Please click below to hear an example of Breezy’s guitar work while you read.
Sports:
Breezy was a competitive athlete in grade school. From age ten until seventeen no one in his grade could run as fast as Breezy. He did track and field, hockey, basket ball and football but was injured in football and left competitive sports. He learned team work and the importance of practice. Breezy learned to love winning fairly.
Media:
Breezy’s first job was in media. He worked as a paper boy for the Edmonton Journal.
Retail Business:
Next he worked in the food services industry for Ravine Tomboy where he eventually did almost every job; delivering groceries, taking phone orders, order picking, cashier, shelf stocking, and placing orders with the wholesaler.
Manufacturing:
For his first summer job he was a metal fabricator at Edmonton Iron and Wire.
Entertainment Arts:
He joined the Edmonton Musician’s Association in 1967 and began working in bands. He performed with his first pro-band (Angus Park blues Band) to open for Led Zeppelin at the Edmonton Gardens in 1969.
We hear politicians say that we should run government like a business. Breezy disagrees. Why are 20% of Edmontonians living below the poverty line? He thinks we should run government like a Rock Band. In a Rock Band taking care of business is important but most important is that we are all having a good time. Are we going to take care of everyone so we can all have a good time? Yes!
Precarious Gig Work:
Edmonton’s live music industry has been boom and bust for a variety of reasons so although live performance was his preferred vocation he diversified out of necessity during the bust times. Cab driver, high school teaching assistant, book shop clerk, guitar teacher, busker and janitor.
Technology:
Breezy has worked in the civil service. For seven years on and off he worked as an Engineering Technician for the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Alberta. There he became skilled in carpentry, TIG welding, plumbing and pipefitting. His main work there was to build and run custom equipment for student labs and Professor’s research. He advanced into being the Department Chairman’s research technician, and as such managed and conducted contract research for STELCO Canada.
Small Business:
For fifteen years he led The Big Dreamer Band. During this time he negotiated thousands of contracts and created jobs for three and often four other musicians. In this time he promoted the sale of several small lakes full of beer to live music fans in the bars and clubs of Edmonton.
Property Owner and Landlord:
Breezy owns a 1906 duplex and rents out one half while living in the other half.
Childcare:
Traditionally the unpaid and unaccounted for essential work of home care and childcare is done by Mothers but Breezy chose to be a stay at home Dad, seeing his two sons through their infancy and early years.
Recording Artist:
World class guitarist, song writer and recording artist credited with producing four albums of original songs and collaborating with many other Edmonton Artists on their recording projects.
Volunteer work:
For almost 20 years Breezy Brian Gregg was the volunteer host and organizer of a weekly musical open stage in Rossdale: Little Flower Open Stage. For the past six years he has volunteered for the Alberta NDP and the Federal NDP. He nominated David Shepherd and volunteered for both of David’s Campaigns. Federally he volunteered for both Reakash Walters and Gil McGowan in 2015 . He is now past president but as president of Edmonton Centre Federal NDP Breezy helped nominate Katherine Swampy and volunteered on her 2019 Campaign.
Approach to Politics:
Likes to joke around and have fun but is serious about — Building a caring economy
with love and respect for everyone and our planet
- Independent but partisan: It should be noted that although he volunteers and Cheerleads for the NDP he does in no way take direction from the NDP nor does he have any special power or influence in the Party.
- Open to suggestions: He likes to consider advice from everyone and is especially interested in why those with ideas he opposes, refuse to talk about the reality that we live in a society that runs on partial socialism.
- Not afraid to ask a seemingly dumb or difficult question: He wants to hear why those he opposes in this race like to use terms like red tape, taxpayer dollars, hard working taxpayer, and the bad businessmen’s favorite neoliberal fairy tale that is so often so lovingly referred to: Free Enterprise. All these terms should be exposed as weaponized rhetoric serving to shut down public conversation about income and wealth inequality.
- Breezy wonders why so many people in politics are reluctant to speak about love.
Self Employed Self Care Specialist:
Breezy works hard at taking care of himself, making sure he pays attention to the basic things he needs to keep himself balanced. Besides going forward with this Quest at this time he has managed to avoid in the last 23 years being arrested by the Edmonton Police Service on a mental heath warrant. Yes Breezy while running for Mayor of Edmonton in 1998 was arrested and held for 30 days. He had to finish his race talking daily to an Edmonton Sun Reporter from a payphone on a locked ward at Alberta Hospital, where he was (probably correctly) diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder. Not that he would wish it on anyone but it is his opinion that elected officials who manage and direct police services could gain perspective on how it feels if they had the opportunity to temporary lose almost all of their privilege by being arrested and confined.
( Lock them up. Lock them up! just kidding ) Brian (Breezy) Gregg