The Honourable Nathan Cooper, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, calls the role of MLA in Alberta one of the most unique and diverse of any profession.  

Cooper says, unlike other professions, there is no job description for an MLA.  While there may not be a job description, Cooper feels that MLAs deserve to be recognized for doing, what he calls, exemplary work for the province.  He recently handed out what could be called symbolic awards to nine of the 87 MLAs in Alberta with the inaugural Alberta MLA Awards in various categories. 

One of the awards went to Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt.

Pitt, who serves as Deputy Speaker and Chair of Committees, was named Most Knowledgeable Parliamentarian.  She explains all of the awards were voted on by her peers.

"The Speaker put out nomination forms to all of the members of the Legislative Assembly.  Members chose their top three in each of the categories.  It ended up being very non-partisan at the end of the day.  We saw a mixture of government MLAs and opposition MLAs winning awards."

Cooper handed out the awards in what he called, "the spirit of collegial recognition."  He says he wanted to thank all members for their service to Alberta but especially those who took home the awards.  Well, the awards may not have been the type that you could take home for your mantlepiece.    

"As you may know, our province is facing some fiscal challenges here so I was recognized in the legislature in front of my peers, so that will just have to be good enough for now," Pitt says.  

To test her parliamentarian knowledge, we asked Pitt to tell us something that she would be aware of that the average layperson might not know.  She obliged saying,   "You cannot use names of any member in the Legislative Assembly.  So when I am in there the Speaker refers to me as the member for Airdrie-East."  Pitt says after a few weeks in the legislature when she hears someone call a member by their name outside of the Chamber she feels that she should rule them out of order.  "There's a transition period that we all need to go through," jokes Pitt. 

While the awards were done on a non-partisan basis, just like in the legislature itself, the majority went to UCP members with seven with just two going to NDP MLAs,'

The top honour of MLA of the Year went to Finance Minister Travis Toews.  Former NDP Education Minister David Eggen was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.  

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