Cathy Heron became the first woman to enter the race for city council when she announced her candidacy last week.
Heron, 42, chairs council's community services advisory board and is a member of others like the RCMP advisory board. She also served as Mayor Nolan Crouse's campaign manager for his successful mayoral run in 2007.
Interestingly, despite obvious historical ties to Crouse Heron says she's distanced herself from the mayor. Some key platform planks include creating a 'social master plan' for St. Albert and limits on property taxes (not to be confused with spending cuts) so that annual increases are less than other municipalities in the Capital region.
Heron is the fourth challenger to emerge in the race for city council, joining James Van Damme, Cam MacKay and Stanley Haroun. Incumbents Gareth Jones, Roger Lemieux and Len Bracko are seeking re-election, as is Crouse himself.
On a humourous note, it looks like Heron hasn't distanced herself from Crouse in at least one respect. Her website features (it's now been fixed) a graphic encouraging visitors to vote in the Oct. 15, 2007 election. It's the same graphic that appeared on Crouse's website that year.
