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Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the

launch of the Stephen Randall Liberal Party campaign in
Calgary Centre North.
Thank all of you for coming today. Without you and other
committed individuals, Liberals and other who are here today,
we could not have a campaign, let alone the winning campaign
that we are determined to run this time- a special thanks to
Matthew Moody, President of the CCN Riding Association and
his colleagues in the Association for their keen support and
work over the past three months- among them especially Linda
Schultz who served as campaign manager in 2008.
I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce some of
the key people in the coming campaign:
Dr. Anne Katzenberg, to whom I have the good fortune to be
married and who is tolerating my increasing absences and
concentration on the task ahead. She is also my best critic,
ensuring that I am not overwhelmed by setbacks or take too
seriously my positive press.

James Maxim- himself a former Liberal Candidate in Calgary

and an experienced campaign manager who has kindly taken
on the task of steering this campaign to success.
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Michael Wylie, former Dean of Law at the University of

Calgary and now with Macleod Dixon, who is the official agent
Vincent St Pierre, who has taken on the social media and
website responsibilities. He has actually been able to teach me
the use of Twitter.
Jillian Dowding- now with the Alex social service organization
who is the coordinator for volunteers- she is the lady you really
need to talk to if you are willing to do anything to help get us to
our goal.

It is an honour, but a humbling one, to be the Liberal Party

candidate in Calgary Centre North for the next federal
election. Liberalism for me has always been the Liberalism of
McKenzie King, of Louis St. Laurent, of Lester Pearson.
Liberalism reaches out to all Canadians, without exclusion of
class, of religion, of gender or of ethnicity. Liberalism is
inclusive; it shies away from narrow ideological positions, with
a desire to provide practical and meaningful programs for all
Canadians. Liberalism has meant a balance between the
freedom of the individual and the role of the state in society
with government seeking to advance the interests of all
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Canadians. Liberalism has sought to protect the weak and

disadvantaged as well as those of us who are more advantaged.

It is my desire to bring that inclusiveness to the residents of

Calgary Centre North; to provide a strong, experienced and
Albertan voice to support the interests of all people in this
riding, regardless of traditional political party preferences.
Governance should not be about narrow partisan struggles for
advantage but a struggle to identify and implement effective
social, economic and foreign policies. We all have a common
goal and that is to advance the well being of all Canadians, to
ensure that we have adequate health care for all, to ensure that
all Canadians whether rich or poor, long time residents or
recent arrivals, have access to the highest quality education
and other services this country can offer. We need to ensure
that the average working Canadian can look forward to a
future that is sustainable in every sense of that word:
meaningful employment, safe communities, a healthy
environment. As a society we need to move beyond thinking
that there is no way to reconcile a healthy environment with a
sustainable economic life. To realize these goals the country
needs open, transparent and democratic debate, where all
ideas are treated with the respect they deserve, whether we are
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talking about the nature of our health care system or the

impact of natural resource development on the environment.

For the past half decade we have been confronted by a

minority government which has failed to listen to the majority
of Canadian citizens, has ignored the advice of experts and
average citizens alike. At a time when Canadians are
concerned about pensions, we hear of threats of weakening the
Canada Pension Act and supporting American style
privatization. At a time that Canadians are concerned about
the environment we are confronted with a government that is
increasing expenditures on correctional services by 21% and
cutting more than 400 million from environmental programs.
Natural Resources Canada is seeing a $390 million cut,
including the termination of the incentive program for
homeowner reduction of energy consumption.
We have seen too little respect for basic democratic principles,
too little respect for the role of elected officials in Parliament,
too little respect for Parliament as our basic democratic
institution, too little ministerial responsibility for flawed policy
decisions, including the most recent cynical effort to
manipulate the vote of new Canadians.
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The Canada of McKenzie King, St. Laurent and Pearson was

also a Canada that was internationally respected, which as
some have suggested “punched above its weight” in
international affairs. We have needlessly lost a great deal of
that luster as well as our capacity to deliver in cases of
international emergencies. We can barely evacuate a few
hundred nationals from Libya. We need to ensure that our
diplomats and other civil servants are given the resources,
respect and autonomy of action their expertise and experience
justify to enable them to advance Canadian interests abroad
and at home. We need a strong military, but a military that
meets Canadian needs in a world that is dramatically
changing, that no longer faces the traditional threats of the
Cold War. I have spent more than 40 years working on and in
the international arena. There is so much more that Canada
can do in this area, just as there is so much more we can do to
protect the environment, preserve Canadian culture and
cultural institutions, defend Canadian sovereignty, whether in
the North or on our southern border.

Like other residents of our riding, I have watched our

community and our country grow and change over the
decades. Like many Canadians I am the product of immigrant
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grandparents, English on one side and Italian on the other. It

has been a long voyage from a semi-rural area east of Toronto
in the 1940s and 1950s when I was growing up and near where
my paternal grandparents farmed from the 1930s to the 1960s,
to the major urban area in which we now live. Like many of
you, I have been a student, an anxious seeker of employment in
the early years after graduation. I have been a parent, am now
a grandparent of two rapidly growing grandchildren. My
daughter completed her secondary and post-graduate
education here. I am now, also like some of you, a senior
citizen, and still working hard for my profession and in the
interests of my students. This country has been very good to
me. I seek to continue to give back to a nation that has given so
much to me. I ask for your vote in the next federal election so
that I may represent your interests as the Member of
Parliament for the people of Calgary Centre North.
Thank you so much for being here today and sharing your
ideas, your passions and your concerns, but above all for your
generous support.