She has been going full steam ahead for almost a year, since she declared her candidacy last Labour Day weekend, but new MLA Joan McIntyre says there's still plenty of spring in her step.
"It's been a long, busy year for me," the rookie legislator said on Friday (July 15) as she traveled down Interstate 5 to attend the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) Summit in Seattle. "But it's really exciting and challenging and I still have lots of energy for the job ahead.
"As a rookie, it's been very busy - I've got lots of files on the go. My phone's been ringing off the hook in the constituency office, and that's good."
The rookie legislator for West Vancouver-Garibaldi has spent the two months since the May 17 election - when she garnered slightly more than 50 per cent of the vote in the riding that includes West Vancouver and the Sea to Sky corridor - getting up to speed on her duties, setting up her constituency office and learning how Premier Gordon Campbell hopes to use her talents in the current government.
McIntyre said she was honoured that the Premier tabbed her for a seat on the Agenda Development Committee (ADC), chaired by Campbell himself.
"There were five main, overarching goals that we announced in the Throne Speech that we will be working on," McIntyre said. "The ADC will be looking at, within that, where will we place our emphasis and when."One thing McIntyre did immediately after the election was set up meetings with community members she had met during the campaign. She said she did that to help her get more plugged into the communities and issues with which she'll be dealing.
McIntyre - who replaced three-term veteran MLA Ted Nebbeling, who has retired from provincial politics - has also set up a constituency office in West Vancouver, hired an administrative assistant, Judith Fee, and worked on plans to communicate regularly with constituents.
"I'm really delighted to have the summer to let people know that I'm the new MLA and where they can reach me, and that I'm there to serve their needs," she said.
The legislature is officially scheduled to sit for the first time on Oct. 3, but McIntyre said Premier Campbell has told legislators that they can expect to be sitting a couple of weeks earlier than that, mainly to finalize budget details.
She was asked to attend the PNWER Summit by Environment Minister Kevin Falcon. Specifically, he asked her to attend the session on energy, because of her previous dealings with the industry as a principal for a Lower Mainland polling firm.
McIntyre said the sessions should be useful, especially in light of all the energy-related issues - micro-hydro, wind, geothermal, transmission and the like - facing the riding.
"I really support the whole Cascadia notion, that we need to be working across the border on these issues, share best practices and share information if we're going to be successful," she said.
"I think it'll be very interesting."
McIntyre's constituency office number is (604) 981-0045, or you can reach the office by e-mail at [email protected].
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