MP hopeful Scott Wagner addresses Pincher Creek Rotary Club

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

Scott Wagner was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Pincher Creek Rotary Club on Wednesday afternoon, October 9.  Wagner is a potential nomination candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada in the Foothills riding.  The Foothills riding is expected to replace the old Macleod riding, and Wagner hopes to replace Conservative MP Ted Menzies, who has announced he will not be running again.


"How many people were actually involved in the last conservative nomination race eleven years ago?" Wagner asked.  "That's how long it's been since we had a nomination race in the conservative party.  Why is that important?  The conservative party is obviously quite entrenched in this particular riding.  The riding runs from roughly just south of Cochrane to the border."

"This nomination race is really in a pretty secure conservative riding, so it's going to be hotly contested and there will be a number of candidates."

Wagner explained that he was a 'potential nomination candidate' instead of simply a 'nomination candidate' because an actual nomination date for the riding hasn't been set yet.  "The nomination race was looking like it was going to be held in November but because of a number of changes that are happening at the same time it's going to be pushed off until next spring or maybe next fall," he said.

Macleod riding to morph into Foothills riding

"Behind the scenes there is a redistricting happening almost across the nation.  We are getting 30 new MPs in Ottawa and 6 in Alberta.  So there is hardly a riding in Canada that is not affected by this.  That is controlled by Elections Canada, which controls the districting.  It also goes to Parliament after the lines are finished and then it gets voted on."

Wagner said he thought the final vote would be taken in about 45 days.  "We are waiting on Ontario as they had a couple of ridings come in and they totalled up the numbers and they had 200,000 people in a riding, which was too much, so they're having to do extra work there.   It was supposed to be completed by the end of September and that's why November was the first (projected) date for the nomination."

"They expect to rule before Parliament opens and that redistricting will create six new ridings in Alberta."

"The other thing that's happening is that we are changing names in this particular riding.  We had about 120,000 people in this riding and they  trimmed around the edges and it's now going to be roughly around 104,000.  We gained the Waterton area in this riding and it will now be called Foothills, and we lose Vulcan and a little bit of the north end. So it looks like a lot like Macleod and there is a lot of confusion.  There will be increasing confusion because we have a municipal district (called Foothills) and a provincial Foothills and we are now going to have a federal Foothills.  There was quite a bit of conversation about trying to keep the name and it's kind of sad that we are losing the Macleod name because I think it's kind of unique and it meant a lot to people in this riding."

"A nomination race is quite a bit different than an election.  You have to be part of the party, so that's a bit of a challenge for a lot of people.  When I go door-to-door and talk to people, a lot of people don't want to make that jump to join a political party to vote.  But what they are in effect doing is part of the process and they are reducing their options.  I believe in my heart of hearts that the best democracy works when there is a lot of engagement from people.  A good debate would be great with the candidates being civil, hopefully."

According to Wagner the next Federal election is tentatively scheduled for October 21, 2015.  He doesn't expect Menzies to retire before then.  "I would say is say that he is highly popular and he is going to be missed in this particular riding.  The person that replaces him will have some big shoes to fill. The convention coming up is also involved in this particular nomination race."  Wagner said the previously planned November nomination date would have suited that schedule, but was pushed back because the flooding in southern Alberta last June affected the schedule.

'I would encourage Pincher Creek to get in touch with your conservative board members because they control where the polling stations are.  They can have one or they can have multiples.  I think this is a long way up to Okotoks, which is the main spot for the riding association and that's where they normally meet. In time, if enough voices come up, I am sure they would put a nomination meeting in this area.  It's a big riding.  All the way from the border up to Cochrane.  If you don't get a polling station, that is going to limit the choice of the public in this area. "

Issues

Next Wagner talked about some of the issued that he said people were bringing up with him as he goes door to door.

"I would say the number one issue is when I go out to a door and I state 'I am running for a Conservative Party of Canada' I have to actually enunciate 'Canada' a lot because there is a lot of confusion.  When I say Conservative, they immediately think Provincial.  When I wasn't enunciating 'Canada' I was getting about 50% of the doors that would state specifically something with regards to provincial politics.  I find that an interesting scenario,  that 50% of the  public doesn't actually differentiate between federal and provincial.  It is something we hear about a lot, about the disengagement of the political system in general.  I would love very much to get more people involved in politics, specially young people."

"Another issue I would like to go over is the Senate in general.  There is a lot of integrity issues that are raised at that point.  So I would say integrity and the senate are kind of linked. The way I would look at that is there is a small number of  people that are off track, and it is controlling the public mind about integrity in Ottawa."

"Health care comes up and it's a lot of provincial issues, and it's not just a federal issue.  What's interesting is that the federal government has a lot of involvement in the health care system.  One of the big issues I ran into regarding health care is when a doctor enlightened me.  We don't have the number of treatment options in Canada that they do in the United States.  This is mainly because we are such a small nation.  The drugs get approved down in the US but they don't get approved in Canada.  Why? Because we are just a small market for them."

"Balancing budgets comes up a lot in this riding.  I don't know if that's a  common theme across Canada but balancing the budget is a big issue for this particular riding because it is generally conservative in nature."

"I get asked where my stance is on pipelines at I would say about a quarter of the doors.  I would view that as a direct correlation to the economy.  I think that has a lot to do with the people and the wealth in Alberta.  We are blessed to be in the best economy possibly in North America.  Pipelines are related to jobs and it comes up a lot."

"Lastly is the floods. It is more centered in High River but it does affect Black Diamond and a lot in Okotoks.  There are different views from people in Okotoks than in High River.  There are different views on what should be done, depending on where you are in this riding.'

Politics is a rough game

Wagner said he was the son of a pioneer grain buyer and "I know the grain business pretty well.  I married into a ranching family and I can't say I know as much about ranching as I do about grain farming even though I have been married for 27 years.  I have two kids who have both graduated.  Politics is a nasty game and I said I wouldn't run until my kids were out of high school, and my youngest daughter graduated in June."

"It's a rough game and a lot of things are said in the media and I applaud those who run for politics because your face is out there and your families are affected.  So half of those people like the councillors and the mayor are putting themselves out there and it's a tough game.  I am an entrepreneur by nature, so I am involved with a ranching family but at the same time I have started three companies.  I have been relatively successful at it."

Fiscal conservatism, small government, teamwork

"I am a fiscally conservative fellow*.  In fact, I would say because my parents came from a very modest background it taught me that you need to manage your money really, really carefully.  It is an important tool in our society but at the same time, I believe a dollar in your pocket is better than a dollar in government's pocket.  It's even worse when there is debt up there because that takes away from our services, or from the next generation's services."

"I believe in small government.  You need a certain size of government.  I had an office in Ottawa and I was very successful selling to the bureaucracy in Ottawa.  What I noticed is that the larger the bureaucracy, the more they spent money and they build empires.  They are not always delivering services to the people.  My wife is a nurse and I know what it's like having people delivering services."

"I also believe strongly in individual rights.  I think government should limit how many rights they control for people.  There are important regulations for safety and security.  Some government agencies do expand their role."

"I also want to talk about the integrity of the Parliament floor.  I actually believe that politics is a team sport in Canada.  The debate structure, if you are a team, is a much stronger thing.  When you agree on something in a committee structure you should be going forward with one voice."

Related story:
Macleod MP Ted Menzies to step down from federal politics in 2015

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