SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
Bow River MP Martin Shields has started to host individual ceremonies for local recipients of the King Charles III’s Coronation Medal.
Each constituency across the country will present up to 20 medals to those who made a significant contribution to Canada, a province, territory, region or a community or who has made an outstanding achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada.
On Saturday Shields presented his former constituency assistant Karen Kallen.
“Karen has dedicated over 30 years to public service in the City of Brooks and County of Newell by supporting constituents about the Bow River riding and formerly the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding well. And that’s with three MPs,” said Shields.
Kallen was the constituency assistant for members of parliament Monte Solberg, LaVar Payne and Shields.
“Anybody for 30 years who will work for three MPs, ought to be knighted!” he said.
Other individual presentations were made on Saturday to Duncan Gillespie, former superintendent at Brooks School District from 1986-2000 and from 2006 to 2007, Tony Steidel, who is the mayor of Duchess and is a community member on various boards and committees and John Thiess, a former pastor, retired firefighter and current chaplain for the Brooks Fire Department.
This weekend the final three medals will be presented to Ahmed Kassem, executive director of Global Village, Molly Douglass, who served as county reeve from 2004 to 2021 and Dr. Erich Van der Linde who has been involved with the medical community and continues work on physician recruitment and retention.
He has earned a number of recognitions including a Rural Service Award by the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada in 2020.
