The writ has been dropped and the time has come for the Livingstone-Macleod candidates to buckle down and persuade the public to vote.
The winning candidate will replace UCP MLA Pat Stier, who is retiring after two terms as Livingstone-Macleod MLA.
The five candidates are Cam Gardner, NDP; Dylin Hauser, Liberal Party; Tim Meech, Alberta Party; Roger Reid, UCP; and Vern Sparkes, Alberta Independence Party.
Cam Gardner – New Democratic Party
As a fourth generation rancher with almost two decades of municipal council experience serving small town rural Alberta communities, running for the Livingstone-Macleod riding has been a natural progression of Gardner’s life, he said.
“I’ve got a lot of experience in running my own business and dealing with municipal affairs, and as an extension to that, the Alberta government,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of governments come and go, and in almost two decades of working with ministers and premiers, I’ve probably seen several dozen ministers come and go.
“I’ve never worked with a government that’s been so dedicated, hardworking, and frankly, done such a great job [as the NDP].”
Gardner has sat on the MD of Ranchland council for 18 years, the last eight as reeve.
He said that in the four years of an NDP government there has been more done in regards to conserving back-country public lands, and than previous governments have in entire generations on plans to deal with climate.
“If you lived through the 2013 floods in High River and Calgary, that should be very important to you,” he said.
Roger Reid – United Conservative Party
“Our platform and what we’re responding to is getting Albertans back to work,” said Reid. “The number one priority that we hear at the door is that Albertans want to get back to work, they want jobs, they don’t want handouts..”
Reid, a Claresholm resident, has a business background as an owner/operator of Tim Hortons shops in Livingstone-Macleod.
One of the major policy points for the UCP is repealing the carbon tax.
“We’re going to repeal the carbon tax and put money back in everybody’s pocket because we’re simply being taxed for things that we do every day like heat our homes and drive to work.”
Some of the UCP’s plans include reducing the small business tax from 12 to eight per cent over the four years, introducing a
student wage to increase the number of youth workers in rural areas and expand the job market, and reduce red tape by a third over four years to improve the accessibility of owning a business or ranch.
Another point of legislation they will address is the farm and ranch workplace legislation.
“We’re going to repeal Bill 6 [Farm and Ranch Workplace Legislation] which will put more control back in the hands of farmers and ranchers and allow them to make the best decisions for their operations and allow them to deal with the reality that farming is different from running a conventional business,” he said.
Dylin Hauser – Alberta Liberal Party
Taking a main focus on health-care and mental health as a party, Hauser wants to see that attention is continually brought to rural health-care access, such as specialists and psychiatry in rural communities.
Hauser, from High River, is also focusing his sights on education and mental health.
“When it comes to treating mental health, especially for children, school boards are dependent on funds to receive for testing, and I don’t think that they should have that responsibility,” he said.
Working in oil and gas, his party’s stance on getting pipelines in place and resources to market is important to Hauser. He does however, recognize the importance of green initiatives moving forward, viewing oil and gas Alberta’s current reality, but green energy a future goal.
As for the carbon tax, Hauser questions the goal of the tax and whether it is working, so his party in general is not in favour of the tax.
“I feel it almost does more of a disservice to advance us into a greener society than it does to help.”
Tim Meech – Alberta Party
For Meech, the point of pride in his party is the way they approach government and disagreements, as evidence-based policy and not partisan attacks.
Addressing some of the hot-button issues for Albertans, such as the carbon tax, Meech said the Alberta Party has a
moderate approach that will appeal to both conservative and liberal Albertans.
“We believe that we need to curb emissions and ensure that our consumption of fossil fuels is lessened,” Meech said. “But at the same time we also need to ensure that we’re not punishing homeowners for heating their houses, or their businesses, and the schools should also be exempted from any sort of carbon tax that’s there.”
Meech, a Fort Macleod resident, said his reason for running is out of a passion for reasonable governing.
“The whole reason that I’m running is to try to avoid the divisiveness and the polarization,” he said. “There are pragmatic approaches to government that need to happen, and they do not need to happen with an ideological-bent to them.”
His campaign has been holding meet-and-greets throughout the riding, and he plans to participate in all the forums and discussions he has been invited to.
Meech is an experienced journeyman tradesman and has worked in the oil and gas industry.
Vern Sparkes – Alberta Independence Party
Vern Sparkes said his party aims to end the carbon tax, end GST, end government waste, end term limits, lower business taxes, create an Alberta police force, and initiate First Nations self-governance.
“Our platform is to Make Alberta Great Again,” he said in summary of the platform. “We want to separate Alberta out of Canada, because we want to stop the oppression out of Ottawa.
“The Alberta Independence Party is a group of passionate, everyday Albertans that are steadfast in the belief that the only way that we can protect our way of life and secure a prosperous future for our future generations is through separation from Ottawa.”
Sparkes grew up in Nanton and is the president and CEO of Alberta based Ditch Hitch.
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