Area recipients of Alberta’s Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal announced to date run the gamut of community volunteers and builders to politicians and past and present civil servants.
Alberta Municipalities and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper each separately held recent award ceremonies for some of those awarded one of 7,000 medals the provincial government had minted to mark the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne as Queen of Canada.
To receive the medal, anyone being nominated must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident with a tangible link to Alberta at the time the medal is granted. As well, they have to have made a significant contribution to Canada, Alberta, or to a particular Alberta region or community and have been alive on February 6, 2022, the anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne.
MLA Cooper was expected to honour 19 of his constituency’s recipients Friday, Dec. 16 at an invite-only event in Didsbury.
Olds and area recipients honoured by Cooper included Tom Christensen, Jody Carrington, Rita Thompson and Warren Wright.
Carstairs and area recipients honoured by Cooper included Scott Breau, Carl McDonnell and Kevin Miller and Didsbury recipients included Kathleen Windsor and Dorothy Moore.
The MLA noted the local recipients are important and valued community members.
“These inspirational Albertans have given their time, talent and resources to ensuring our communities are stronger today than would have otherwise been,” Cooper told the Albertan.
Some Albertans who the province says have already demonstrated their contribution to the province, such as MLAs, Indigenous leaders, as well as members of the Alberta Order of Excellence, receive the medal automatically.
Medals were also automatically awarded to all sitting mayors of member municipalities of Alberta Municipalities.
The organization that represents urban municipalities in the province was also allocated a number of the 7,000 medals for which its member municipalities were able to nominate recipients.
About 250 Albertans, including many from central Alberta, received their awards at recent invitational-only events hosted by Alberta Municipalities.
More than 100 people from central and southern Alberta were to receive the medals in Calgary on Dec. 4 in three categories
Area recipients in the Citizen Community Builders category included: Doreen Bergum, Joy Cavin, Michelle Jorgensen and Beverley Toews from Olds and area; Sandy Gamble and Sena Urichuk from Bowden; and Arno Glover from Innisfail.
In the Sitting Mayors category, recipients included Town of Innisfail Mayor Jean Barclay, Town of Carstairs Mayor Lance Colby, Town of Olds Mayor Judy Dahl, Village of Cremona Mayor Tim Hagen, Town of Didsbury Mayor Rhonda Hunter, Town of Bowden Mayor Robb Stuart and Town of Sundre Mayor Richard Warnock.
Innisfail’s Doug Fee was a recipient of the medal in the Past Presidents and Life Members category.
“These medal ceremonies celebrated the remarkable contributions of so many community leaders and change-makers from across Alberta,” said Alberta Municipalities President Cathy Heron. “These inspirational Albertans have shown us how we can accomplish great things when we support one another and work together to overcome our common challenges.”
In all, Alberta Municipalities distributed 460 of the commemorative medals.
The medal program continued as planned despite the death of Queen Elizabeth II and will conclude on Feb. 5, 2023.
- With files from Dan Singleton
