Joan Crockatt is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a by-election on November 26, 2012. A member of the Conservative Party of Canada, she represented the electoral district of Calgary Centre until November 2015. From Alberta, Crockatt is a business journalist who worked most notably as a senior newspaper executive with the Calgary Herald, and later as a communications consultant and national public affairs commentator.
Crockatt has worked as director of editorial for CanWest Global Communications, and managing editor and editorialist for the Calgary Herald. For the past decade, before election to parliament, she has been a communications consultant, working for clients including the Calgary Stampede, corporations and non-profits. During her time as the Calgary Herald's managing editor, the newspaper's journalists went on a union drive and then a prolonged strike in 1999. In her career in journalism, much of Crockatt's work focused on politics. She has appeared as a political commentator on CBC News Network and Sun News Network.
Politics
In November 2012, Crockatt won a by-election against Liberal candidate Harvey Locke and Green candidate Chris Turner, focusing her campaign on door-knocking and personal interactions with constituents. However, she won with only 37 percent of the vote, the worst showing for a centre-right candidate in the riding in decades and the closest that a centre-left candidate had come in recent memory to winning a Calgary seat. She served on the House of Commons Standing Committees for Natural Resources and the Status of Women. As part of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, Crockatt has participated in numerous studies that promote equality for women and their full participation in the economic, social and democratic life of Canada. Since being elected she has been a featured speaker at the 2013 annual Manning Conference in Ottawa, where she took part in a panel to discuss issues of gender and politics. She has been named one of the top 10 Alberta politicians in the use of social media. in the 2015 federal election on October 19, former Liberal MLA Kent Hehr defeated Crockatt, gaining one of two seats for the Liberals in Calgary.
2013 Alberta Floods
Following the 2013 Alberta floods, Crockatt has become a strong advocate for those affected and continues to push for flood mitigation, leading to $2.8 billion being set aside for 2013 Alberta flood recovery, including the $200 million National Disaster Mitigation Program in the 2014 federal budget, and eligibility for disaster mitigation infrastructure projects under the New Building Canada Fund, of which Alberta will see $3.2 billion over the next 10 years. However, not one flood mitigation project during her tenure was built in Alberta. Crockatt also joined the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment, in announcing a $135 million investment that will allow Environment Canada to make significant upgrades to the monitoring networks and to the weather warning and forecast systems, as to better predict events like the 2013 Alberta floods.
