Year: 2010
Location: Edmonton
Profile: David Eggen served as executive director of Friends of Medicare (FOM) from 2008 to 2012. An Edmonton teacher, he became active in the Alberta NDP and was elected MLA for Edmonton-Calder in 2004. Narrowly defeated in the 2008 provincial election, he took the reins of FOM and presided over a tripling of its membership and the creation of chapters beyond the two major cities. That expansion was the result of anger with the state of healthcare in the province after years of cutbacks during the premiership of Ralph Klein. Premier Ed Stelmach got a taste of that anger in the fall of 2009 when 700 people organized by FOM showed up at his Fort Saskatchewan constituency office demanding reinvestment in healthcare. Stelmach increased healthcare spending the next year by 16 percent, but in line with his party’s ideology, “they’ve started the distribution process to private contractors to provide healthcare.” Resistance to privatization, particularly in seniors’ care, became the focus of FOM during Eggen’s leadership.
In 2012, Eggen returned to the legislature and in 2015, when the NDP formed government, he became Minister of Education, and Minister of Culture and Tourism. He was re-elected as an MLA in 2019 and 2023.
Keywords: Executive director; Minister of Education; MLA; New Democratic Party; Privatization; Rallies; Seniors’ care; Teacher.
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See also: Alberta Teachers’ Association; Friends of Medicare