I remember how he sometimes struggled to champion decency and civility in the legislature. I remember when I was covering the #ableg during the Bill 44 debate, and how he agonized between loyalty to the party line and pushing for greater acceptance of LGBQT rights.
He could be generous and responsive to a fault. When he was minister of health, I remember being at an event, where people buttonholed him with their frustrations with the health care system. He gave his phone number to everyone & pledged to investigate their cases individually.
(Sorry. I meant as THE Speaker.) #ableg
But my favourite Gene Zwozdesky story isn't about politics at all. It's about beets.
A few years ago, I somehow found myself competing in a "celebrity" borscht competition that Gene Zwozdesky helped to organize. Each cook was given a different recipe, so that we would produce slightly different varieties of soup.
Among the judges? Gene Zwozdesky's very elderly mum. Gently and proudly, he steered her to my cooking station, where she watched me chop up red cabbage for the pot. She sniffed with some disdain. "Red cabbage?" she asked me. "Why are you using red cabbage?"
I didn't know how to explain to her that by the rules of match, I was required to use red cabbage in my recipe. I tried to get a competitive edge, with fulsome praise for her son. But she was having none of it. Flattery got me nowhere.
I lost the contest. (The winner? Colin MacLean - but mostly, because his wonderful wife Halia made his borscht, ignoring the constraints of the recipe, and using her own. It was great soup.)
To this day, I make my borscht with red cabbage; I think of Gene and his fiercely proud mum, every time. I'll remember him, not just as a politician, but as a passionate champion of all things Edmonton, from food to music to dance to festivals. My deepest sympathies to his family
