Ellected by Madame Premier

Episode 69 is the last episode in the series of conversations with all of the candidates running to be the next leader of the Alberta NDP and this conversation with Gil McGowan is full of surprises.McGowan is wearing multiple hats during the podcast and campaign as the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour and workers are front and centre during the podcast but it's how he positions them that gets some push back from Ellected's host Sarah Elder. Aren't all Albertans workers? She thinks so but McGowan has a different take on it.McGowan also makes a bold statement on the Alberta NDP and oil and gas. What is it? You'll have to listen to find out!Learn more about Gil McGowan:Gil’s prairie pragmatism and progressive values are rooted in his rural Alberta upbringing. He grew up on a farm north of Edmonton. He attended elementary and junior high school in Clyde (population 430) and high school in Westlock (population 5,100).Gil is a long-time New Democrat, having joined the party as a teenager to help in the breakthrough election of 1986 that saw the NDP form the Official Opposition for the first time, with 16 seats. Gil also served on the executive boards of the NDYA and the U of A campus NDP and interned at the Legislature. He worked as a voter contact organizer in the 1993 election and as the central campaign’s Director of Communications in the 1997 election.Before being hired as a campaign organizer and communication officer by the labour movement in the ’90s, Gil was a journalist.He holds a Master of Journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alberta. Throughout his working life, Gil has been a proud and active member of several unions.He has also done extensive work with the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA), the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401 and the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union (ATU).Gil is the proud father of three amazing young adults – who continue to bring him joy as they make their way in the world.To learn more about Gil McGowan's campaign, click here.

It's live episode #5 with each of the candidates running to be the next leader of the Alberta NDP and this week MLA Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse joined Sarah Elder in-store at Madame Premier to talk about her campaign.Jodi shares why her campaign is focused on water and climate change and contextualizes it in how it relates to Alberta's economy. Hear her thoughts on what the rural strategy should be for the party going into the next election, oil and gas and renewables, attracting investment to Alberta and how she thinks Danielle Smith and the UCP can be beaten in 2027.More about Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse:Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Edmonton-Rutherford and a proud member of Michel First Nation – Treaty 6, seeks to lead the Alberta NDP and become the next Premier, emphasizing unity in facing challenges like climate change and economic security.Her leadership approach is grounded in hard work, collaboration, and community connection, demonstrating a commitment to listen and provide decisive leadership. Jodi’s journey involves learning from elders, earning an undergraduate degree in Native Studies, and pursuing a Master’s Degree with a focus on water security.To find out more about Jodi's campaign, click here.

The latest and most in-demand podcast yet in Ellected's series of sitting down with all of the candidates in the leadership race to replace Rachel Notley as leader of Alberta's NDP, this conversation with Naheed Nenshi goes in a lot of directions.From joining the race, his "outsider" status, why he isn't making policy announcements, having a seat in the legislature if he wins and so much, much more.More about Naheed Nenshi:Naheed served as Calgary’s mayor for three terms between 2010 and 2021. During his time as mayor, Calgary was named the third best city to live in globally.Naheed was recognized as “the best mayor in the world” in 2014 by The City Mayors Foundation. He also received the President’s Award from the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Humanitarian Award from the Canadian Psychological Association for his contribution to community mental health.Prior to his election, Naheed served as Canada’s first tenured professor of nonprofit management at the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal University. He was also a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. Headquartered in Alberta, Naheed ran his own firm: Ascend Group. His clients included the United Nations and he advised on how corporations can help the world’s poorest people.Naheed is a graduate of the University of Calgary where he served as President of the Students’ Union. He also earned a Master of Public Policy Degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he studied as a Kennedy Fellow.

