Tell Us About Yourself:

"I retired from the oil and gas business. I was a senior for a number of years.

I retired five years ago to the farm out here in southwest Saskatchewan and pretty much had decided to spend my time looking out the windows.

But what happened was someone came along to me one day and said 'Hey, take a look at this Maverick Party'. And I though, well no, I haven't got time for that. But they said 'No, have a look.'

When I had a look I realized that these people think just like I do. They asked me to get involved and I said sure. So that's why I'm involved with the Maverick Party.

I'm looking forward to this election. It's going to be different than the last. It's an opportunity for the folks out west to actually speak their mind and be heard, so I'm looking forward to it."

 

First Campaign. How are you Enjoying the Experience?

"Well I'm loving it so far.

We're getting such good engagement around the district. I mean there's lots of little towns that are the same; they've got busted up streets and broken sidewalks and no new buildings for years. It's a gradual decline in the west and it shouldn't be that way.

Part of the problem is that we don't control where our revenues are spent. They're all send down east and down east decides where they're going to be spent. So it's high time that folks in the west stood up to be counted and be treated as equal citizens. It's just time."

 

Is there an Added Challenge from the Conservative Party?

"Well, I mean if you're going to run in the Cypress Hills, the Conservative Party is going to be the main challenger; it voted 80% Conservative the last time.

But to just interject there, It's not about 'left' or 'right'. We're not a right-wing party or a left-wing group. We're not left or right; we're just people who want to have a strong voice for the west and the whole basis for it is wouldn't it be nice if the things that affect us here in the west were actually determined by people that live in the west.

It's a pretty straightforward, simple concept. We're inviting Liberals to join us. We're inviting Green people to join us. We're inviting NDP folks to have their say. It's about the west. It's not about 'left' or 'right'."

 

Where to you Differ?

From what I understand, the other folks that are running are all good quality people. It's not about that. They all have a different vision of how this can be achieved.

Where we differ from the 'legacy parties', if-you-like, is that we, in our constitution, will never run candidates past Manitoba. So when we say we're going to be a voice for the West, we're going to be a voice that's exclusively for the west, not mitigated by our counterparts down east because we don't have any counterparts down east.

The legacy parties, they understand full well that the vote rich area of central Canada; you know, the 'golden triangle' if-you-like, is a spot where they all have to have an impact or they will never form government.

We realize that we will never form government. We're not after that. What we're after is raising our voice in the west so that it's exclusively western.

We can do so unabashedly and unapologetically. Someone asked me the other day who do I have to please down east and I said 'nobody'. We don't have to please anyone in the east with Maverick policies. We have to please the people in the west and my job is to please the people in this constituency and this district.