I am writing this letter in endorsement of Tammy Maloney. I first met Tammy in the same way many of us in the Alberta Party first meet: over twitter. However, it was not through the Alberta Party that our relationship begun, but instead through her work with SEAChange Ltd, a Calgary based organization that Tammy founded that uses an innovative business model to transform youth experiencing homelessness into Social Entrepreneurs. This was immediately appealing to me because of the clever and innovative way that Tammy was approaching an important issue that the city currently faces.
I first met Tammy in person at ‘An Evening with Dave Hancock,’ hosted by Calgary based organization Save Our Fine Arts. We quickly got chatting and agreed to meet for coffee, and a week later Tammy and I met for what was an inspiring, dynamic conversation that immediately engaged me in both the Alberta Party and Tammy’s vision for Alberta. What I loved most about our conversation was that, despite being 17, Tammy took every word I said as an important opinion that mattered. As a youth, it is easy to feel like my opinion is not listened too, and this is not okay. The decisions made today will determine the Alberta that I will live and work in, and they will determine the Alberta that my kids will be born into. It is obvious that Tammy is fully aware of this, and furthermore respects it. For Tammy, no opinion is worth any more or any less than the next person. This valuable quality that Tammy possesses will without a doubt make her an outstanding leader for the Alberta Party, as she naturally lives up to the values of the Alberta Party.
What separates Tammy for me from the other candidates is her obvious passion for everything she does. Tammy thinks acts and leads with her heart, a quality that is invaluable. I recently had the great opportunity to attend the finalist interviews for a Canada wide undergraduate scholarship called the Loran Award. The Loran award is one of the most prestigious scholarships in Canada, valued at $75 000. Whilst at the interviews, it was clear that all 75 finalists had one very important trait in common that made them stand out as leaders above thousands of other students across the country. This trait was that everything they did; all the extra-curricular activities they participated in, the organizations they volunteered with, the businesses and foundations they started - they did with enthusiasm, passion and a love for their work. One must only meet with Tammy for a short amount of time before it becomes evident that she is running for Leader of the Alberta Party with an infinite passion and a love for what she does. This gives me great faith that Tammy will lead the Alberta Party with a passion that will both engage and inspire.
What gives me the most confidence in Tammy’s ability to lead the Alberta Party is her drive to take the passion that motivates her and to use it to inspire Albertans to aim higher than a ‘better Alberta.’ In reference to Tammy’s own vision for Alberta, our province has vast amounts of untapped energy that needs to be found and used. The word Energy does not refer to the kind of Energy that we are used to though. It instead refers to the Energy stored in every one of us; the artistic, creative energy that drives and motivates us. If this energy was to be tapped into for every single Albertan, we would live in a society where every individual is driven by their passion for their work. The benefits of this for our province would be massive, and it is a change that needs to happen for Alberta to become the best place in the world to live. I believe that Tammy’s exemplary leadership and passion for her work will make her successful in inspiring this change, and consequently transforming our province.
Tammy’s vision for the province of Alberta is ambitious, and will be challenging. However, Tammy is not just a leader with vision. Tammy has shown numerous examples of taking her passion and vision and turning it into actions. The first example of this is her leadership role she took on in the 2008 IESE Doing Good and Doing Well Conference; the Largest European Student-Run Conference on Responsible Business. The second example is her dedicated work with the William J. Clinton Foundation, where she worked in Nigeria and accomplished many impressive things including spearheading the development of a strategy to address malnutrition nationwide and foster alliances between various stakeholders including the Federal Ministry of Health and UNICEF.
It is through examples such as these that solidify for me Tammy’s ability to lead the Alberta Party with not only passion and drive, but with the experience of turning that motivation into actions that have time after time proved to be successful. Tammy is a dynamic, passionate, innovative young woman with a wealth of both global and community experience in addressing and implementing successful solutions to many problems. With this in mind, it gives me great confidence in declaring my full support for Tammy Maloney as leader of the Alberta Party!
