A well known Calgary broadcaster is making the leap to politics.
Angela Kokott, who recently retired from her afternoon talk show on 770 CHQR, announced Thursday she will run for the Alberta Party in next year’s provincial election.
Kokott told The Morning News on 770 CHQR she had no plans to enter politics when she left her job at the end of August. She says the name calling and divisive nature of politics meant it was the last thing on her mind.
But in the last two months she’s had a change of heart.
LISTEN: New Alberta Party candidate Angela Kokott joins The Morning News to discuss her decision to run in the next provincial election
“I can sit back and complain, and say that yeah, this is an ugly system, or you can try to be part of the change.”
Kokott, who also spent nearly two decades at Global Calgary, said she chose the Alberta Party because it is “smack dab in the middle.”
“I feel right now all we are hearing as Albertans is you’re either voting for the right, or you’re voting for the left.”
Kokott said she wants to let people in her constituency of Calgary-Mountain View know that there’s another option.
Kokott acknowledged the party has a big challenge ahead, with a recent poll suggesting only five per cent of Albertans would vote for the party.
“That’s a big mountain, you bet,” Kokott said. “Five per cent now. I had read another poll that was around 15 per cent. And we also know ultimately what polls are all about. But it comes down to just getting that word out.”
Calgary-Mountain View is currently held by Liberal David Swann who will not be running in the next election.
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