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The Alberta politics merry-go-round continued to spin Wednesday as a Calgary MLA announced she would leave the NDP government caucus to sit as an Independent.

Karen McPherson, elected in 2015 under the NDP banner in Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill, said she’s concerned that provincial politics have become too polarized between left and right, and “we are missing the middle.”

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“Albertans need political choices that inspire them, not scare them,” she said on Facebook.

In an interview, McPherson said she has great regard for her former NDP colleagues but acknowledged she felt the government was not taking the steps needed to transform the health and education systems for the 21st century.

She said she had raised her concerns in the past but Premier Rachel Notley’s government is focused on fulfilling what it sees as its electoral mandate.

“It wasn’t an issue of personality. It is really me believing I can be a bigger voice for the people of Calgary-Mckay-Nose Hill as an Independent.”

McPherson said she will consult with her constituents about her future path. She said it’s way too early to contemplate moving to another party — both the Liberals and Alberta Party hold a single seat in the legislature — but laughed at the notion of joining the right-wing United Conservative Party, newly formed by the merger of the Wildrose and Progressive Conservatives.

Her concerns about polarization echoed those of Calgary-South East MLA Rick Fraser, a former PC who announced in September he was leaving the UCP to sit as an Independent. McPherson said she was inspired in part by Fraser’s move and had reached out to him last month to show her support.

“I knew that what he did took a great deal of gumption,” she said.

Fraser was the second Tory MLA to remove himself from the UCP since its creation this summer, with Vermilion-Lloydminster’s Richard Starke choosing to continue on under the PC brand.