Come Meet Jason Parker Thursday, Oct 3 and Thursday, Oct 10

Come and meet Jason Parker Division 3 Council Nominee Millarville MD Foothills 31 on Thursday, October 3, 2013 or Thursday, October 10, 2013 so that you can have the opportunity to get to know him and have your feedback heard. 

Jason wants to represent you to the best of his ability and he wants to hear from you. What do you love about the area?  Why do you live out here?  What have you found challenging?  What would you like to see changed? What is your future vision for the area?

Doors open at 7:00 pm and the event will begin at 7:30 pm.

Locations:

Thursday, October 3, 2013
Square Butte Community Hall
Highway 762, Millarville, Alberta

Thursday, October 10, 2013
Millarville Race Track

Vision for the M.D.

After having talked with a large number of people in the area, Jason has identified a trend in the common concerns of many of the constituents.  With these concerns in mind, if elected as a member of council, Jason will bring:

 

1. Belief in Service
• As a councillor, Jason's job would be to give the people of his district a voice.  His purpose is to serve his constituents to the best of his ability by truly listening to their concerns.  It would be his job to represent you, to the best of his ability to the MD, ensuring your voice is heard.
• To serve effectively, there must be effective and efficient communication.  Jason will always do his best to respond and follow-up with his constituents in a timely matter.
• Jason would like to establish a system of feedback to enable the people to voice their opinion in a simple manner to help the MD make our community an even better place to live in.
2. Fiscal Responsibility
• Coming from a family of Chartered Accountants, Jason always has had an interest in where money goes and if it is utilized most effectively.
• He believes the questions, "Is this the best use of our resources at this time?" and "Is this something we really should be doing?" can be very valuable ones to be reminded of.
3. Responsible Development
• The M.D. is a beautiful place to live and we all have specific reasons we have chosen to live here.  With this in mind, the different divisions vary widely in landscape and land usability.  It is difficult to have one set of policies for development for all areas and this is something that Jason believes needs to be looked at again with the ability to have possible development looked at on an individual, case-by-case basis.
• It is important to maintain green space and agricultural land, however, it is also important to support the people, ranchers, farmers, services and businesses that we currently have in the area (i.e. schools, hospital, local businesses, etc.).  Hence, "Responsible Development" that preserves all these things and allows for growth in the area in a responsible way is important for the future of the area.
• There will be a great deal of pressure placed on the M.D. with the possible continuation of Calgary's ring road in the SW and the M.D. needs to have a clear long term vision for the area and Jason looks forward to helping establish this vision.

Why Council

With his daughter now 3, Jason started thinking about what the long term vision of the community is and what it will look like for her to grow up in. This, along with his strong desire to serve and add value to others, got him thinking about how he could possibly have a positive impact in the community and help be a part of creating a future vision for the area. The answer to how he could have that impact came when he was approached by a number of people in the area about running for Division 3 Councillor.

Jason loved how the role seemed to be perfect fit for the contribution he wanted to make and jumped in with both feet. Having always been told how good a listener he is, Jason saw the opportunity to get to know the people in the area better and find out how they think we can make the community an even better one. He feels the chance to connect with the heart of the community and be a voice to take the opinions to the next level is one he couldn't pass up on.

Why Millarville

Jason's sport brought him to Calgary where he spent 12 years representing his country. After which, his desire for a strong sense of community led him on a search for the perfect place to start and raise a family. 

Having lived in Calgary for 14 years, seeing how the city had changed over that time and only getting to know his neighbors on either side and across the street, Jason and his wife wanted to feel like they belonged somewhere, a place that would feel like home.  

That search brought them to Millarville where they have now lived for over 6 years. Shortly after arriving, Jason introduced himself to Ted Thorne and donated his services to speak and inspire the children at the Millarville School with the hopes of meeting people in the community.  He was accepted with open arms and shortly thereafter, both he and Kristen started volunteer coaching the school's volleyball team (and continued for 3 years).  

Jason and Kristen feel so blessed to have met so many amazing people and have made a number of close friends.  Now with a 3 year old little girl, they couldn't be more proud to have started their family in such a welcoming place and look forward to raising her in this incredible community.

About Jason

Jason grew up as an athlete in a family of accountants in Saskatchewan whose primary clients were farmers, business owners and municipalities in the area. He was blessed with having his family instill the beliefs that a hand shake and your word was better than a contract and that hard work takes you a long way. These lessons have served Jason well. 

After graduation, his sport brought him to Calgary in 1993. He had the amazing privilege of representing his country for 12 years as a member of the Canadian Speed Skating team. After failing to make the Olympic team in 1994, 1998 and 2002 he shifted his mindset from just trying to make the Olympics for personal reasons, to focus on the difference and contribution he wanted to make to society, his community and the world in general.  His persistence, dedication, commitment and perseverance enabled him to win an Olympic silver medal in 2006 at the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

Even though this shift in mindset allowed him to reach the pinnacle in his sport, it wasn't the medal that he cherishes most. His most prized experience was the pride he felt every time he wore the maple leaf to represent his country. That is a feeling he wishes every person could experience.

This belief in contribution and the difference he wanted to make in the world led him to share the many lessons he learned along the way on a grander scale.  He became a Professional International Speaker in the spring of 1994 and has shared his message and inspired well over 50,000 people around North America including over 30 schools.  He loves inspiring others to want to achieve more.

His experiences both on the competitive stage and the platform have left a deep mark on Jason and has led to his desire to continue his contribution and leave a mark of his own, closer to home which is a big part of the reason he wants to serve his community as a member of council.

When Jason isn't sharing his message on stage, he loves helping people and has his own small business as a Lifestyle coach where he helps people to live a more balanced and healthy life.  This passion has stemmed from personal struggles with his own life early on including being bullied in school, overcoming a weight problem and missing multiple Olympic Games due to sickness.  

This drove Jason to create a program in 1999 that has now helped athletes to win over 70 Olympic medals in the last three Winter Olympics alone and has now grown to include over 600 elite, professional and Olympic athletes.  He has switched his focus from High Performance Athletes to working more with upcoming athletes and the everyday person as he feels like he is able to make a bigger impact with them.  After learning that the "Millennials" (children born after the year 2000) are the first generation expected to live shorter (by 5 years) than the previous generation, Jason has a mission to help reverse this statistic through educating parents on the need for learning how to live healthier and be positive "health models" for their children.  


Over the last three years, Jason's life has had likely it's most drastic positive change as he and his wife Kristen entered the realm of parenthood!  Jason's absolute passion is his daughter, Shelby and his desire to raise her in the best community possible has been a strong motivation for him stepping up to become a councillor for the M.D. of Foothills.