The third in Ellected's series of live podcasts with the candidates running to replace Rachel Notley as the leader of the Alberta NDP. This episode features MLA Sarah Hoffman in her unabashed quest to win the race to take on Danielle Smith and the UCP in the 2027 provincial election.Listen to Sarah Hoffman share her very transparent to run on a campaign of being authentically herself to get a mandate to lead the Alberta NDP. Sarah shares her three campaign policy priorities of healthcare, climate and housing and why each is important.We talk about who will have her phone number (it won't be David Parker of Take Back Alberta), her record of winning elections against incumbents, where she is on the political spectrum and more in this episode.More about MLA Sarah Hoffman:Sarah Hoffman grew up in Kinuso, a small rural community, where her dad was the school principal and her mom was a teacher.Sarah earned bachelor degrees in Mathematics, Religion and Education, and a master’s degree in Education Policy. While studying, Sarah got involved in the NDP. In 2010, Rachel Notley encouraged her to run for the Edmonton Public School Board. Sarah earned 70 per cent of the vote, defeating a well-known incumbent trustee. This was the first of Sarah’s five consecutive election victories.In 2015, Sarah defeated a Conservative cabinet minister, and won Edmonton-Glenora for the Alberta NDP for the first time. Premier Rachel Notley named her Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.Sarah was re-elected in 2019 and 2023, and served as Deputy Leader of the Alberta NDP throughout that time.To learn more about Sarah Hoffman and her campaign, click here.

In the second live episode of Ellected in this special series of conversations with the Alberta NDP leadership candidates, host Sarah Elder-Chamanara sits down with MLA Kathleen Ganley. *Please note that due to a very unfortunate internet issue when recording, the recording cuts off abruptly.*Hear Kathleen discuss the entry of Nenshi into the race, her focus on the economy and how that the economy is what will win the Alberta NDP the next election in 2027, what the membership tent would like under her leadership, caucus management and much, much more.More about Kathleen Ganley:Kathleen Ganley is the MLA for Calgary-Mountain View. She served as Alberta's Minister of Justice and Solicitor General from 2015 to 2019, where she focused on progressive reforms. Before her political career, she worked in law, specializing in labour, employment and human rights.Kathleen holds a doctor of law (JD) from the University of Calgary and degrees in Philosophy and Psychology. Kathleen lives in Calgary with her daughter.To learn more about Kathleen's campaign, click here.More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.

In the first ever episode of Ellected recorded in-front of a live  audience,  host Sarah Elder-Chamanara sits down with NDP MLA and leadership candidate Rakhi Pancholi for the first in a series of podcasts with all of the candidates running to be the next leader of the Alberta NDP.Hear from Rakhi about why she's running, her thoughts on "lending" votes to the Alberta NDP in the 2023 provincial election campaign, the return of hope and optimism in Alberta politics, her plans for all day kindergarten, the upcoming launch of her climate policies and so much more. This episode was recorded in-front of a live audience at Madame Premier in Calgary on Sunday, March 3, 2024.More about Rakhi Pancholi:Rakhi Pancholi is a two-term MLA, lawyer and mom who’s committed to building a future full of opportunity for Alberta.She began her legal career at a prestigious Bay Street firm, leading to almost a decade of experience in senior advisory roles for the Government of Alberta in the ministries of Education and Justice. Before running for office she also worked in private practice as a senior lawyer at a major Alberta law firm, where she specialized in labour and employment law.Her passion for building a brighter future and better world led her to the University of Alberta, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and a law degree from the University of Toronto.Rakhi lives in South Edmonton with her husband, Owen, her two school-aged children, and her rescue dog Duke.To learn more about Rakhi's campaign, visit https://www.voterakhi.ca/More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.

