Middleton-Hope committed to riding

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on December 18, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Voters will decide today who fills the Lethbridge West seat in the Alberta legislature left vacant by the resignation of NDP MLA Shannon Phillips on July 1.
Three candidates are on the ballot including John Middleton-Hope who is carrying the governing UCP’s colours into the election.
Advance polling for the election closed on Saturday, a day in which the NDP’s Rob Miyashiro staged a rally for supporters.
Middleton-Hope took a different strategy by hitting the pavement on the weekend with his team of volunteers which he is doing today until polls close.
Middleton-Hope on Friday at his downtown campaign office reiterated his stand on issues that were addressed during the election including crime.
Holding a copy of Friday’s Herald which had on front page a story of the new Alberta Sheriff’s interdiction team that will be working to address trafficking of guns, drugs and people across the border, Middleton-Hope said there needs to be zero tolerance on public consumption of illicit drugs. And drugs need to be taken away from the traffickers, he said.
“You may not be able to charge all of them because of prosecution problems” but seizing and destroying drugs has an impact, he said.
He says the decision by Premier Danielle Smith’s government to augment the Sheriffs by creating its new interdiction patrol team and a two-kilometre “critical border zone” between the U.S. and Canada “is absolutely essential because CBSA, for all the good work that they do, are stretched way too thin. And if we can support that with the RCMP and our other municipal law enforcement agencies to secure that border more so than it is today, I’m absolutely in favour of it. I think it’s absolutely brilliant and it’s leading Canada.”
If elected MLA, Middleton-Hope says he will advocate for more resources for Lethbridge to improve safety in the city, noting the more resources put into Calgary the more displacement is caused here.
“That happens continuously,” he said.
“As the MLA, I have to advocate for financial resources and human resources and I will do that,” said the candidate.
The UCP candidate believes Lethbridge has had “inadequate representation” in the riding for the last nine years.
“I’m 100 per cent about Lethbridge West. My job is to advocate on behalf of the citizens of Lethbridge West and I will do that diligently every time. Lethbridge West will come first. It doesn’t mean I’ll get my way, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to win the day all the time because there will be times when I will come up against the party and the party will say ‘this is the parliamentary process, this is the party process, you have to vote this particular way.’ And I will make my case very, very clear that this is not what the citizens of Lethbridge want. If it happens to align with what the citizens of Lethbridge want and it benefits the citizens of Lethbridge, I’m 100 per cent behind that. Every time,” said Middleton-Hope.
For example, when it comes to public safety, he wants to get additional resources for the city and he wants to change legislation to ensure police officers, community peace officers and other law enforcement personnel across the province, get the adequate tools they need to provide protection and service to communities.
“That’s where I come from.”
Middleton-Hope says his team is expecting one of the largest turnouts for a byelection, which traditionally attract about 17 per cent of voters.

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