Chestermere-Rocky View MLA Leela Aheer is starting 2017 with two new Wildrose Shadow Cabinet roles.
Wildrose leader Brian Jean shuffled his shadow cabinet Dec. 16. As part of the moves, Aheer left her role as Shadow Minister of Energy to take on the roles of Shadow Minister of Education and Status of Women.
“The wonderful thing about doing a cabinet shuffle is you bring a new person with a new set of eyes to something,” she said.
Aheer feels that this move aligns with her pre-politics strengths. She has a background as a teacher in the private sector.
“Its interesting that I was initially put into energy which was probably as far from my comfort zone as I possibly could be,” she said, “but the challenge of actually taking on something so important to Alberta was just such a beautiful opportunity.”
She is looking forward to the new challenges and learning opportunities presented in both of her new roles.
“Coming back to something that’s a little bit closer to probably who I am as a human being it’s an interesting shift,” said Aheer of her role in education.
As a professional musician, she has both taught music and consulted in various schools and school districts.
With only a month in the role, Aheer has been spending much of her time pouring through the related policies and starting to consult with stake holders.
“I spent that last two days literally just end to end through policy and learning about the system and about the funding models,” she said.
As she is learning the intricate details of the education system she said there are a lot of great things at work in the system but there is still room for improvement.
“Looking through it you can see some red flags for things that I think could potentially have opportunity for changes,” said Aheer.
As she has been reading the policies and legislation Aheer said that it is very convoluted and confusing.
“I believe that asking for clarity is one of the most important things that I can do,” she said.
In addition to learning as much as she can, Aheer has also already made a joint statement with Wildrose MLA Scott Cyr on Jan. 5 in response to the government’s agreement bringing a close to a legal disagreement between Alberta Education and the Trinity Christian School Association.
In the statement, they expressed their support of the agreement and promise that the Wildrose will work to protect parental choice in the education system.
She is committed to promoting and protecting a parent’s right to make decisions about their children’s education.
“[It] is a very important Wildrose policy,” she said.
Aheer also praised the hard work of her predecessor, MLA Mark Smith in the portfolio and on the Trinity school issue.
“Coming into such big [shoes] in this portfolio is overwhelming…they did such a great job for those first 19 months,” she said.
Going forward, Aheer is confident that she will be able to continue moving the issues forward with her own personal twist.
She is looking forward to future meetings with school boards and authorities across the province.
“That is an immense privilege is gaining the respect and trust of those folks that we elect to take care of our babies,” she said.
Her goal in this portfolio is to keep the needs of the child at the forefront of any discussion.
Her other Shadow Ministry is less clearly defined than the education portfolio.
The Status of Women Ministry was first created in the federal cabinet in Ottawa in 1971 as a result of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women.
Since then most all provincial cabinets have created a similar ministry.
Alberta was the last province to create a Status of Women position with the NDP government announcing its creation last year. Aheer said Alberta is the first province to have a dedicated porfolio for it.
She is excited at the opportunity to help shape this new ministry through dialogue and work as the opposition critic.
“Ideally as a critic that’s what you want to be able to do,” said Aheer, “to take a look at what’s there, have a different perspective about it, and provide other examples of ways to move forward to the government.”
Part of the role of this ministry and something that Aheer wants to works towards is ensuring that there is no disparity based on gender.
“From my understanding of where the Status of Women comes from, [it] is to make sure that all people are judged based on their capability and that gender does not play a part in whether or not a person gets a job,” she said.
What excites Aheer the most about being responsible for this portfolio is the opportunity to speak to women, especially young women, in Alberta and create a dialogue on this.
Aheer has already reached out to local business women for their advice and comments.
“I reached out to all of these incredible women that I personally know to ask them to take a look at status of women and see…how we need to shape this…portfolio,” she said.
With both her new portfolios Aheer hopes to be able to open dialogues and move agendas forwards.
“You hope you can bring your own spin to it but do the ministry justice,” she said.
