On this episode of In Focus with Melanie Risdon, we chat with prominent Calgary psychologist Angela Grace about her experience being vetted as a potential NDP candidate. .Tune in to the Western Standard on Tuesday, September 27 @ 7 p.m. MDT for In Focus with Melanie Risdon and catch the full interview..Grace — a registered psychologist who works out of her private practice Heart Centered Counselling — is also an autoimmune paleo certified coach, Iyengar yoga teacher, and dancer. .In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Grace sat down with the Western Standard in November 2021 to discuss the growing mental health crisis arising from the lockdowns and mandates, and the added stress on healthcare and frontline workers. .READ MORE: WATCH: Calgary psychologist says lockdowns, mandates creating serious mental crisis.Grace is also a proponent for improving school curriculums in Alberta and spoke with Cory Morgan on Triggered in January. .READ MORE: Triggered: Kenney government in a state of constant disarray.Her desire to see improved curriculum in Alberta led Grace to seek a more political role as a way to better contribute. Grace said after being shut down by the UCP several times in her attempts to contribute to the discussions around school curriculum planning, she decided to revisit an invitation from the NDP to run as an MLA in the next election..She applied and went through the candidacy vetting process which she said was surprising. .Grace was told the party had several concerns with her running under the NDP banner, one of which was the interview she did with the Western Standard..She was criticized for posting about a Hedley concert she attended well before front man Jacob Hoggard was convicted of violently raping a young woman in June, and her advocacy of research-based studies around the use of psychedelic therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments was also brought into question. .Vetting agents also told Grace her contribution as a dancer in a Fertility Dance at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in 2019 she shared on social media was "cultural appropriation" and could be used against her by the UCP, effectively undermining the NDP campaign.
