Chris Alders is seeking to become the MLA in Edmonton – City Centre because he believes there is a better, greener, and more socially just pathway ahead for our communities.
His background is varied and extensive. As a former broadcaster, Chris began on the airwaves delivering sportscasts, doing hockey play-by-play and hosting both a weekly radio call in sports talk show and a pre-Monday night television sports show. He later switched his attention to news, where he concentrated on school board, health issues and municipal government.
Chris also worked for weekly, by-weekly, daily, and monthly publications as a journalist, covering a wide range of issues that impacted on communities. Through these experiences, he realized that he needed to go beyond reportage and into the realm of advocacy.
While in Nova Scotia, he helped to create a method of between elections citizen engagement that enabled a political party to go from three seats to 31 seats in the legislature in 15 years. The method depended on the key elements of civic literacy and adult education. Chris is dedicated to bringing this about in Edmonton – City Centre.
As a Publisher, Chris helped to promote the written word through narratives that reflected the human conditions. Books produced by he and his team became critical and commercial successes.
Chris’s extensive formal education began with a B.A Double Major (History and Political Science) at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. The follow-up B.A. Honours degree in Political Science at Acadia saw his thesis research focus on political leadership. Entitled “The Triumph of Humanitarianism,” the two case studies explored were Nelson Mandela (former President of South Africa), and Vaclav Havel (former President of the Czech Republic).
His Masters degree in Political Science at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario focused on Canadian Politics. Chris authored a five-country (Canada, United States, Australia, United Kingdom, and New Zealand) study on the democratic inclusion elements pertaining to televised leaders’ debates.
Chris was a key figure who helped bring the Green Party of Nova Scotia into existence and assisted in facilitating the creation of the Green Party of New Brunswick and the Green Party of Prince Edward Island. The latter two parties currently, between them, have five Green Party members in their legislative assemblies. All toll, Chris has worked on or run 37 Green Party campaigns and the Green Party
popular vote has increased 36 times.
He is running for public office because he believes it is imperative that people step forward to address the Climate Crisis, and social and economic inequity.