Career
James Gurnett is a former Executive Director of Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers from 2001-2009. EMCN is a civil society organization providing programs and services for people who are immigrants and refugees, including settlement assistance, language training, employment and career services, community development, counseling, housing, and advocacy. The vision of the organization was that newcomers to Edmonton will achieve full participation, strengthening and enriching the lives of the whole community.
Previously, Gurnett was Manager of Community Services at Bissell Centre, serving people living in poverty in Edmonton’s urban core (1999–2001). Prior to that he was founding Executive Director of The Hope Foundation (1993–1999), affiliated with the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta, as a centre for research and services related to the intentional use of hope as a means of enjoying enhanced quality of life.
For 15 years Gurnett worked as teacher, program facilitator and administrator at schools in Alberta and Afghanistan (Teacher, Bowness High School, Calgary; Vice Principal, Ahlman Academy; Kabul, Afghanistan; Teacher, American International School of Kabul; Principal, Whitelaw School; Program Facilitator, Fairview School Division; Principal, Rycroft School; Principal, Woking School; Principal, Blueberry Creek School).
He has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (Spirit River-Fairview, 1985–86), Chief of Staff for the NDP caucus at the Alberta Legislature (2010-2012), Director of Communications and Outreach for the Official Opposition at the Alberta Legislature (1990–1993), and a newspaper editor.
Gurnett was elected to the Alberta Legislature in a by-election for Spirit River-Fairview after the local MLA, party leader Grant Notley, died in a plane crash. He was a candidate for the New Democrats [2]
Spirit River-Fairview was a provincial electoral district in Northwestern Alberta. In 1971 the district was created by a merger of the Spirit River and Dunvegan electoral districts. The district was abolished in 1986 and recreated into Dunvegan.
Walter Grant Notley was a Canadian politician. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1971 to 1984 and also served as leader of the Alberta NDP from 1968 to 1984.
The Alberta New Democratic Party, commonly shortened to Alberta's NDP, is a social-democratic political party in Alberta, Canada. It is the provincial Alberta affiliate of the federal New Democratic Party of Canada, and the successor to the Alberta section of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the even earlier Alberta wing of the Canadian Labour Party and the United Farmers of Alberta. From the mid-1980s to 2004, the party abbreviated its name as the "New Democrats" (ND).
The Legislature was dissolved a little more than a year later and he ran for a second term in office. His electoral district of Spirit River-Fairview was redistributed for the 1986 Alberta general election and he ran in the new electoral district of Dunvegan. The election was a hotly contested two way race that saw him lose by two hundred votes to Progressive Conservative candidate Glen Clegg. He attempted to win his seat back in the 1989 Alberta general election. Despite a strong showing Clegg won his second term by a larger margin. [3]
The 1986 Alberta general election was the twenty-first general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on May 8, 1986, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.
Dunvegan was a provincial electoral district in Northwestern Alberta that existed twice: from 1959 until 1971, and again from 1986 until 2004. It was mandated to elect a single Member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, and it was held by the governing party for every year it existed. The riding was named for the small community of Dunvegan, once home to a fur trade post, and now the site of a provincial park and historic site.
The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta was a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta. The party formed the provincial government, without interruption, from 1971 until the party's defeat in the 2015 provincial election under Premiers Peter Lougheed, Don Getty, Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach, Alison Redford, Dave Hancock and Jim Prentice. At 44 years, this was the longest unbroken run in government at the provincial or federal level in Canadian history.
Gurnett then ran in Sherwood Park (electoral district) in the 1993 provincial election, placing third.
Sherwood Park is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada.
Gurnett has four adult children and eight grandchildren. He is part of St. Faith’s (Anglican) parish. He writes sometimes for Alberta Street News.
Recent community service includes: • Chair, Canadian Immigrant Settlement Sector Alliance • Board member, Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations • Communications spokesperson, Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness • Member, Social Work Program Advisory Committee, Grant MacEwan College
Current areas of service include: • Member, Organizing Committee, Edmonton Good Friday Outdoor Way of the Cross Treasurer, Board of Directors, Alberta Street News Member, Board of Directors, Boyle-McCauley News.
He has had a children's book, The Meeting Place, published by the Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies, and is author of one chapter in Search for Equality and Justice, Alberta's Human Rights Story, a book on the history of human rights in Alberta, published in 2012 by the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights. He is also author of Together, Creating a Better World, a handbook for community work to end gender discrimination (2014).
He was educated at the Universities of Alberta (B.A., 1969) and Calgary.
Previous volunteer commitments have included: Board member, Mahatma Gandhi Canadian Foundation for World Peace Chair, Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Organizations Campaign Cabinet, United Way of the Alberta Capital Region Chair, Homefest planning committee, Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness Member, A Learning Alberta (2005–2006)—Minister of Advanced Education initiative
Recognitions: Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2004) Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013) Alberta Centennial Medal (2005) Project Ploughshares Edmonton Salvos Prelorentzos Peace Award (2007) University of Alberta Distinguished Alumni Award (2008) Homeward Trust Edmonton Larry Shaben Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Housing Sector Grant MacEwan College (2008) Honorary diploma in Community Studies Edmonton Interfaith Centre for Education and Action community service award (2009) Alberta Venture magazine (2007) "Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People"
