Conservative parties jockey for local position

By COLLIN GALLANT on August 24, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Two and potentially three parties hope to build support at the expense of the federal Conservative party in this September’s election, but are also trying to put light between themselves and each other.

The Peoples Party of Canada, which ran a local candidate in 2019, and the newly minted Maverick Party will challenge the election in Medicine Hat and other Conservative Party of Canada strongholds.

All three take aim at the Liberal government, but new parties also vow to be strong fiscal conservatives, draw down debt and cut taxes, fight gun control, support the energy industry, and end carbon pricing, as opposed to the CPC stance of limiting it.

That is the main difference between the People’s Party and the Conservatives, according to Brodie Heidinger, local PPC candidate for Medicine Hat-Cardston Warner.

“We are completely opposed to the carbon tax and we’re not going to do an about face on it,” Heidinger told the News last week, also citing the party’s eagerness to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

The PPC campaign is largely unchanged from the 2019 platform, said Heidinger.

It rejects the idea of a climate crisis, but adds strong language against “vaccine passports.”

Incumbent CPC candidate Glen Motz told the News at his campaign kickoff last week he is focused on his own party.

“I don’t care what the other parties are doing (on vaccines), our (position) is to protect the rights and freedoms of Canadians,” he said, adding that, generally, voters in the riding approach him on other topics, but he doesn’t see a wholesale switch of support locally.

“We know people have questions and want clarity on things, and we’re happy to do that.”

Regarding the climate, Motz told the News in the spring that Canadians want a strong environmental platform, and CPC Leader Erin O’Toole’s plan to cap the carbon levy then create consumer accounts to defray the cost on citizens, accomplishes that.

That’s compared to an escalating carbon tax plan in place under the Liberals, and a system of rebates in provinces that do not develop their own programs.

Similarly, the Maverick Party platform also criticizes CPC brass for watering down stances in order to gain wider appeal outside Western Canada.

“We’re Western Canadian based, and we’re going to Ottawa to look after our ridings, and region first,” said local candidate Geoff Shoesmith, who operates a gas station and store in Walsh.

“There are a lot of people who want to know what we’re all about and want to meet face to face.”

The Maverick Party leader is former MP Jay Hill.

The PPC party was formed prior to the 2019 campaign by leader Maxime Bernier, who was edged out the Conservative Party leadership contest by Andrew Scheer.

Another former CPC leadership candidate, Derek Sloan, who lost in early rounds in the contest that saw O’Toole win, announced last week he would create the “True North” party and would run in the riding of Banff-Airdrie.

Sloan, who recently represented an Ontario riding, was removed from the CPC caucus for receiving a relatively small donation from a known and avowed white supremacist.

His campaign launch last week included speeches by business owners in Alberta who refused to comply with pandemic health restrictions.

Bernier himself was charged with breaking rules in Manitoba regarding crowd size restrictions while campaigning.

Heidinger welcomed Bernier to Medicine Hat as part of a tour across southern Alberta in July. He said Bernier is due back in the province before election day.

The PPC has named candidates in all of Alberta’s 34 federal ridings and plans to have representation in each riding across Canada.

Shoesmith plans to have a meet-and-greet tonight at Whisky Creek Lounge, and will open a campaign office on Kingsway Avenue in Medicine Hat.

The Maverick Party website has 17 Alberta candidates listed, including those for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner and the neighbouring ridings of Bow River and Battle River-Crowfoot, plus 10 in other Western province’s including Cypress Hills-Grasslands (Sask.)

“A lot of people are concerned about vote-splitting, but we’re not anywhere that the CPC didn’t earn a strong majority (in 2019),” said Shoesmith.

“The chances of spring-boarding a (non-right) candidate to Ottawa; it’s just not going to happen.”

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