User:DianaK928/sandbox

Rod Loyola
Rod Loyola is a Canadian politician running in the 2012 Alberta General Election. He is a member of the Alberta New Democratic Party and is running for Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (MLA) in the Edmonton-Ellerslie riding.

Community Involvement
Loyola has been involved in several non-profit organizations over the years, and has served on the board of directors of the Global Visions Film Festival, Canada's oldest documentary film festival. He has also been Treasurer of Edmonton's Knottwood Community League, and Secretary of the Memoria Viva Society of Edmonton, an organization that is "actively working to preserve the progressive culture amongst the Latin American Diaspora in Canada." Loyola has shown his concern for Latin American issues via his involvement with the Sombrilla International Develop Society, where he suggested focused on eliminating ethic discrimination in Argentina via different community development projects.

Most recently, Loyola has worked at the International Center at University of Alberta, where he has been the Global Education Programming Lead for the Global Education Program. While here, he oversaw International Week, the campus's largest annual extracurricular educational event, which has won awards for Outstanding Programming by the Canadian Bureau for International Education. Loyola most recently introduced Tariq Ali, British Pakistani military historian, at International Week 2012.

Political Platform
Loyola has stated his reason for running is because "[he] want[s] to be at the service of Albertans building strong, healthy and sustainable communities for generations to come." Loyola has seemed to been eyeing public office for several years, since his 2010 statement that "people don't have faith in the political system. We need a viable alternative and a viable opposition to our government." He has also publicly stated that he believes in the peoples' right to meaningful work and that creation of jobs in Alberta is something that can be achieved. Loyola has mentioned on several occasions his concern with citizens' rights to affordable housing and utilities, health care, and childcare and education, and has vowed to make these issues a priority if elected.