Leonard Clarence Bracko (December 2, 1943 – August 19, 2017) was a Canadian politician. He was a city councillor for St. Albert City Council and a member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

. A high school social studies teacher by profession, Bracko first ran for the

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

in the riding of St. Albert, under the banner of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

. He finished second to Progressive Conservative Dick Fowler, a former mayor of St. Albert. Later that year, Bracko was elected to St. Albert City Council. He served one three-year term on it and then retired to run for the provincial legislature again. In the 1993 provincial election, Bracko defeated Fowler, then the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, by 1,500 votes. As a member of the Liberal

official opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

caucus, he served as Municipal Affairs critic. In the 1997 provincial election, he lost his seat to Progressive Conservative Mary O'Neill by sixteen votes in the election's closest race. He faced O'Neill again in the 2001 provincial election and lost by two thousand votes. In 2001, Bracko returned to St. Albert City Council in that year's election. He was the only member of council to support the

Ray Gibbon Drive Ray Gibbon Drive, referred to as the West Regional Road during proposal and planning stages, is a major arterial road in St. Albert, Alberta. With the exception of the Edmonton portion of 184 Street, it is only partially constructed as a two ...

alignment for the west regional road; the other members of council favoured the west bypass alignment that had earlier been rejected. In light of this, Bracko soon dropped his opposition to the bypass alignment. He was re-elected in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

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, and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. Bracko and his wife, Barb, were active with

Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a U.S. non-governmental, and tax-exempt 501(C)(3) Christian nonprofit organization which seeks to build affordable housing. The international ...

and travelled to

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

in 2002 to help build houses. He was an honorary chief of the

Maasai Maasai may refer to: *Maasai people *Maasai language *Maasai mythology * MAASAI (band) See also * Masai (disambiguation) Masai may refer to: *Masai, Johor, a town in Malaysia * Masai Plateau, a plateau in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India *Maasai peopl ...

tribe, an honour that was bestowed on him in 2004 when he travelled to

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

on behalf of the

Federation of Canadian Municipalities The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM, ''Fédération canadienne des municipalités'') is an advocacy group representing over 2000 Canadian municipalities. It is an organization with no formal power but significant ability to influence ...

business.

References

Bracko announced his intention to run again (St. Albert Gazette)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bracko, Len 1943 births 2017 deaths Alberta Liberal Party MLAs Canadian schoolteachers St. Albert, Alberta city councillors 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta