Two candidates have stepped forward to battle incumbent Foothills MP John Barlow's seat in the upcoming federal election.
Bridget Lacey of the Green Party and Greg Hession of the new People's Party of Canada have thrown their hats in the ring to take on the Conservative Party's candidate Barlow in the Foothills riding for the Oct. 21 federal election. As of Sept. 13, the Liberal Party and NDP had not announced a candidate in the Foothills.
Although Barlow won the 2015 election by a landslide, receiving 75 per cent of the vote, Lacey said she hopes voters will look at the big picture and vote looking at their own values.
“I would like to speak to all of the Conservative voters and ask them what are they really voting for — are they aware of Conservative governments of the past,” she said.
She said the last two Conservative prime ministers, Stephen Harper and Brian Mulroney (not including Kim Campbell’s short reign), racked up tremendous debts.
She acknowledged Harper faced difficult economic times with the downturn in the late 2000s.
“I do feel there were some mistakes made in that time,” she said. “I do think the debt that was accrued by the government should have been handled by the private sector.”
Lacey was born and raised in the Foothills area, growing up the family farm southwest of Turner Valley and is a 1999 graduate of Oilfields High School. She presently works for a municipal office in the Turner Valley-Black Diamond area.
She said she hopes voters will look at all of the parties’ platforms.
“Evaluating the issues and the records of the parties that have served us is important,” she said. “To not vote the way your neighbours vote or how your parents voted, but to vote their own values and see how their own values align with the platforms of the parties.”
She said the Green Party's values align with the environmentally-minded residents in the Foothills and Canada.
“I think we will see a big Green wave in Canada and I hope we are able to surge ahead in popularity and become a threat for holding Parliament. I have high hopes,” Lacey said.
Barlow, who was first elected in a 2014 byelection to replace retired Macleod MP Ted Menzies, is not taking a sure-thing approach despite a history of Conservative victories in the area.
“I am never one to take things for granted, I think you have to earn every single vote,” said Barlow, a former editor of the Okotoks Western Wheel.
He said the biggest concern in the Foothills is agriculture, as markets for canola, beef and pork and soybeans to China has been eliminated, along with other markets such as lentils to India and durum wheat to Italy have been compromised.
“To see the Trudeau Liberals bungle some of the most important relationships with some critical partners is very frustrating for agriculture — they feel like they have been hung out to dry,” Barlow said.
He said the Trudeau government not doing enough for the oil and energy sector is also a concern in the Foothills.
Barlow said rural crime also remains a high-priority as he talks to Foothills residents.
Hession, who lives in Beaver Mines near Pincher Creek, which is part of the riding, decided to run with the new People’s Party of Canada after years of scepticism with the Canadian democratic process.
“I voted with a great deal of scepticism, understating the Left, Right paradigm existing as a mechanism of control, really providing a mechanism for an illusion of choice for the people where we only had to choose the lesser of two evils,” Hession said. “I arrived many years ago at the conclusion that the only way we are going to restore democracy in Canada, is the changes are going to have to manifest from within.”
PPC leader Maxime Bernier started the party in September 2018, about 16 months after he had lost the Conservative Party leadership to Andrew Scheer.
Hession said coming from a family with military background and raised as a Catholic conservative, he was taught at a young age: "What it takes to keep a nation secure, prosperous, sovereign and the conservative desire to keep government small keep them off your backs, the banks of your backs, the direction that Canada has gone in the last 45 years has not adhered to any of those principles.”
He said he was drawn to the PPC and Bernier’s position as a libertarian conservative.
“Learning the party platform, I was naturally drawn,” he said.
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked to dissolve government on Sept. 11, the Liberal government have a majority with 177 of 338 seats. There are 95 Conservatives, 39 New Democrats, 10 Bloc Québécois, 8 independents, 2 Greens, 1 Co-operative Commonwealth, 1 PPC and 5 vacant seats.
There are 34 seats in Alberta, 28 of which are held by the Conservatives.
