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Health-care protestors block downtown street
Hundreds of protestors march to Stelmach's office
Posted By Conal MacMillan / Record Staff
Updated 10 mins ago
Hundreds of protestors block 104th Street in front of Premier Ed Stelmach's riding office Friday afternoon in downtown Fort Saskatchewan. They were protesting changes to the public health-care system.

Hundreds of people protesting health-care changes marched to Premier Ed Stelmach's riding office in Fort Saskatchewan Friday afternoon.
Friends of Medicare, who brought protestors in from Edmonton on six school buses and dropped them off in the Giant Tiger parking lot, organized the protest. A half-hour rally was held near 99th Avenue before the crowd walked up 104th Street to the premier's office chanting a number of slogans, including "
Once they arrived, they overflowed onto the street, blocking it to traffic for about 10 minutes while they chanted some more and waived their protest signs.
Some estimates placed the crowd at between 400 and 500 people.
Stelmach wasn't at the office. The premier was in Vancouver at an Open Skies conference.
Michael Marlowe, 84, was among the protestors. He held a sign that read "Seniors shafted while billions go to corporations" on one side and "Premier Stelmach treat not seniors and mentally ill as 3rd class citizens" on the other.


"They are not listening to the people. They won't even meet with the people," he said. "And we're saying, 'Look, we want medicare the way it was originally brought it and we're prepared to pay for it.'"
Marlowe, a past president of the Alberta Retired Public Employees Society, said the government's changes are forcing seniors into private-owned facilities which some can't afford.
Protestors like Nancy Ridgely came from as far away as Canmore to march to Stelmach's office.
The former Fort resident said she heard about the rally through word of mouth and made sure to attend. She's most upset about changes to the Alberta seniors drug plan that will see her have to pay more for her medications starting next July.
Stelmach later told Sun Media he’s looking to heal, not hurt, the health-care system.
“No one cares more about Alberta’s publicly funded health care system than me,” Stelmach said.
RCMP officers were out to watch the crowds, but no one was arrested. However, a few vehicles were thwarted in their attempt to get down 104th Street while it was blocked.
One nearby downtown shop owner, who has seen her share of protests in front of Stelmach's office, noted that it was the largest she'd ever seen.