Keeping seniors moving and a Twitter kerfuffle

Independent MLA Derek Fildebrandt has been slamming his former party, the United Conservatives, on social media. It started with an open house the member for Strathmore-Brooks hosted in his riding Monday night. There, he repeated his February assertion that leader Jason Kenney gave him an ultimatum — if he wanted to return to caucus, he wasn’t allowed to run in his redrawn constituency against fellow UCP MLA Leela Aheer, whose riding swallowed parts of Fildebrandt’s.

“Recruiting and encouraging women to run is great,” Fildebrandt tweeted. “Open-affirmative action Trudeau style or back room affirmative action is contemptible.”

Then Kenney’s official account at Unite Alberta waded in.

In a subtweet that seemed to be aimed squarely at Fildebrandt, it reposted Kenney ’s February statement about booting the MLA out of the party to correct “misinformation flying around Twitter.”

Fildebrandt’s tweets continued to simmer Wednesday.

He accused the UCP of being “backroom operators” and ignoring the grassroots guarantee Kenney put in place.

KEEPING RURAL SENIORS MOVING

Two new pilot projects in Sturgeon and West Yellowhead, announced Wednesday, aim to keep rural seniors connected to their community.

The two projects will test ways to provide senior-friendly transportation for those who have chosen to stop driving, or can no longer do so for medical reasons. The goal is to help them live independently in their own homes longer.

Research to support the projects will come from the University of Alberta’s Medically At-Risk Driver Centre.