Tracy Allard (born 1971) is a Canadian politician who represented

Grande Prairie Grande Prairie is a city in Northern Alberta, northwestern Alberta, Canada, within the southern portion of an area known as Peace River Country. It is located at the intersection of Alberta Highway 43, Highway 43 (part of the CANAMEX Corridor) ...

in 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 ...

from 2019 to 2023. A member of the

United Conservative Party The United Conservative Party of Alberta (UCP) is a conservative political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. It was established in July 2017 as a merger between the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party ...

(UCP), she was minister of municipal affairs from August 2020 to January 2021.

Early life

Tracy Allard attended the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

completing a

Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (BCom or B Com) is an undergraduate degree in commerce, accounting, mathematics, economics, and management-related subjects. The degree is mainly offered in Commonwealth nations. Structure Bachelor of Commerce The Bac ...

and a certificate in disability management. She and her husband Serge own and operate two

Tim Hortons Tim Hortons Inc., known colloquially as Tim's, Timmies, or Timmy's, is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain with headquarters in Toronto; it serves coffee, Doughnut, donuts, sandwiches, Breakfast sandwich, breakfast egg mu ...

franchises, located in

Grande Prairie, Alberta Grande Prairie is a city in northwestern Alberta, Canada, within the southern portion of an area known as Peace River Country. It is located at the intersection of Highway 43 (part of the CANAMEX Corridor) and Highway 40 (the Bighorn Highwa ...

Political career

Allard was selected as the United Conservative candidate in

. She won the seat

2019 Alberta general election The 2019 Alberta general election was held on April 16, 2019, to elect 87 members to the 30th Alberta Legislature. In its first general election contest, the Jason Kenney-led United Conservative Party (UCP) won 54.88% of the popular vote and 63 ...

, with the UCP also forming government. In November 2019, Allard was appointed as chairwoman of the Northern Alberta Development Council. In March 2020, Allard was one of seven people named to a panel of Joint Working Group on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls which will work on recommendations for Alberta's action plan regarding the issue. Allard was appointed as Minister of Municipal Affairs on August 25, 2020, and the former Minister

Kaycee Madu Kelechi "Kaycee" Madu (born ) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. As a member of the United Conservative Party (UCP), Madu represented Edmonton-South West in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 2019 to 2023. He was elected in the 2019 pr ...

was appointed Minister of Justice and Solicitor General. On October 21, 2020, Allard tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

COVID-19 Controversy

Travel Scandal

In December 2020, Allard took a family vacation to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

despite federal and provincial government advice to avoid non-essential travel and the border between Canada and the United States being closed. Premier

Jason Kenney Jason Thomas Kenney (born May 30, 1968) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Alberta from 2019 until 2022, and the leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) from 2017 until 2022. He also served as the member o ...

originally defended Allard stating that such travel was important to protect the travel industry, including Calgary-based

Westjet WestJet Airlines, is a Canadian airline headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Founded in 1994, it is the second-largest airline in Canada and the eighth-largest airline in North America by frequency. It began operations in 1996 with 220 employee ...

. On January 4, 2021, Allard resigned as Minister of Municipal Affairs over the matter.

Vaccination Campaign

In September 2021, Allard sent a newsletter to her constituents that encouraged the government to support "natural immunity" which was criticized by the opposition

Alberta New Democratic Party The Alberta New Democratic Party (Alberta NDP; ), is social democratic political party in Alberta, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left to left-wing of the political spectrum and is a provincial Alberta affiliate of the federal New Democra ...

Electoral history

References

United Conservative Party MLAs Living people Women MLAs in Alberta People from Grande Prairie Members of the Executive Council of Alberta Women government ministers of Canada 21st-century Canadian women politicians 1971 births Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls activists 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta {{Alberta-MLA-stub