Liberal candidate Luke Markowski sees importance in debating the issues
Joe McWilliams
For South Peace News
The Liberal Party candidate for Peace River-Westlock hasn’t been able to do much campaigning yet, because he’s in the middle of his final exams at the University of Alberta.
But that should all wrap up by the middle of this week, and Luke Markowski plans to get out into the riding.
“I hope to get to some forums,” he says.
Markowski studies political science and is just finishing his third year. He’s a lifelong resident of Edmonton, though born in St. Albert. His mother has a rural background, he says; his father is a city person.
Asked why he decided to run, Markowski says he was “looking for experience” in the political field, which he is obviously interested in. And a way “to represent my beliefs.”
A Liberal representative trying to make inroads in rural Alberta is in a steep uphill battle, and Markowski acknowledges that. But he says it’s important to have conversations about the issues, and thinks it’s important to have various views represented.
He also sees himself as perhaps making a foundation for future candidates from within the riding to step up and run.
It was a bit of a challenge getting the required number of signatures to qualify for the nomination, under the Elections Canada rules. Particularly since he was so busy with his schoolwork. Markowski says he did pay a visit to Westlock to round up signatures, but it wasn’t very successful.
However, a friend had much better luck in Peace River and got the minimum 100 signatures.
Markowski figures he’ll be done with his schoolwork as of April 16, which gives him 12 days to focus on campaigning. He says he’ll be attending whatever forums he’s invited to.
The one in Slave Lake was not yet scheduled by press time. High Prairie has no plans to hold one.
Asked about his opponents, Markowski says he’s aware of Independent candidate Darrell Teske, and “I like what he’s saying.”
Landen Tischer of the NDP looks like an interesting candidate as well, he adds.
About incumbent Arnold Viersen, Markowski says, “it’s time for a change.”
Independent candidate Darrell Teske opposes incumbent MP’s tactics
Joe McWilliams
For South Peace News
Darrell Teske wants Arnold Viersen’s job!
But perhaps just as much as that, he doesn’t want Viersen to have it!
The incumbent Peace River – Westlock MP, Teske claims, isn’t a proper conservative at all, doesn’t represent conservative values and he has no business representing either the party or the people of Peace River – Westlock.
“If I thought the job was being done right, I wouldn’t be talking to you,” says Teske.
Asked for an example of what he thinks Viersen is doing wrong, Teske offers something called the Buffalo Declaration, which Viersen was partly responsible for and which bears his signature. It as good as threatens Alberta separation from Canada, Teske says, which he thinks no proper conservative should be doing.
And Teske is a conservative. He says he’s voted that way most of his life. He describes himself as a fiscal conservative. Socially, he says he lines up pretty well with what he sees as the traditional conservative standpoint, but that’s not where Viersen is.
“Our MP doesn’t represent our conservative values,” he says, accusing Viersen of “embellishing” and indulging in alarmism.
“It has to end.”
Another burr under Teske’s saddle is the fact – at least he asserts it is, and says anybody can do the research and find out – that the Conservative Party of Canada has a system that makes it pretty much impossible for anyone to challenge an incumbent CPC MP for the party nomination. If you pay a certain amount of money to the party, you’re in, regardless, he says.
“Reasonable conservatives are appalled, because we can’t challenge him.”
The only alternative, for Teske, is to run as an independent.
“People say I don’t have a chance,” he says.
“But I’m going to try.”
Born and raised (and still living) in the Westlock area, Teske studied at the University of Alberta and was a schoolteacher for 30 years, mostly of physics. At the same time he was a house builder, which he continues to do since retiring from teaching. He’s 63 years old, married, a father of three and a grandparent.
NDP candidate Landen Tischer sees Trump, health care as major issues
Chris Clegg
South Peace News
A Barrhead grain farmer has stepped forward to run as the NDP candidate in the Peace River – Westlock riding in the April 28 federal election.
Landen Tischer, 34, was acclaimed by the party to run as its candidate March 10. He became interested in politics while watching the Rick Mercer Report when about 10 years old. At first, he supported the conservatives before becoming what he calls “a convert.” The Liberals was also not an option.
“It took me a long time to realize Liberal is a cuss word,” he says.
The policies of the NDP attracted him and is something he will strive for, if elected. He is an admirer of former Manitoba premier Gary Doer (1999-2009) and former Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas (1944-61).
Tischer has many concerns but lists his top three. The first is confronting U.S. President Donald Trump and his policies, mostly the well-documented on and off again tariffs.
“We have to come up with an answer against it,” he says.
The second is health care and the cost of pharmaceutical drugs. Wait times, lack of physicians and the cost of pharmaceutical drugs must be reduced. He speaks from personal experience. Without going into details, he has had a family member receive cancer treatment and has seen flaws in the system.
“If your family isn’t touched by it, you don’t really feel it,” he says.
“Pharmaceutical plans must be expanded,” he added, to lessen the financial pressure on families.
A third issue is building affordable homes for families.
“We’re promising to do that,” Tischer says, referring to the NDP’s promise.
“There are homes all over the place but they cost $500,000. We need homes more affordable for families.”
He also wants expanded dental care for families, another policy consistent with the provincial and federal NDP.
Tischer believes there are solutions to the problems facing the country and his party is well-equipped to deal with them
“I’m in on this because of the progress we (the NDP) can make for people,” he says.
Tischer is married to his wife, Cheyene and they have two daughters. He farms with his father at Barrhead.
Conservative candidate Arnold Viersen closely following party policies
Joe McWilliams
For South Peace News
Incumbent Peace River-Westlock Member of Parliament Arnold Viersen is hoping fourth time is also the charm in his career in politics!
First elected on the Conservative Party of Canada ticket in 2015, he’s been returned twice, but all three of his terms have been in opposition.
Will the Conservatives get a majority in 2025 and finally be able to form a government? They will if Viersen has anything to say about it.
“We’re not taking anything for granted,” he says. “We’re out on the road and looking forward to election day.”
Election day is April 28. In the meantime, Viersen has a team of people putting up signs all over the vast riding. He says he hopes to attend various events in various communities. In fact, he was in Slave Lake not long ago, sitting in at the ‘Coffee With a Cop’ session at The Fix, with an RCMP member.
Asked about the issues, Viersen sticks pretty close to the Conservative script, the same as he’s been doing for years, pretty much. A Conservative government would get pipelines built, get rid of the carbon tax (entirely) and lower income tax generally.
Conservatives would get tough on crime, and make sure repeat offenders don’t get out on bail. On that point, Viersen says he’s heard from the RCMP they are frustrated at how easily people get out after RCMP have arrested and charged them.
“We would turn that around,” he says.
Then there’s the cost of living. He’s been hearing a lot about it, particularly from seniors, Viersen says. The Conservatives have proposed some measures that would make life more affordable and tolerable for fixed income older people, he says. One way is to make the first $34,000 of their income is tax-free.
What’s happening, he says he’s been told, is seniors who do a bit of work to make extra money to get by, find it bumps them into another tax bracket and punished.
The Conservatives are also talking about a capital gains holiday for year.
Viersen grew up in the Neerlandia area and was working as an auto mechanic in Barrhead before getting into politics. He is 38 years old (39 in May) and is married to Melissa. They have six children.
Viersen lives in Westlock County, but considers himself a “resident of the Barrhead area.”
Whether Slave Lake area voters will get to see Viersen at a candidates’ forum was still up in the air by press time. He says he hasn’t received any invitations to such forums, from anywhere in the riding, including High Prairie. On the other hand, he has been notably absent from ones he has been invited to, previously. In his first campaign, in 2015, for example, he made the news in Slave Lake for not attending the forum.