INNISFAIL - There are now four confirmed candidates in the federal Red Deer-Mountain View riding who are running in the constituency as the federal election campaign enters its second week.
Canadians go to the polls on Oct. 21, with 338 seats up for grabs. A number of candidate forums are in the works in Red Deer-Mountain View with dates and locations to be announced.
As of Thursday, Sept. 19 , the local candidates were Paul Mitchell from the People’s Party of Canada, incumbent Earl Dreeshen from the Conservative Party of Canada, Conner Borle from the Green Party of Canada, and Logan Garbanewski for the NDP.
Garbanewski is an education student at Red Deer College and volunteer with the student ambassador leadership program. His candidacy was announced on Sept. 18 by Stephen Merredew, the NDP’s riding association president for Red Deer-Mountain View.
"Logan knows that the NDP New Deal of enhancing our medicare system to offer all Canadians true 'head to toe' coverage, including mental and dental health services, and pharmacare coverage, will enhance quality of life for all people, and save our health care system money in terms of primary care," said Merredew.
He added there will be a formal nomination meeting at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept 20 in the Snell Auditorium at the downtown Red Deer Public Library.
“The NDP New Deal of affordable child care for all families will help our economy by bringing strong, educated women back into the workforce, and helping children get a head start on learning,” said Garbanewski. “And of course, the NDP will make all votes more meaningful through proportional representation.”
The nomination deadline for all other parties, including the Liberals, is Sept. 30.
Earl Dreeshen, 66, was elected MP in the Red Deer constitutency in 2008 and re-elected in 2011 and 2015. He has served as a member of the standing committee on agriculture and aboriginal affairs, and has also chaired the post-secondary education caucus.
He said if re-elected promoting the region’s economy will be a priority for him.
“The oil and gas industry and the agriculture are so important in our area,” said Dreeshen. “We need to get our natural resources out to markets around the world. We’ve seen that neglected so that will be one of the key things for me."
He said he would also work with other stakeholders to reduce rural crime in the region.
“There is a little bit of concern that there has been a lack of respect by government, whether it be the institutions or the rule of law or other issues,” he said.
“These are the kinds of things I am hearing. The key message is that we have common sense solutions to those things that we feel are important.”
Mitchell, 50, lives in Didsbury and is a businessman and entrepreneur. He ran a professional golf instruction studio and was a competitive shooter for years.
He has worked on Parliament Hill as a Reform Party foreign affairs researcher and with former Red Deer MP Bob Mills in the 1990s.
He is running for public office for the first time.
“Our current government is about to drive our country off a cliff,” said Mitchell. “I’m going to be fighting for the people here, for their interests.”
He says if elected he would work to reduce rural crime, get pipelines built, reduce immigration, withdraw from United Nations agreements such as the Paris Accord, reduce taxes, and balance the budget in two years.
He says he would also introduce a private member's bill called the Protection of Preborn Children Act that would end late-term abortion in Canada.
Borle, 27, lives in Red Deer. He is a teacher with the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools division.
Borle says if he is elected one of his main focuses will be to work to diversify the economy, both in this region and nationally.
“I believe that our current strategies for stimulating the economy rely too heavily on large corporations or interest groups receiving cuts and then rewarding us by bringing in investment,” said Borle.
“To me, this is too inconsistent and volatile a system to build the majority of our economy around. A way to avoid this is by investing more in small local businesses; the majority of profits from small businesses gets reinvested back into our own economy, not to mention providing jobs to Albertans.”
He also says if he’s elected he will work to promote what he calls grassroots democracy and plan for the future.
Borle is also seeking public office for the first time.
All four confirmed candidates said they will take part in candidate forums in the region during the campaign.
With files from Johnnie Bachusky.
