It’s all about enhancing Alberta’s sovereignty for Alberta Republican Party candidate Cameron Davies in his bid for the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills seat.
“We need wholesale changes to encourage economic growth from the ground up – that means smaller government, lower taxes, and putting Albertans first for a change,” he says.
Cam Davies says the most significant issue facing Albertans in their everyday lives is the “abusive” and “broken” relationship between the province and Ottawa.
“$29 billion a year, that leaves Alberta never to return through the unfair, broken, and abusive relationship that we have with Ottawa, that amount of money, when Albertans start to look at how many hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, and infrastructure projects that could fund for rural Alberta – that is the number one issue that would impact most of Albertan’s lives every single day, making their lives more affordable, healthier, and safer,” he says.
Davies adds that he sees the relationship as beyond repair, saying that after decades of trying, asking nicely is off the table.
“That’s been tried for many decades now – strongly worded letters, lawsuits, panels, studies, reviews, asking nicely doesn’t seem to work with Ottawa,” he says. “Politicians who tell you we should have high hopes for Mark Carney haven’t been paying attention – Justin Trudeau read the book on how to be a socialist, Mark Carney is the man who wrote that book.”
What are residents saying
While door knocking, Davies says the residents in the riding have indicated a desire to send a “strong message” to Ottawa and Edmonton – specifically pointing to traditional values that have been “ignored” by the UCP.
“The residents in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills have expressed loud and clear that they are ready to send a strong message to Ottawa and to the government in Edmonton, because what’s been going on for the last several years, ignoring the equalization referendum in action on COVID reports, the failure to stand up for families, an avoidance of representing traditional values and family supports have been ignored by the UCP,” he says.
Davies adds that the current government’s budget is simply not in sync with Albertans anymore. He says the province’s priorities no longer seem to align with the needs of residents, especially in rural settings like the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding.
“Their budget is not in sync with Albertans – high-speed rail projects, parking garages for hockey teams, instead of helicopter pads for hospitals, and additional firefighting supports, rural infrastructure that’s gone by the wayside in favor of picking winners and losers in corporate downtown Calgary and Edmonton. That has to come to an end,” he says. “It’s time that we had a government that actually put Alberta first, not next.”
Cost of living
When it comes to the rising cost of living, Davies points to immigration. He says upon election, one of his party’s top priorities will be tighter immigration policy, with the hope that will result in increased job and housing availability for locals.
“One of the immediate first action items is for this Alberta government to take full and complete control over our own immigration,” he says. “Unemployment is the highest in Alberta, in all of Canada, if we don’t take over complete control over our immigration – contrary to what the UCP Premier would like to do in doubling our population from 5 million to 10 million over the next 25 years at a completely unrealistic and unsustainable rate – Alberta needs to take control of our immigration and make sure we’re putting Albertans first,” he says.
“Make sure that our labor market, our housing market, and our infrastructure can catch up and that we can represent the needs of Albertans who are here and take care of them and their families before we attempt to take care of any more,” he adds.
Vista Radio provided the opportunity for each of the candidates in the upcoming Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills by-election to have an election profile air on the news.
