Jack Flaherty was elected to his first term as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for the constituency of St. Albert last November. As he approaches his first anniversary he reflects on the transition from a career in education that culminated in a position as superintendent of schools for Fort McMurray.

You have a long background in Education in this province. Does that have some bearing on your decision to enter politics?

I think so. I think the bearing in terms of entering politics was the crying need for St. Albert to have a voice. A need to speak to the issues on education which are many. One of them, for example, is the question of vocational education and what is happening in career education and the lack of support services to kids like counselling, speech pathologists and those sorts of things. So certainly education was one of the reasons. The whole thrust of what happened in the car insurance industry for clients and constituents who felt that they had been abused by the rates. The whole question of seniors losing their benefits. The whole question of the massive infrastructure debt that we have in the constituency - the government claims we don't have a debt but we do have a debt. Many of our old schools and our hospitals need upgrading and fixing up. And the whole question of St. Albert having a voice is very important. That is why I stood up and was counted and spoke on behalf of St. Albert constituents. Hopefully I am doing a good job of representing them and I certainly am sure that they will let me know if I'm not.

As the MLA for St. Albert I am wondering if you have a working relationship with the municipal government of that city and how it might work?

I think probably that the whole business of municipal government is very complex. Probably, in all honesty, I have a lot of work to do in that. I'm blessed in one way in that I have a lot people that are on Council that give me insights into what is happening on Council. For example, in St. Albert we have a massive tax problem in terms of our seniors. We have a new Multiplex and a road which has put a fairly substantial tax threat to our citizens - I think it is around 14.3 (the tax base rate).

So this is a big issue and we hopefully are going to be able to look at affordable housing in the near future and make some inroads into helping our seniors and people that need low cost housing. I would say, to answer specifically, that the municipal affairs thing is complex. There are a lot of issues there and I have a lot of work to do to upgrade myself but certainly I've been blessed by the resource people I can call on for help. And seniors, affordable housing and our tax rate are very high (on the list) and especially our senior citizens.

You have just about completed your first year as an MLA. What has been the biggest surprise?

The biggest surprise for me in my constituency is the number of issues that we have had to deal with ranging from Health to Educational problems to Senior Citizen's problems. And I guess the overwhelming thing has been the demand. But it has been exciting. And at times maybe somewhat overwhelming because you are not quite up to speed on certain things and it speaks really well in terms of the support I have in the office from my office manager. So it has been a real thrill in the sense of dealing with the people of St. Albert and somewhat overwhelming but really exciting and I am really enjoying it.

What are your responsibilities within the Liberal caucus?

One of the things that I have taken on is Education Critic which I have found to be very challenging. The job for myself is to try and bring the issues to the table at caucus and make them aware of what the issues are. One of the things that we have taken a strong stand on as a party is that we think the business of achievement testing is way over done in this province. And I think that the whole area of schooling from K to 12 should be looked at. Specifically in the first legislative session we spoke on, and put intensity on, the question of achievement testing and what benefit does it do children starting off in school. Achievement testing at the Grade 3 level should be abandoned and I think the Minister should put a lot more focus on the elementary school in K to 3 on diagnostic testing, remedial strategies and remedial curriculum. The point here is that many, many kids are falling through the cracks in my opinion because they don't get a good foundation in the elementary school. Therefore a lot of their learning problems become not dealt with because of the over taxation of teachers and the amount of time they have in the classroom and the many problems they have to deal with. I think a lot of kids are being missed and they are kids that fall through the cracks and move out of school. For example we have what I believe is the highest or one of the highest drop out rates in Canada. And one of the reasons, I believe, is because a lot of our kids are not getting their needs met in the elementary school system to set up a solid foundation.

I believe that the Liberal Party sees itself as a 'government in waiting' and yet unless you figure out how to have greater success in rural Alberta I don't see how that will come to pass. What do the Liberals need to do for electoral success in rural Alberta?

We have a plan and it is actually evolving as I speak. Certainly in the next few months you are going to find our outreach services are going to start moving out into the rural areas and talking to people in terms of who will run for us. And I think you are right. One of the things that we have to do as a party is to educate the rural part of the province that we are a government in waiting. That we have the potential to form the government. But we have to familiarise people with not only our issues but also our policies. We have to speak in terms of our Health policies, what should happen in Education, what should happen in infrastructure, what should happen in insurance. We have to create a way for people to trust us. That we are open, that we will listen and that there are issues that we will deal with. That we want them to come on board and tell us what they think some of the solutions are. We have to get out and sell our policies and identify people who will come on board and represent those parts of the rural constituency that they belong to and be a voice for the people of rural Alberta. And certainly I think this would be a big step in making people aware of the things that we stand for and represent.

It seems that Mr. Flaherty is still in the education business, after all.