Claresholm politician enters UCP nomination race for Livingstone-Macleod
Chelsae Petrovic, a licensed practical nurse outside of town chambers, told Shootin’ the Breeze on Jan. 31 that she wants to return provincial politics to its grassroots within the riding.
“As politicians, we need to take our orders from and listen to our constituents,” she said.
She’d been generally uninterested in politics until she decided to run for council in Claresholm in the run-up to its October 2021 civic election.
Her husband, Cody, suggested that she aim higher, so she went for the mayoral spot and won.
“My specialty is advocating for people,” she said, adding that she resolved to run for the UCP’s riding nomination after some heart-wrenching conversations with local moms and dads last Christmas.
“When I heard from parents who said they had to choose between buying presents for their children and filling up their gas tank … that’s what put me over the edge.”
She wants to run under the UCP banner because, in her words, “I’m a mom; a wife; a Christian. I resonate more with the party’s traditional values.”
Petrovic said Premier Danielle Smith needs MLAs who will hold her to account while supporting her policy initiatives, including and especially Smith’s controversial Sovereign Alberta Within a United Canada Act.
“I truly believe that’s a good thing for Alberta,” she told the Breeze.
As an LPN at Claresholm General Hospital and the emergency department in Fort Macleod, Petrovic said she “lives and breathes” health care. Fixing health care has to be about listening to front-line nurses and doctors and getting them what they need to stay in their jobs, she said.
Petrovic said she planned to submit her finalized application to the UCP’s constituency association in Livingstone-Macleod within the week.
She will have to contend with a number of other hopeful nominees, including Don Whalen of nearby Parkland.
The UCP reopened riding nominations on Jan. 26, roughly two months after the party disqualified Nadine Wellwood over her social media posts wherein she compared Canada’s Covid-19 measures to public policy in Nazi Germany.
The party will close nominations in the riding Feb. 9, with the contest to be decided sometime in March, Petrovic said.
