My 18 yr old son thought this was hilarious as he was in the SS washroom stall.

Park Profiles: Issue #1, August, 2026

”I was no more important than the person who measured the long jump distances or the individuals with the starters pistols,” said former Strathcona County Summer Games organizer Doug Fulford in regard to the Strathcona County ‘87 Summer Games. “We were all volunteers, all of us, and if any one of us were taken out, the entire operation would have been disrupted.” 

That quote sums up Sherwood Park, Alberta resident and ‘87 Summer Games organizer Doug Fulford to a tee. Humble, grateful, enthusiastic, optimistic, gracious, honourable, and hard working. All descriptions that aptly describe the man. From his days working in the RCMP to being with the Edmonton Police Service to his entrepreneurial spirit and local organizing skills, Doug Fulford epitomizes and embodies the strength and importance of community. I had the pleasure to sit down and chat with him recently. Here’s how that conversation went. 

Trent McMartin: Hi Doug, why Sherwood Park? Why did you move here in ‘73? 

Doug Fulford: We moved to Sherwood Park because, at that time, it was about 8,000 people. We were living in a good area of the city (Edmonton). But when we looked at housing out here, and found it, we came across a location where we live in Mills Haven now, close to schools. Easy access to getting to work. 

Our kids were younger. And it was just an opportunity to find a really, we thought, a really good community, and... we have travelled to probably about 50 countries in the world over time, and Sherwood Park, in my view, is maybe in the top 2% of any place to live in the world. Because we've had excellent leadership in this community. The recreation facilities, the schools, our kids were a half a block away from Mills Haven School. 

And then a place to get involved in things like scouts, baseball, activities, music. And so... it's just an incredibly good place to live. Because of all the infrastructure we have, and leadership, and... access to so many things.

TM: And that's why you stayed. 

DF: That's why we have stayed since 1973. 

 TM: You’ve been involved in decades of community service. So many notable examples of your dedication to community. The ‘87 Strathcona Games must stick out as a notable achievement. 

DF: The games were a success because of the support of the community, the support of the media, the support of our elected officials and the staff, the recreation of parks. 

The community involvement, whether it was the businesses, incredible business support. Incredible community support. I don't know what more you could say, because that's how success happens. 

TM: You look back on that role, in the organization of the games and are you proud of what you did? What you did then? 

DF: With the games? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when you are lucky enough in your lifetime, to be involved in an event, that is so successful, that you have to be proud of that, of course, just to be involved. And then, to be involved at the leadership level, supported by so many people. Both volunteers, and staff, and businesses, and getting support from Petro Canada and Peterson Pontiac and many others. 

TM: So Politics. In ‘93, you ran for the Progressive Conservative party against Liberal Bruce Collingwood in the Provincial election and didn't win. You were a little short on the votes and he took it that year. But you were close. What do you remember of that? And did you take anything away after it was over? 

DF: To be involved in politics at a provincial level... I was very lucky to be involved. The campaign out here with Bruce….everybody respected everybody. 

TM: It was close. I saw the tallies in my research. 

DF: Yeah, I congratulated him. He served our community very well as the MLA. I have respect for him. 

TM: Did you think about running again after in any capacity? Did you ever get that itch to do it again? 

DF: We would have had to nominate a candidate about a year ahead. I sat down with Iris Evans later on and Iris said, “Doug, if you run, I'll support you.” I said, “Iris, if you run, I'm gonna support you. “

So, I went and got on the phone, and I made probably two or three hundred phone calls, and the results were there. Iris Evans…everyone knew the name. Her name is recognized by about 95% of the phone calls.  Bruce was at about 60, 65 percent and I wasn't there. Yes, in my world…sure, it'd be nice to run again. But you throw all your support behind the best candidate.

And we did. Yeah, we didn't win by a lot of votes later, 350 votes I think (Iris Evans gained office in 1997 by unseating Liberal Bruce Collingwood by 305 votes in the provincial election). 

Yeah, it was close. Because of Bruce. Bruce was a good guy, a lawyer. Well spoken. He represented the community well. I have respect for him. We ran an honest campaign in ‘93.

TM: It seems to be a rarity these days to run that type of campaign. It seems to be more of a mud slinging contest these days. Especially more on a national level. 

DF: You know, a lot of people, like, they kind of miss those days when maybe people are more respectful towards each other. Society had a little different attitude, going back to the early '90s. I think there was more respect for individuals, and somehow, the political world seemed to change. I don't know where it started. Maybe in the U.S, maybe in Europe, but it seemed to be... seemed to become more about running down your competition. You could get more of votes. Yeah, and so... you get guys playing that game. It came to...the person who could tell the best lie won. That's in today's world. That's today. 