In Ep. 63 of Ellected join host and founder of Madame Premier Sarah Elder-Chamanara in discussion with Calgary City Councillor, former Olympian and mom Jasmine Mian in a discussion on the city's remote work policy for council members in response to a staff recommendation to change council’s code of conduct and procedure bylaws to limit councillors’ ability to tune in to meetings virtually because of how some members of council abused the policy. Mian introduced an amendment to make sure councillors are able to continue to work remotely as protected grounds of the Alberta Human Rights Act.Also up for discussion in this episode with Mian and Elder-Chamanara are how we need more women, parents and diversity in politics and how we can better prepare women for the job of elected office knowing that the environment is highly toxic."I am the first woman to have a baby while in office here and that's for a reason: because the job hasn't largely been accessible, and so I think it's thinking about how do we make it so that city hall actually looks like the people we represent," Calgary City Councillor Jasmine MianMore about Jasmine Mian:Jasmine Mian was elected Councillor for Ward 3 in the Calgary General Election on Oct. 18, 2021. She is the youngest woman ever elected to Calgary City Council.A second-generation Canadian, Councillor Mian holds Masters degrees in Public Policy and Psychology and has worked in both the private and public sectors. She represented Canada in the sport of wrestling at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Councillor Mian is passionate about pedestrian and road safety due to being struck by a driver when she was only four years old. She completed her Master's thesis on pedestrian safety and continues to advocate for safer streets.  Her other priorities include addressing the climate emergency, downtown revitalization/economy, and improving transportation in Ward 3. She' s remained active in her community through volunteering for Big Brothers Big Sisters. More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.

In Ellected Ep. 62 join Sarah in conversation with Orit Sulitzeanu, the exectuvite director of The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, about the sexual violence committed on October 7th in Israel.Hear about what happened on October 7th from a leader committed to combating sexual violence on a daily basis in Israel who now educates the world on what took place that day.To learn more about The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, please click here.More about Orit Sulitzeanu:Orit has served as executive director of the ARCCI since 2013. She has more than twenty years of experience in the fields of communications, public relations and managing public campaigns mainly concerning the status of women and the struggle to end violence against women. For over a decade she served as the Spokeswoman and director of the public relations department of Hebrew University, and before that she served as the Spokeswoman for the Israel Women's Network. Orit has a rich record of activities for the advancement of women in a variety of issues: the advancement of women in politics, the struggle against trafficking women, advancing the rights of Agunot and delayed divorce, the struggle to end violence against women, and the advancement of women in academia. Orit has a BA with honors from Hebrew University in East Asian Studies. She has two masters' degrees which she finished with honors in Non-Profit Administration and Communications from Hebrew University. Orit's thesis examined the influence of non-profits on the struggle against the trafficking of women in Israel. She is on the executive board of the non-profit "Kol HaIsha". She volunteered in a women's shelter in Jerusalem as part of the project "Noam", at the hotline for foreign workers, and at the Jerusalem rape crisis center in the education department and the hotline.More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.

Allie Blades of Mash Strategies and Political Capital  panelist joins host Sarah Elder-Chamanara to recap the federal Conservative Party convention in  Quebec City with breakout discussions on the pop-up appearances by two Liberal government ministers and some of the policies passed by those in attendance.

Read the report on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Alberta Post- Secondary Education here.More about the Council of Alberta University Students:Represents over 114,000 undergraduate students from the University of Alberta, the University of Lethbridge, Mount Royal University, MacEwan University, and Athabasca University to the public, government and other post-secondary education stakeholders. Based in Edmonton, CAUS is a non-partisan and active advocacy group driven by their members looking to ensure a fully accessible and high quality system of education in Alberta.The board is comprised of representatives from of our member Student association/Student unions. Each institution provides two delegates to our board; most often this is the Vice-President External and the President.More about Chris Beasley:Chris Beasley (He/They) is the Chair of the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS) as well as the Vice President External of the University of Alberta Students Union. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, and was the former President of the University of Alberta's Arts Undergraduate Society, OASIS. He has previously worked as the Communications Coordinator for CAUS, as a Page in the Legislature, and as a Legislature Tour Guide. His passions include Get Out The Vote initiatives, the student voice, and caring about communities.More about Rachele Preston:Rachele Preston (she/her) is the Vice President External for the University of Lethbridge Students' Union. She is currently completing a combined degree in General Science and Mathematics Education. She has been involved in student leadership in various ways for most of her undergraduate studies, including being the Vice President Internal for the University of Lethbridge's Education Undergraduate Society, as well as previously serving as the Faculty of Education Student Representative on the ULSU General Assembly. She is passionate about teaching, creating safe and accessible education, icebreaker questions, as well as Robert's Rules of Order. More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.

