Since becoming the new MLA for Red Deer North, Kim Schreiner has been away more than she has been home. She’s not complaining.
While it’s been a bit of a whirlwind since she became one of the rookie NDP MLAs elected when Rachel Notley’s “orange crush” won a majority government in May, Schreiner is certainly liking her new career.
A relative unknown before, Schreiner has been a resident of Red Deer for the past 33 years. She raised her two sons, now grown, with husband Vern, a Red Deer College instructor in the Trades and Technology Millwright Department.
Schreiner’s been difficult to catch up with. Up at 5 a.m. on Friday to prepare for another day of meetings, the soft-spoken Schreiner says her life has changed, although the business of helping people is not unfamiliar to her.Just prior to the election, Schreiner was working at Extendicare Michener Hill, a privately-operated, publicly-funded seniors facility in the city, as a health care aide. She was chief union steward there for the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.
Schreiner has a special place in her heart for seniors.
One of her very first “jobs” with seniors was when she was a kid. She loved weekends because her mother would let her come along to the seniors lodge overnight in B.C. She would sleep on a couch while her mother worked, and in the morning when her mother would help people get dressed “on the top half” with buttons and things, she would do the “bottom part,” putting their socks and shoes on.
“It was one of my favourite things to do — to go and spend time with the seniors.”
She continued to help people when she later became a hospital volunteer.
Schreiner helped fight against the closure of Red Deer’s two nursing homes and Michener Centre.
An “air force brat” now in her 50s, she said both her parents were in the Canadian Forces. That resulted in her being in 13 different schools in Canada and the U.S. through her schooling. That taught her to adjust well to change. “When you came into school your first day, it was like you were friends forever but you didn’t know anyone, and you knew that any time through the year your best friend could be gone.”
Schreiner saw a lot of different places, and one day when she came to Red Deer as a young adult to visit friends, she decided “This is where I want to live. ... Red Deer is my community. I chose it as my home.”
“My passion has always been to look after those that need it most. I started out working with seniors. ... For many years I worked with paraplegics and quadriplegics, and children ... all these people are important, I’ve always had a soft heart for seniors.”
During the election campaign, which ultimately ended the 44-year Conservative reign, Schreiner said she began to sense things were going to change.
“To tell you the truth, I probably didn’t say it out loud but I felt it coming, and I really truly did ... knocking on the doors of the constituents in my riding, the support was just overwhelming. The huge desire for change was overwhelming.”
She’s been busy meeting with such groups as City of Red Deer representatives, Native Friendship Centre workers, the chamber of commerce, school boards and others. She’s quite comfortable with it, skills she credits to moving around a lot as a child.
“I can walk in a room where there’s 100 people I’ve never met before and I don’t feel uncomfortable at all.”
There will be no summer holiday.
She wants to hear about what’s important to her constituents. “I want to have the opportunity to meet with every single person who needs to talk with me.”
Schreiner is on two legislative standing committees — Alberta’s Economic Future and Resource Stewardship.
This summer, she will be busy with committee meetings but she expects to be in Red Deer a lot more, meeting constituents and others. Her calendar is quickly filling up.
“I feel very honoured to be part of the team, to be able to make important decisions for the people of Alberta.”
barr@www.reddeeradvocate.com