An open letter to Maclean’s magazine:
As the Alberta provincial representative for the excellent constituency of Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, I am writing today to take issue with your recent feature regarding Canada’s Best Communities 2019.
It seems you have listed Mountain View County (MVC) as the lowest of 415 municipalities based on some faulty information.
Unlike the majority of the communities listed, MVC is a larger rural municipality, surrounding five significant population centres, none of which were included in your list. As a result, the statistics you have used are quite misleading.
Is the region's population 13,000, or is it closing in on 40,000? Does Mountain View County have no doctor’s office, or does it include three hospitals and a number of offices in Olds, Didsbury, Sundre, Cartstairs and Cremona?
I would also take issue with the mobility factors assessment.
As a large rural region measured at nearly 4,000 square kilometres where the leading industry is agriculture, it is probably true that zero per cent of people ride bicycles to work.
That’s not surprising; bicycles don’t pull cattle trailers.
However, if you were comparing apples to apples, and included all of the various towns and villages in this assessment, you would find that there are several transportation options, including one of my favourites: the Sunshine Bus in Olds that specifically serves people with mobility issues and seniors five days a week.
Here are some other things you missed:
• Sundre and the surrounding area includes some of the most beautiful wildlands in Alberta, where visitors can hike, raft, ride horses, camp, quad and experience nature.
Together with our many excellent public golf courses, our beloved local junior hockey teams, and the world’s leading Bavarian pro rodeo, I expect you have underestimated our arts and recreation sector.
• Olds is home to the majority of government services serving this region, including Olds College. Thanks in part to the renowned applied research division it is becoming known as one of Canada’s leading Smart Agriculture institutions. Excluding Olds College from the surrounding farming community isn’t particularly useful. The institution, founded in 1913, wouldn’t be in operation today if not for the farming community.
We have a saying around these parts, “Strong families build strong communities, and strong communities support strong families.”
Attempting to describe Mountain View County in isolation of the towns and villages makes about as much sense as crafting a federal equalization formula that includes western oil and gas revenues, while excluding the true value of central and eastern hydro energy revenues. Where’s the fairness?
Hon. Nathan Cooper,
MLA, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills and Speaker of the legislative assembly