Housing, housing, housing. It’s a hot topic across Canada as we struggle with affordability, inflation and access to housing. This week Calgary City Council will chose between action on housing or the status quo and in episode 59 of Ellected, Calgary city councillor Kourtney Penner joins the podcast to talk about the decision she and her colleagues face in accepting or rejecting an 80 point plan to address the housing crisis. It’s one of the 80 recommended points in the report to update a type of zoning in certain areas to allow for more types of housing and instead of being widely applauded as innovative, some of council are rejecting the change in favour of small tweaks that won’t result in broad change. Councillor Penner walks you through what’s coming this week as well as the why and the what happens next.More about Kourtney Penner:Kourtney Penner was elected councillor for Ward 11 in the Calgary General Election on Oct. 18, 2021.Kourtney Penner has roots and chose to live in Ward 11 with her family. As a community-minded leader she believes it is important to support community-building initiatives. With a strong value in relationship building, she knows projects succeed when we choose a mindset of working together, approaching challenges to find balanced, positive outcomes, and by using data to support decision making.As a mom with school aged children and parents and grandparents in the city, Kourtney knows neighbourhoods need to balance the needs of residents across the stages of their lives. As a leader in the technology sector, she knows a thriving economy is vital to the city and creating a sustainable future is important to our global position.As part of Kourtney’s practice with all the organizations she has served – she has brought this mindset to the table and continually asks these questions:How can we positively affect (or least harm) the most amount of people?What opportunities exist for different groups to come together to create the most desirable outcome which may involve compromise?More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.

In episode 58 of Ellected Sarah speaks with Independent Senator Kim Pate on the trip she made along with three other Canadian representatives as part of a civil society delegation that visited north eastern Syria in the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to meet with Canadian men, women and children in detention camps and prisons for suspected members of ISIS.Senator Pate and Sarah discuss the senator's trip as well as the complicated human and political aspects around the administration of justice, due process, citizenship, the ongoing threats of radicalization in the camps and prisons but also here at home.More about Senator Kim Pate: Kim Pate was appointed to the Senate of Canada on November 10, 2016. First and foremost, the mother of Michael and Madison, she is also a nationally renowned advocate who has spent nearly 40 years working in and around the legal and penal systems of Canada, with and on behalf of some of the most marginalized, victimized, criminalized and institutionalized — particularly imprisoned youth, men and women.Senator Pate graduated from Dalhousie Law School in 1984 with honours in the Clinical Law Programme and has completed post graduate work in the area of forensic mental health. She was the Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) from January 1992 until her appointment to the Senate in November 2016. CAEFS is a federation of local societies who provide services and work in coalition with Aboriginal women, women with mental health issues and other disabling conditions, young women, visible minority and immigrant women, poor women and those isolated and otherwise deprived of potential sources of support. Prior to her work with CAEFS, she worked with youth and men in a number of capacities with the local John Howard Society in Calgary, as well as the national office. She has developed and taught Prison Law, Human Rights and Social Justice and Defending Battered Women on Trial courses at the Faculties of Law at the University of Ottawa, Dalhousie University and the University of Saskatchewan. She also occupied the Sallows Chair in Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law in 2014 and 2015.Kim Pate is widely credited as the driving force behind the Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston, headed by Justice Louise Arbour. During the Inquiry, she supported women as they aired their experiences and was a critical resource and witness in the Inquiry itself. She also persuaded the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to initiate the Self-Defence Review and appoint the Honourable Madam Justice Lynn Ratushny to review the convictions and sentences of women jailed for using lethal force to defend themselves and/or their children against abusive men. She then worked tirelessly in pursuit of the implementation of the many positive recommendations from both. Senator Pate has been instrumental in building coalitions across the country with other equality-seeking women’s, anti-racism, anti-poverty and human rights groups and organizations; and, in this capacity, has worked with feminist legal scholars, lawyers, other professionals and front-line advocates and activists — from Indigenous communities to transition house and rape crisis centre workers.Senator Pate strongly believes that the contributions of women who have experienced marginalization, discrimination and oppression should be recognized and respected and she seeks to credit and empower women. She maintains contact with women in prison through her numerous visits to Canada’s federal prisons and strongly encourages other advocates, scholars, service providers, judges and parliamentarians to ground their efforts in a similar way.

