Ellected Ep.69 - Alberta NDP Leadership Candidate Gil McGowan on Workers, Making the NDP the Party of Oil and Gas Innovation and More

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.