The Conservative Party of Canada candidate for the Ponoka-Didsbury constituency has been a Member of Parliament since 2006.
Blaine Calkins was elected with over 75 per cent of the vote in the Wetaskiwin riding in 2006, 2008, and 2011 before being voted in with over 70 per cent support in the Red Deer Lacombe constituency in 2015 and 2019, as well as with over 64 per cent of the votes in that riding in 2021.
With the redrawn electoral boundaries giving Alberta three more seats in the House of Commons, Calkins is running this time around in the new Ponoka-Didsbury riding and that suits him just fine. He is very familiar with the area and now the job is to get to know the people a little bit better. Calkins says “so I spend a lot of time in the area actually. My son and I avidly fish the Red Deer River, so we are constantly out in the Spruce View and Innisfail area. I’ve got good friends here in the Ponoka-Didsbury region. I was a ranger at Red Lodge Provincial Park, for example, a number of years ago. I am very familiar with Glennifer Lake and all of that. Of course, just growing up in Lacombe we have lots of common interests. I grew up playing hockey and golf and all of these other kinds of things. So I visit these communities all the time. In fact, one of my children graduated from Olds College here not too long ago.”
Calkins grew up on a farm in Lacombe County and says the long-time Conservative MP now lives in Lacombe. Calkins adds, we need a new government and a new direction to take Canada away from the path that the Liberals have been taking us down for the past nine years. He says “look hope is on the way. There has been a lot of hurt, there has been a lot of frustration that we’ve felt here – particularly in Alberta. We’ve lost tens of thousands of jobs in the oil and gas sector, and our agricultural sector has basically ignored, if not punished by the Liberals simply because we don’t vote the way they think that we should vote and they don’t think we have the same values they have. So we have assaults on our freedom. Our ability to have free speech to say the things that are on our mind. We’ve seen the government crack down on our bank accounts. These are the kinds of things that offend the sensibilities of the good people of central Alberta. I’ve lived here my whole life.”
Calkins shared three key priorities for this election:
1. Make Life Affordable: Lower Taxes and inflation for hard working families in Ponoka-Didsbury. Lower the Deficit by eliminating wasteful spending so that the budget works for taxpayers, not against them.
2. Stop the Crime: Keep violent criminals and toxic drugs off our street by bringing in serious sentences and jail not bail. Address gun violence by securing our border and going after illegal American guns while respecting the rights of our lawful hunters and gun owners.
3. Support our Industries: Support our farmers, oilfield workers and manufacturers by diversifying our export markets and expanding trade with peer economies and allies.
All candidates running in the Ponoka-Didsbury constituency were offered the opportunity to share more information about themselves and their platforms.