In episode 57 of Ellected, learn about Campaign University, a new initiative for anyone discontent with the current state of politics and interested in running or getting involved.  Created and run by three political veterans, former Vancouver city councillor George Affleck and veteran campaigners Mike Wilson and Emile Scheffel, they are disrupting the status quo of politics by telling you exactly how things work.More about George Affleck:George Affleck won his first election by doing his own marketing and was able to secure his seat despite a poor performance by his  party. In his 20 years in public office, media, and marketing, he learned what it takes to handle pressure. He's focused on helping you win, having walked through the challenges of being a candidate and public servant firsthand, and come out on the other side with a passion to help others do the same.George was elected into public office in 2011 and served two terms as a city councillor in Vancouver and is the president and CEO of Curve Communications.More about Mike Wilson:Mike is the CEO of In Language Advertising, a full service campaign and public policy advertising agency. He is an expert at building and driving large-scale campaigns and narratives that move public opinion. Mike is also the Principal at Dampier Consulting - A strategic communications consultancy. Mike brings high level strategic thinking to his work.Recently, Mike has been involved in working to get good people in to politics and restoring needed public policy victories for clients throughout North America. Mike worked on Christy Clark’s leadership campaign in 2011 and then moved in to the BC government where he managed polling and advertising leading up to the 2013 election. During the 2013 election Mike helped manage the multicultural advertising for the campaign. From 2013-2107, in addition to his corporate work, Mike managed polling and advertising within the BC Government bringing systems, financial controls and campaign measurement in to the bureaucracy. More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.

In this episode of Ellected, your Host Sarah Elder-Chamanara speaks with Kate McKenzie, the co-director of the film The Secret Marathon, the true story of women training and running a marathon in Afghanistan.The majority of the women's world take running for granted. Why? Because we run when we want, in whatever dress we want and where we want for the most part. Women in Afghanistan? Running is something that wasn't allowed for a very long time  and the short window in which it was allowed has closed yet again. Hear Sarah and Kate speak about how The Secret Marathon came to be from an idea in Calgary to filming during one of the few public marathons that women were allowed to take part in Afghanistan before the return of the Taliban last year.You can watch The Secret Marathon here.Find out more about The Secret 3K here.More about Kate McKenzie:Kate McKenzie is Director & Founder of Worldviews Productions, a digital media production company specializing in stories of hope and innovation through a constructive journalism approach. Her most recent project is the feature length documentary film The Secret Marathon which premiered at Cinéfest Sudbury to a sold our crowd, followed by the Edmonton International Film Festival, also to a sold out crowd, where it won the Audience Choice Award for best documentary. The film has also inspired The Secret 3K, an annual run/walk in more than 27 locations across Canada and around the world to promote gender equality and safe and inclusive spaces. Kate is also the Manager of ATB X a business accelerator  where Kate helps businesses achieve growth. As a published author, exhibiting fine artist and professional public speaker, Kate is passionate about sharing meaningful stories across a variety of mediums. Her TEDx talk about the Power of Positive News has had over 11,000 views. Kate has a Masters in Digital Media from Ryerson University and a Bachelors in Education with a specialization in experiential learning from the University of Lethbridge. More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.

In this episode of Ellected, Sarah chats with Julia Anderson, the CEO of Canadian Partnership for Women and Children's Health (CanWaCH), a membership organization of more than 100 Canadian non-governmental organizations (NGOS), academic institutions, health professional associations and individuals partnering to improve health outcomes for women and children in more than 1,000 communities worldwide.Julia and Sarah discuss the work of CanWaCH, how the organization came to be under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the current government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, why the work of international investment in the areas of women's and children's health is critically important and what Julia sees as the top ongoing global threat to the health of women and children globally.More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.More about Julia Anderson:Julia Anderson is the CEO of Canadian Partnership for Women and Children's Health (CanWaCH), a membership organization of more than 100 Canadian non-governmental organizations (NGOS), academic institutions, health professional associations and individuals partnering to improve health outcomes for women and children in more than 1,000 communities worldwide.