TM: So I want to touch upon, of course, the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal. You were awarded the medal in 2002. Was this something that was a culmination of decades of service? Was it an honour? 

DF: It's an honour to me to have had the opportunity to work and represent. I'm going to say, representing some teams and projects that were extremely successful for the community. To be involved.

TM: Professionally you’ve had an interesting and diverse career. Touch upon that.

DF: I'm so lucky. I spent 20 years in the RCMP.  And I spent about 18 months for the Edmonton city police. And I was in charge of the Alberta Sheriff's from about 2003 to almost 2007, just over almost four years. And when I was there, that's when we created the Sheriff Traffic Operation, the specialized traffic division of the Alberta Sheriffs Branch.

TM: Interesting. 

DF: And with the minister and the deputy and stuff, we looked at it as a pilot project. And I proposed that we put this pilot in place for six months. At the end of three months, I went and said we got to implement this. It's been so good, because I'll give you an example. Highway 63 to Fort McMurray, once that service was available on that road, it was able to add so much to the safety of communities in Alberta. And then it expanded from there. 

TM: What about consulting? 

DF: When I left the RCMP in 1982, I set up my investigation company, in a private sector, working for governments, for firms and we did very little individual work. We had some excellent contracts. In about 1986, we were approached by Alberta Forestry to assist with wild land fire investigations. 

TM: Oh, okay.

DF: The cause and responsibility, and we had that contract for 15 years. I worked with some really nice guys, really, really good guys. One guy by the name of Cliff Henderson was the ADM (Assistant Deputy Minister) in forestry. We were able to solve a lot or place responsibility on companies, individuals. I will give you an example. There was a quad. I won't give you the name of the quads, but yeah that were used by oil companies and forestry. The exhaust system that kicks out.. well, what it does, the wheels pick up debris, put it on the exhaust system, and then it gets heated to about 200 and some degrees. And that debris falls off. If the guys are operating, they don't know. Yeah, but causing a fire. But here's something that was really good. With forestry, we met with one of the companies and they changed the exhaust system. 

TM: Wow. 

DF: Yes, because of the investigation. Because of the working with forestry and listening to those guys, we were the investigation side. They understood the fire behaviour in the science and we gained a lot of knowledge in 15 years. 

I also sat on the board of the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission. It was just incredible, because I got appointed as the deputy chair, so I chaired the hearings. 

TM: That would have been interesting. 

DF: And during that period of time, the casino expansion was taking place quite rapidly. Ralph Klein was supporting that. This would have been back in the '90s. I was on the board there in 1998 to 2003.

TM: So, last thing. I know you've talked about travelling. You’ve been to dozens of countries. You’ve been to Iran, you've been to the Great Wall. You've hiked the Grand Canyon. What's the next adventure? 

DF: Well, I've got to send a challenge to you. We were at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, to Phantom Ranch, and back up. We left at 6:30 in the morning, and we're back up at 5:15 pm later that day. 

TM: I couldn’t do that. 

DF: When you beat that time, phone me (laughter erupts between us).  

But, you know, it's amazing. Health wise, I've been so lucky. 

TM: That's good. 

DF: And when you reach the mileage that I have, health is absolutely the most important thing, My dad lived to be 107. 

TM: Quite an achievement.

DF: But his last three or four years where he... just he existed. He didn't live. Family, and economics, and health. Health number one. 

I think I mentioned we've travelled to about 50 countries in the world now. Well, some of those were, like, for different work. At one time, I had a diplomatic passport, and I have a lot of respect for the common everyday people in Iran. It goes back a lot of years. And the one thing I found, when you go, we have Chinese friends who we went to China with, when you get past the political part of a country and meet the people, the common people. Everybody is the same. They're trying to make a living, raise a family, be good people. Even in the United States, if you get past one man. Yeah, you gotta meet the people there, like, we're not so much different. 

TM: They're the same as us.

DF: In this country of Canada, many of us have no idea what extreme poverty is. I mean, I've come back from one other particular country, got down and kissed the ground in Canada when we got back. Yeah, literally. Because we are so lucky. 

Like, Winston Churchill said, there ain't nothing worse than a democracy. Except all the rest.

The politics, sometimes, well, we're seeing its effects in today's world.

 But overall…the world's full of really, really good people.

TM: Thanks Doug. 

DF: Thank you. 

(Photo of Doug Fulford, August, 2026, taken by Trent McMartin)

 

Trent McMartin