Story by Lisa Johnson • Friday DEC. 23,2022 - Edmonton Journal
If you cross paths with a black cat in Alberta’s legislature building, consider yourself lucky.
House Speaker Nathan Cooper with Hansard the cat, in his office on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022 in Edmonton. Hansard is a rescue cat the House Speaker got and named after the official legislature record.
When Hansard was rescued at just a few days old, she needed round-the-clock care in Speaker Nathan Cooper’s office, but nowadays the more independent five-month-old cat doesn’t come to work with him every day.
Still, being out of the office most of the time hasn’t stopped Hansard from doing an important job. She’s helping Cooper tell Albertans about the history, and function, of the legislature.
On an early December morning, before Cooper would don his speaker’s robe and tricorn hat to oversee proceedings in the legislature, he sat down with Postmedia to herd a few facts, and help get his cat to sit still for some photographs.
Hansard is a rescue cat the House Speaker got
Cooper said the cat has given his public engagement efforts a big boost, including getting people thinking about the work of the legislature, and how democracy works in the province.
Thanks to her, he said, thousands more people know there is a detailed transcript of everything said on a daily basis in the assembly by elected members who represent every corner of the province — also known as the Hansard .
“It makes me super happy because we’ve tried a lot of different ways to engage people … and of all of the efforts, the winner, for sure, hands down, has been Hansard the cat,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hansard the cat was making non-partisan inroads, drawing the attention of Opposition NDP MLA Janis Irwin, whose cat Oregano is perhaps the most notorious of an elected lawmaker in Alberta. In a recent tweet, Irwin posed for a photo with Hansard and Cooper, saying she had finally met the Alberta legislature cat.
The house pet has sparked the creation of a Twitter account, written from the cat’s perspective , dedicated to “using my cuteness to make sure the Alberta UCP and NDP stay civil.”
Cooper said he had no idea who is behind it, but he gave the account kudos. Postmedia reached out to the account through a direct message, but the mysterious tweeter didn’t pounce as of press time.
Speaking in the speaker’s suite, an apartment now used mostly as a meeting and reception space, Cooper highlighted how important it is to him to help everyone, especially new Canadians, feel connected to Alberta’s democratic institutions. He also said part of his role, as the head of the legislative branch, is to build trust.
“My jam, if you will, is around these educational pieces,” said Cooper.
The Speaker’s cat sometimes visits Cooper’s office, which on a normal weekday, is full of staffers, and a few small cat toys to bat around. The cat, when she’s there, can hop onto Cooper’s desk or wander into the giant walk-in bank safe once used to hold payday cash, before cheques or automatic transfers existed.
In 2022, that safe is a coffee room with a photocopier, where Hansard can lurk below the assembly’s mace, a ceremonial gold-plated staff that symbolizes the Crown’s authority in Alberta, and an object the assembly can’t conduct business without.
Speaker Nathan Cooper poses with a shirt given to him by staff in the department of Hansard, on Dec. 1, 2022.© Greg Southam/Postmedia
If you take a public tour of the 109-year-old building, you’re more likely to catch a glimpse of the mace, often on display in a glass case, than the face of Hansard the cat, who is not allowed to roam the hallways.
Your best bet to see the speaker’s pet is to follow Cooper’s social media accounts, like on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram , where he posts photos of Hansard, always with an eye on teaching followers a thing or two about the legislature.
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