Welcome to a the second special Alberta provincial election edition of Ellected with your host Sarah Elder-Chamanara and special guest to the podcast Sarah Biggs.In this halfway point recap of the Alberta election campaign, Sarah and Sarah go over the debate, polling, the ongoing issue that is Artur Pawlowski, they do a check-in on where the NDP and UCP are going into the last week (hurrah!), advance voting and more.More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.More about Sarah Biggs:Since 2004, Sarah Biggs has been working on a multitude of campaigns. Party Leaderships, federal, provincial and municipal campaigns. From Parliament Hill to Alberta, Sarah has gained a wealth of knowledge Sarah was campaign manager for 2022 UCP leadership candidate Leela Aheer, and recently worked as a key organizer on Jyoti Gondek’s successful 2021 mayoral bid.Having extensive experience in lobbying, policy, community engagement, oil and gas industry, Sarah is able to provide services in french and english. Having an accounting background, she also has experience in merger and acquisition, capital projects and campaign finances.Educated at Universite de l’Outaouais and the University of Lethbridge, Sarah brings a fresh and bold approach to campaigns. Viability, sustainability and understanding the electorate/clientele is key to her approach. Sarah is a regular contributor to the podcast The Breakdown, and has appeared on Radio Canada and CBC News Network.

Welcome to a special Alberta provincial election edition of Ellected with your host Sarah Elder-Chamanara and special guest to the podcast Sarah Biggs.In what will be a weekly podcast leading up to Election Day on May 29th, Sarah and Sarah talk through their thoughts on the first week, Danielle Smith being MIA, the Calgary arena deal, Danielle S mith's newly unearthed comments equating vaccinated Albertans with followers of Hitler during World War 2, the ongoing fire situation and more.More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.More about Sarah Biggs:Since 2004, Sarah Biggs has been working on a multitude of campaigns. Party Leaderships, federal, provincial and municipal campaigns. From Parliament Hill to Alberta, Sarah has gained a wealth of knowledge Sarah was campaign manager for 2022 UCP leadership candidate Leela Aheer, and recently worked as a key organizer on Jyoti Gondek’s successful 2021 mayoral bid.Having extensive experience in lobbying, policy, community engagement, oil and gas industry, Sarah is able to provide services in french and english. Having an accounting background, she also has experience in merger and acquisition, capital projects and campaign finances.Educated at Universite de l’Outaouais and the University of Lethbridge, Sarah brings a fresh and bold approach to campaigns. Viability, sustainability and understanding the electorate/clientele is key to her approach. Sarah is a regular contributor to the podcast The Breakdown, and has appeared on Radio Canada and CBC News Network.

Content Warning - This episode contains discussions of sexual assault.In Ellected Ep. 52 host Sarah Elder-Chamanara talks with victim advocate Kristin Raworth about her article in The Line titled Sexual Violence Survivors Are Still Being Let Down. Kristin and Sarah talk about what it means for Prime Minister Trudeau to call himself and his government "feminist", what the #MeToo movement meant to Kristin, Hockey Canada, the Canadian military, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, toxic masculinity and more but most of all, the lack of action in all ways in ending violence against women.More about Kristin Raworth:Kristin Raworth is a sexual violence survivor, an advocate for survivors in Alberta, and a civil servant.More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.

