Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk has much work to do if he's going to re-earn the trust of Albertans after spending scandals involving former Premier Alison Redford sent the party diving in popularity.If his leadership bid is successful, he'll need to convince the public not to look elsewhere after more than 40 years of Tory rule.For starters, he doesn't want to talk about how they've held “power” during that time.“We haven't been in power. We had the privilege to govern this province and it was lent to us by Albertans one election at a time based on our performance,” Lukaszuk said. “It has to be earned. One MLA at a time. One riding at a time and one Albertan at a time.”The MLA for Edmonton-Castle Downs said he was the first to oppose what he considered poor decisions made under the previous administration. Lukaszuk had said the Redford-led PCs lost the moral authority to govern. He was later demoted from deputy premier and advanced education minister to the jobs, skills, training and labour department in a cabinet shuffle.Lukaszuk stopped by the Smitty's restaurant in Olds on May 29 to meet party supporters and gather nomination signatures for his leadership campaign.To get on the ballot in September, 500 signatures from eligible Albertans across the province are required in addition to a $20,000 deposit.In the midst of the Opposition Wildrose-held Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding, Lukaszuk said he had the numbers and was also visiting to re-engage PC supporters who felt left behind by changes within the party.“I'm here to meet with individuals who have been very active in the PC party for years and have been disenfranchised,” he said.The Olds Albertan had a chance to discuss Lukaszuk's plans on some local issues in an interview at the restaurant.Health careOlds is losing two doctors at the Wild Rose Medical Centre and the clinic is trying to recruit new physicians to practise full-time.Lukaszuk said in his experience of courting doctors from abroad, it's not about how much money you can pay – other destinations can always offer more – but the quality of life in a town.“Olds is a great town and Alberta is a great place. We, number 1, need to promote the quality of life more when we're attracting foreign professionals to this province,” he said. “This is not only a place where you make a lot of money but this is actually one of the better places to live for a family.”The health-care system also needs to examine whether “allied professionals,” like nurses and pharmacists, can provide more services by removing unnecessary regulations to alleviate the workload of doctors, he added.That workload is partly why doctors refuse to take students for residencies, slowing graduation rates from medical schools, he said.A possible solution Lukaszuk suggested was paying doctors near or in retirement, who have more time, to mentor students for two years.“You'd be surprised how many medical doctors would love to do that. Just giving back to the profession and training new (doctors),” he said.New doctors can also come as new Canadians and Lukaszuk said he'd ask the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Alberta if it is giving foreign-trained doctors an equal shot at practising.As those physicians are upgrading their skills to match Canadian requirements, he also suggested exploring whether a foreign-trained doctor can work in an allied profession.“So we would still benefit from their expertise in a limited capacity, giving them an opportunity to become a fully-fledged medical doctor, right? None of that is happening right now.”InfrastructureThe town has been banking on an application for a Community Revitalization Levy (CRL) that would help finance uptowne redevelopment without raising taxes.Under the Municipal Government Act, the CRL allows a municipality to redirect the province's share of property taxes toward approved projects, usually infrastructure.But there's been frustration around Olds that the provincial government stopped accepting new CRL applications this year.Lukaszuk would not say if his government would resume taking CRL applications but plans to create a consultation group comprised of members from the public and private sectors to determine the best way to pay for needed infrastructure.Currently, he said each level of government is too busy shifting responsibility to the next for financing projects.“I think we're spending too much time pointing fingers at each other, who's going to pay for this piece of infrastructure as opposed to … making a decision, is it a want or a need,” he said. “And if it's a need, how are we going to pay for it. That discussion hasn't been happening.”Post-secondary educationThe government cut $147 million of funding from post-secondary education last year before restoring $50 million through the Campus Alberta grant.This year, the provincial budget saw $2.8 billion committed to higher education for 2014-15, bringing funding levels close to 2013 levels.Lukaszuk said diversifying the province's economy will come through advanced education and innovation and said investing in it will be his government's highest priority.“Robust post-secondary system will be at the very epicentre of Alberta's economic growth into the future,” he said. “Advanced education and K-to-12 education has to be our number 1 priority.”The former advanced education minister also said he wanted to do a review of executive [email protected]
