A life-long passion for politics has brought a frustrated former nurse, Sara Christie, into the race for a council seat.
Christie who was born and raised in Lloydminster left the city to pursue education in nursing.
“Born and raised in Lloydminster, I’m 41 years old, went to school at University of Calgary, got a nursing degree with distinction, made the dean’s list,” said Christie.
It was a passing in her family that brought her back to the border city.
“My father died halfway through my nursing degree, so I decided to move back home to be closer to my mom and family,” said Christie.
“Worked at the hospital for 16 years as a registered nurse, I just resigned about a month ago, because my philosophy of health care and the government’s philosophy of health care has never jived.”
She said on top of her and the government’s views of health care not aligning, she also felt burnt out. Christie explains a lot of her time was spent away from patients doing paper work.
Even with her exit for nursing, she decided to chase another one of her passions.
“I’ve always had a passion for politics,” said Christie. “When I was about 10 years old and the Oklahoma City bombing happened, I was glued to the television and I didn’t know why.”
She says she always followed world politics and says people haven’t been paying attention to municipal politics in Lloydminster.
“Right now I’m talking to so many people, no one has paid attention to what’s been happening in Lloyd since (Gerald) Aalbers came in,” she explained. “But now all of a sudden everyone’s mad at the city because their taxes are going up.”
She cites further issues, such as the ongoing homeless issue, crime, and the Cenovus Energy Hub.
“We elected these people to represent us. That’s what they’re supposed to be doing,” said Christie. “You elect them to represent you and no one feels like they’re represented at all.”
She says what got her into politics at the municipal level is a want to represent the people in issues she sees.
“What drove me was my property taxes went up over, almost $1,000 this year. I have so many issues with how the streets are taken care of, the snow removal, I don’t see where that $1,000 is going. Yeah, inflation is happening but you can’t just put it on the taxpayer,” said Christie.
She likens the municipal issue to what nurses have to deal with.
“It’s the same as nurses in the hierarchy, everything falls on the nurse,” explained Christie. “In this case, the buck gets passed to the taxpayer and we don’t have a choice but to pay our taxes. We don’t have a choice.”
She says the city needs to reign in its spending.
“The taxes are only going to continue to go up if good people don’t get on council and stop this frivolous spending, where is this money going,” questions Christie.
She says the amount of administration has gone up and wants to see an audit done on city staff.
“I want to see every single employee position, what exactly they’re doing, show me what they’re doing,” she said. “I bet you we can cut a lot of taxes based on cutting city employee jobs, I want to dig into the books right away.”
Christie says in her campaigning she’s spoken to people that haven’t felt heard by the municipality.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people that were stand-offish at first, saying they’ve been complaining to the city for years about this and I’ve only ever gotten the run-around,” she said.
Christie says an issue she’s heard about is the state of properties around town. She had an experience at the Servus Sports Centre with things not being maintained.
“I was at Servus Sports Centre, I’m outside enjoying the beautiful sunshine, grass is still green. I look around, there’s garbage everywhere, it’s 10 O’clock on a Sunday,” she explained.
She says it’s important to maintain properties and keep them looking nice.
Christie says she invites big businesses to come to the city to make Lloydminster more of a hub for the catchment area.
“I’m for economic drive, we need to bring in a big franchise rec centre,” she explained.
Christie wants to see a recreation centre like Ed’s in Edmonton come in to give teenagers a safe and fun place to hang out, especially during the cold winter months.
“That place would have no problem, it’s a place to go and have fun,” she said.
Christie says people should vote for her because she’s going to fight for issues like taxes, homelessness, crime and the housing authority, which she said has had a negative impact on residents.
“Something is terribly wrong with the housing authority and there needs to be a huge mix-up in that department,” she said.
Christie says as a nurse, she naturally cares about people and she’s running for those people. She wants to do this for her kids, their kids, and future generations.
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