In Episode 51 Ellected’s host Sarah Elder-Chamanara sat down for an in-person conversation with Sabrina Grover, fresh off her win as Mark Sutcliffe’s campaign manager in the hotly contested Ottawa mayoral elections. Sabrina and Sarah talk about the Ottawa campaign, including what you need to do to win outside of party politics, how talking with people you don’t agree with can be a good thing, why elections aren’t won on Twitter, the long overdue participation of women in colour in lead campaign roles and so much more. More about Sabrina Grover:Sabrina is an experienced advocacy, policy and communications professional who has worked extensively with civil society and youth.Sabrina previously worked in Government Relations with the Calgary Real Estate Board and then the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), focusing on government affairs and legislation related to housing at all levels of government.Sabrina’s work focused on developing policies that protect and support home owners, and effectively considered land-use, and created an enabling environment along the housing continuum. Sabrina has also worked extensively in provincial politics in Alberta prior to the dissolution of the PC Party of Alberta, where she focused on campaigns, youth engagement, and media relations. Sabrina’s media experience has been primarily focused on political engagement. Sabrina served as the communications and media lead as part of her role on the Board of Directors for a provincial political party in Alberta between 2015 and 2017, including leading on media engagement for the party leadership convention. Sabrina also served as the media and communications lead as a part of a local campaign in Calgary in the 2017 municipal elections. Sabrina participated in electoral missions in Zimbabwe in 2018 and in Sri Lanka in 2019 as part of the Commonwealth Observer Group. Sabrina’s work included meeting with members of civil society organisations, women’s groups, youth groups, and political representatives. Sabrina contributed extensively to the Electoral Observation Mission reports and lead authorship on the sections on participation and inclusion. These included detailing the barriers to electoral participation for women and youth, as well as making recommendations to the government on changes to make participation more inclusive, socially cohesive and accessible. Sabrina has also served as the co-chair of the Youth 7 (Y7) summit, which serves as the formal side engagement to the G7 as part of Canada's 2018 G7 presidency. Sabrina spent over 10 years working in developing programs for youth academic conferences focused on the United Nations in Calgary, Seattle, Portland and New York. More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.

50 episodes of Ellected! And what an episode to share to mark the milestone - a conversation with the Premier of the North West Territories Caroline Cochrane. In this episode of Ellected, Premier Cochrane shares some very personal stories of her youth including be homeless as a teenager and young mother with a grade nine education. Premier Cochrane is very deliberate and intentional in her actions and her advocacy to see more people, more women, more Indigenous people, more improvised people in politics because, as you hear often on Ellected, it matters who is at the decision making tables because they will bring all of their experiences with them and that means better decision making. This episode left me feeling inspired, challenged and optimistic and I hope it does the same for you.More about Premier Caroline Cochrane:Caroline Cochrane was re-elected to the 19th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly representing the constituency of Range Lake. Ms. Cochrane was first elected to the 18th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly in 2015. During the 18th Assembly, Ms. Cochrane was also elected as a Member of Cabinet and held the positions of Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Minister of Public Works and Services, Minister Responsible for Addressing Homelessness, and  Minister Responsible for the Status of Women.  After a Cabinet shuffle on April 4, 2018, Ms. Cochrane was appointed as the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and retained the portfolio as Minister Responsible for the Status of Women. Ms. Cochrane was also a member of the Special Committee to Increase the Representation of Women in the Legislative Assembly.Ms. Cochrane is especially proud of her work, through successful engagement with residents, to restructuring the philosophies, policies, and programs of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation into attaining overall goals to assist residents to obtain, retain, and maintain their homes. As well, Minister Cochrane led the work to begin the implementation of the first 9-1-1 service in the NWT and continues to lead the Campaign Schools for Women to promote and support women being elected to all levels of government.Ms. Cochrane is of Métis descent, holds a degree in Social Work, and has twenty years’ experience in administration and direct service provision within accredited agencies that support high risk families. She has developed and facilitated workshops on topics related to parenting, child development, a variety of “train the trainer” and facilitation/service provisions. She has also trained community health workers to conduct developmental assessments for children.Ms. Cochrane and her partner, Rory, have a blended family of adult children and one grandchild. They look forward to their future generations enjoying the benefits the north has provided to them both. She is excited to be able to work towards ensuring a healthy, prosperous, sustainable future for the generations to come.More about Sarah Elder-Chamanara:Sarah Elder-Chamanara is the founder, creative director, designer and owner of Madame Premier, a feminist, political and activist clothing company and community based in Calgary, Alberta. With the underlying principle of seeing more women and diversity in politics, elected and in backrooms, at every level, Sarah and Madame Premier create opportunities for conversations about how politics works, why it needs to change, who it needs to change for and how the time for that is now.