Medicine Hat physician Paul Parks to seek NDP nomination in Cypress-Medicine Hat

“I actually don’t want to be a politician necessarily,” Parks said.

“I love my job. I’m still working in the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital emergency department full-time.”

Parks said his experience on the front lines of health care has shown him where the system is struggling. He believes the province could do more by listening to health-care workers and other experts.

His priorities include improving access to family physicians, ensuring residents in southeast Alberta can deliver babies locally and making sure ambulances are available to respond quickly in communities across the region.

He also wants to hear directly from people in education, agriculture, ranching and business before deciding which issues need the most attention.

“I think we have to get away from this ideology and dogma and political party,” Parks said.

“I don’t care about right or left. I really care about whether we are going to do the correct thing for our community and our province.”

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Dr. Paul Parks (Image Credit: Submitted Photo)

The 55-year-old has lived in Medicine Hat since 2009. He is a trauma-trained emergency physician who has served as chief of emergency medicine and trauma director, and previously served as president of the Alberta Medical Association.

Parks said he spent years working with the provincial government through the association, advocating for improvements to family medicine and primary care.

“One of the things I did as a top priority was fighting to bolster family medicine specialists and primary care so that we could correct the funding model, so it would actually incentivize doctors to do cradle-to-grave type comprehensive family medicine and to try to bolster and increase access to family medicine in regional and rural communities,” Parks said.

“Made some big gains initially on that; it took the government a long time to move, but it was one of the few things they did move on and listen to,” he added.

“But I’ve learned since then that they seem more and more resistant to listening to expert input and really want to spend millions and millions of dollars on consultants to try to get consultants to make plans that fit the government’s ideology, even if the evidence doesn’t fit.”

Beyond health care, Parks said he supports strong public education and social services, while emphasizing responsible spending and government transparency.

“I feel strongly as a social progressive that we should have robust social services, our public services like health care, education, our roads and our investing in our economies in our community. So they’ll blossom,” Parks said.

“Those are the things that government should be doing, but I’m also fiscally conservative. We should absolutely be doing this in a wise way where I think the vast majority of people in this community think they pay a lot of taxes to the government, so they are entrusting them to be accountable and transparent to deliver on the things that I care about that will actually matter to me every day.”

Parks also has experience in local business and the arts. He co-founded Hell’s Basement Brewery, where he was a co-owner for 10 years, and has served as president of Medicine Hat Musical Theatre.

He said he moved his family to Medicine Hat because he values the community’s connections and wants to continue living and working in the region.

Parks moved around Canada in his youth with his dad in the military. He graduated high school in Cold Lake, Alta.

Parks intends to continue working full-time in the hospital emergency department while pursuing the nomination, although he said he may need to scale back his hours as the process becomes busier. He would reassess his role if elected.

If selected as the NDP candidate, Parks said he plans to spend the coming months meeting with residents across Medicine Hat and Cypress County to hear their concerns.

“We need good, honest government and we need transparent, accountable government,” Parks said.

“That’s what I want to represent for our community.”

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat physician Paul Parks to seek NDP nomination in Cypress-Medicine Hat

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