MEDICINE HAT, AB — To unite or not to unite?
That was the question at the local community meeting on Saturday.
Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA, Drew Barnes, hosted a public forum to hear what locals had to say about the potential Wildrose- PC merger.
Over 50 Hatters attended the meeting, where they had the chance to ask Barnes questions and raise concerns.
Many brought up issues of how he is going to entice youth to engage in politics in the future and how and when the merger is going to happen.
At the end of the three hour meeting, Barnes conducted a vote of who was in favour of unity.
The results were almost unanimous.
“General consensus was clear, they want unity,” said Barnes. “If the conservative values of smaller government, local decision making, equity and fairness are there, people have clearly said that they want an effort to see if the Wildrose and the PC party can get together.”
Barnes said he was a bit surprised by the vote, as people are concerned about the merger and how the two parties are going to agree on one platform.
However, he said Hatters are “terrified” of the $2.3 billion interest expense and $71 billion debt, and so “they are looking for change.”
With this information, Barnes is going to relay the message that Cypress-Medicine Hatters are in favour of the Wildrose-PC unity.
“When I’m up in Edmonton with the Legislature, I’m going to be telling my colleagues in the Wildrose party that almost 100 per cent agreement on some kind of unity.”
Barnes will be hosting another community meeting in the near future about what unity should look like.
