You could say that Crystal Kissel, candidate for Division 9 in Rocky View County in the October 16th election, isn't afraid of going up against some tough opposition.

Kissel has been a resident of Division 9, an area that encompasses Northwest Rocky View and Cochrane Lakes, for nearly 20 years. and, with her husband, has raised three children in it, is taking on the incumbent councillor Bruce Kendall and Colleen Munro who most recently was the Board Chair of the Rocky View School Board before switching her attention to a run for Rocky View Council.

But Kissel isn't phased by her opposition and says she plans to give residents of Division 9 what they want.  "Because I've been here a long time, residents talk, and we talk about the big issues facing our county.  When we do that we all have an opinion and when I do that I came to the conclusion that most residents are looking for a fair and transparent process in dealing with Rocky View."

Since moving to their home in the county after farming for years, Kissel and her husband have been involved in small business.  Much of their community involvement has been through their children's interests.  "Through hockey coaching, coaching riding, any activity they've been involved with, we've been involved with.  We've also volunteered with almost any group who needed help, the pony club, the Alberta horse trials, we've always been willing to help."

Now, Kissel says ready to help govern Rocky View and she's spent the past year preparing for her run at county council.    "I've spent the last year looking at all these fundamentals of government.  I'm not entering into this lightly.  I've spent the last year preparing for this and I think all of this knowledge is going to advocate for the residents of Division 9."

Kissel thinks her action plan is fairly clear.  "I want to be an informed, effective advocate for Division 9 residents.  When they phone with a concern, if I don't have the answer, I can say to them, 'look, I don't have the answer but I'm going to find out for you.'  It's not enough just to ask the questions, we need to be able to give good information to the residents of our district."

Kissel says, if elected, she plans to be very engaged with the people she's representing.  "I would like to have my website continue and keep people informed on what's going on in Division 9, what's coming up.  We all have busy lives.  We always hear how unhappy people are.  Well let's figure out how to fix that and make it better,"

Kissel also plans to make transparency in development in Rocky View one of her focuses.   "We need to focus on development and sadly participants that are involved in development need to pay their fair share.  It all needs to be done very transparent so fiscally anybody can see where we're at. "