Adriana LaGrange (Politician)

Adriana LaGrange is an Alberta politician for the United Conservative Party and the current MLA for the constituency of Red Deer-North. Originally from Ontario, LaGrange moved to Red Deer in 1981. ^[1] LaGrange was elected on April 16th, 2019, and was appointed as the Minister of Education on April 30th, 2019. ^[2] In the 2019 Alberta general election, LaGrange won her constituency with a total of 12,739 votes based on a 62.6% voter turnout in Red-Deer North. ^[3]

Career

Before entering the political arena, LaGrange received a degree in Rehab Studies and has experience working with the physically and mentally disabled. ^[4] In her time in Red Deer, LaGrange has served as the president of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees' Association, vice-president of the Canadian Catholic School Trustees' Association, and has also served as a trustee on the Red Deer Catholic School board. ^[5] LaGrange is the former president of Red-Deer pro-life, and was on the board of directors for Alberta pro-life. ^[6]

Political Career

LaGrange ran her campaign specifically on improving healthcare in the Red Deer area, re-configuring the education system, and lowering taxes to create jobs in Alberta. ^[7] LaGrange used various mediums to communicate her platform to the public, including door-to-door canvassing, hiring volunteers, and using social media. ^[8]

Since her appointment to the Minister of Education, LaGrange has announced various legislation concerning Alberta's education system. On June 5th, 2019, LaGrange introduced the new Education Act under the United Conservative Party. LaGrange was critiqued in the legislature by the leader of the official opposition, Rachel Notley, that the new Education Act does not protect LGBTQ students. LaGrange expressed that the Act will have the most advanced Gay–straight alliance provisions in all of Canada. ^[9]

On August 22nd, 2019, LaGrange appointed a panel of education experts from a variety of school districts and post secondary institutions to oversee the previous education legislation enacted by the Alberta New Democratic Party. ^[10] On October 23rd, 2019, Lagrange announced that the United Conservative Party revised the usage of seclusion rooms in public schools, limiting their usage to situations of a "last resort". ^[11] On November 1st, 2019, LaGrange announced that the United Conservative Party plans to build 15 new schools in Calgary along with 25 new education projects throughout the province such as modernization and updating infrastructure of schools currently operating. LaGrange claimed the project will by a $397 million investment over a total of five years. ^[12]

On November 20th, 2019, LaGrange announced an independent financial audit and governance review of the Calgary Board of Education after the Board announced the cutting of 300 temporary teaching jobs. ^[13] LaGrange claimed the reasoning behind the audit and governance review was to investigate the accountability of the Board's decision making with its finances. ^[14] After the announcement of layoffs, LaGrange mentioned that the UCP was not aware of the actions. This was due to the fact that the Board met with the United Conservative Party the day before the announcement, and in that meeting, layoffs were not mentioned. ^[15]

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