercussions for children, according to Muendel-Atherstone.
“I’ve been quite upset with the boom and bust mentality of funding education, because a year lost in the life of a child’s education is really irreplaceable. It’s not like a year in an adult’s life. Once we’re grown, we’re pretty well formed, but a child is a developing, learning individual, and a year lost is a tragedy — it’s actually immoral, I believe, to take away funding from a child’s education.”
Billing her own party as the voice of the people, Muendel-Atherstone is convinced that actually listening to what citizens and voters are saying to government is no longer a priority for PC MLAs.
She cited the example of the Castle logging issue in southern Alberta.
“The NDP is really the party of the people. It’s a party that listens to people, and works for the people. I don’t feel that our current government is a party of the people, I believe that it’s the party of the corporations. And it does not  listen to the people, and we have many examples of that. Right now, the clear-cut logging proposed for the Castle, which will erode our watershed, interfere with the habitat, and interfere with our wildlife, as well as tourism. When you have thousands of people phoning the premier’s office and writing letters, and hundreds of people up on the hill protesting the clear-cut logging, and then you have businesses in Beaver Mines and Pincher Creek — when you have them all saying that this is going to be a blight and interfere with our watershed; and here we live in a desert, we need our watershed. The premier doesn’t even listen. When she was down here visiting Lethbridge, she invited the public to attend, and I attended with my letter to her about the Castle. And she received the letter, and thanked me for it, but she told others  it’s a done deal. So in other words, thousands of Albertans can say we don’t want this, and we are ignored. That is not listening to the people, that is not listening to the citizens, and that is not listening to voters.”
For Meundel-Atherstone, the major issues being faced in the province, and in the riding, are health care and education.
“The riding is huge, and very diverse. There are many issues, but I think the big issues are health care and education. If we don’t have our health, we have nothing. And we know that this government is going to try to privatize health care more and more. We know that we need to keep our health care — that would be number one. Equally important is our education — if we do not educate our children, what kind of future will we have? So we’ve got to make sure that we have continuous funding that the school boards can rely upon, and this boom and bust funding, as I mentioned earlier, is just a disservice to our children.”
Recent legislation passed by the PCs governing property rights in the province have proven to be a mistake, added Meundel-Atherstone.
“This is an agricultural riding, with a few municipalities scattered throughout. So agriculture is a big deal. Concerning property rights, our current government has made some real mistakes with the four bills that it passed, trying to take away property rights from farmers and other property owners. I think that was a wake up call for all of the property owners, to realize that the government could unilaterally and without consultation just pass some laws that were detrimental to their property rights. I think that people are waking up to what the government is actually doing, and I think people want to have someone who actually listens, and doesn’t just do window dressing. And when they listen, they go to the legislature they make laws that actually benefit the individuals, the people of Alberta.”
Meundel-Atherstone believes Albertans are ready for a change.
“I think what’s happening is that the government in power is showing itself to be a handmaiden to the corporations, and you can’t keep fooling Albertans. Albertans realize that they need a party that listens to them, and that is the NDP.”
For more information of Muendel-Atherstone’s campaign for Little Bow, visit her website at www.bevndp.ca or follow her on Twitter @bevforndp. She can also be reached via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .