As he goes into his first full year as Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA, Nathan Cooper says he feels the “weight of responsibility” of the job.
Before becoming the local MLA during last May's provincial election, Cooper served as the Wildrose Party's director of legislative affairs.
“I think the level of responsibility that I feel personally is significantly different. I feel a real personal desire to try and serve constituents as best as possible,” Cooper said during a year-end interview with the Albertan.
He said he loves “spending time in the constituency and trying to help people navigate government.”
“I'm just really proud and honoured to be an MLA and serve folks in the constituency the best way that I can,” he said. “I've never had a job before where you had to get hired by 10,000 people and so to try and meet the needs of those folks.”
Cooper says since last May he's discovered that the job of an MLA is a lot different than that of the director of legislative affairs for a party.
“The constituency is much more people-based. (It means) working hard to help meet the needs and be able to represent the province at events and speak on behalf of people from all across the constituency,” he said.
“In Edmonton obviously, it's just so policy-based and focused so much on the future of the province.”
Cooper said one of his real passions while in Edmonton is “trying to impress upon the government that the decisions we make here today affect our province tomorrow.”
“Sometimes politicians can become very short-sighted and they get caught up in today's challenge and trying to solve today's challenge instead of having a very long-term focus on the future of our province,” Cooper said.
One example he said, is the provincial government's bill that allows it to borrow money for operational spending.
“I rose on the budget debate when they were talking about the deficit and when they speak about changing the law that allows them to budget for tomorrow for operational spending,” Cooper said.
“This decision isn't just going to affect this government, it's going to affect the next government and the government after that,” he added.
“I feel the weight of responsibility that the work that we do – and I don't mean to overstate it – but the work that we do does help shape the direction of the province.
“So I really appreciate the feedback that I get from constituents and being able to take their voice to that because I haven't met anyone who doesn't want to make Alberta better tomorrow than it is today.”
"I've never had a job before where you had to get hired by 10,000 people and so to try and meet the needs of those folks."NATHAN COOPER OLDS-DIDSBURY-THREE HILLS MLA
