We are less than three weeks away from the Canadian federal election.
The national politicians are ramping up their campaigns, but where are our local candidates?
In Jasper we have seven confirmed choices for our votes:
Gerald Soroka for the Conservatives, Jeremy Hoefsloot for the Liberals, Kristine Bowman for the New Democratic Party (NDP), Angelena Satdeo for the Green Party, Douglas Galavan for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), Cory Lystang for the Libertarians, and Gordon Francey for the Veterans Coalition Party of Canada.
But so far only one of these has confirmed they will attend the Jasper election forum next week, a chance to be questioned by our town.
The contenders are proving hard to get hold of.
Chamber of Commerce representatives from across Yellowhead have been calling me to ask if I have contact details for the candidates as they are having the same difficulties.
Some have email addresses online and others I have had to track down through Facebook and LinkedIn.
I have been trying to put together biographies and photographs of each candidate to publish in the Fitzhugh to introduce them to you, their voters, so you can make an informed choice when you go to the polls.
But so far only three have responded: Galavan, Soroka and Francey.
I thought they would have been keen for the publicity.
I understand that the Yellowhead riding that Jasper is part of is a large area - it stretches as far as Grande Cache, Rocky Mountain House and Caroline - but I feel like some of these candidates could be doing much more to reach their constituency and win its people’s votes.
The Canadian federal election is scheduled to take place on October 21, 2019.
You can register at the polls when you go to vote but if you sign up before the election you should be mailed a voter information card telling you where and when you can vote.
To sign up online, go to ereg.elections.ca before 6 p.m. on October 15.
Fuchsia Dragon | [email protected]
Update October 3: The Chamber of Commerce has cancelled the election forum at the Sawridge on October 9. Only one candidate confirmed their attendance and another declined the invitation. The Chamber did not hear back from the other five candidates.
