Melissa Mullis, executive director of the Root Cellar Food & Wellness Hub, chats with Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley (centre) and Brooks-Medicine Hat byelection candidate Gwendoline Dirk on Oct. 25, 2022 at the Root Cellar. (Photo Courtesy Bob Schneider)

By Chris Brown

Brooks-Medicine Hat byelection

NDP leader joins Dirk on campaign trail

Oct 25, 2022 | 5:25 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The NDP candidate for the Brooks-Medicine Hat byelection is receiving support from the party leader this week, at the same time her United Conservative rival has made her first visit to the riding since prior to the byelection being called.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley says Danielle Smith’s decision to run in southeast Alberta instead of in an already vacant Calgary riding shows she’s assuming that it’s going to be a cakewalk for her.

Notley says not only does that leave people in Calgary underrepresented, but Smith is taking this riding’s residents for granted. She says Dirk has connections to the riding in many different ways.

Smith also campaigned in Medicine Hat today, and Notley says the UCP leader’s failure so far to commit to moving to the riding should she win should also give people in the riding pause.

Notley says that’s crazy to her.

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“I grew up in a rural riding, my dad was one of the most well-known rural MLAs in the history of the province,” she says. “I know what it means to be living in the riding that you’re representing, to make sure you come back on the weekends and the people you represent hear from you.”

READ MORE: Who votes in Brooks-Medicine Hat?

Following meetings with health-care workers and before door-knocking, Notley and Dirk visited Root Cellar Food & Wellness Hub.

She says her party is increasingly hearing about Albertans under pressure due to affordability issues. She and Dirk wanted to speak with people on the front lines and discuss solutions the party has in mind to help families.

“We know the number of calls going into the food banks has multiplied six-fold. And we know people who used to be donors to food banks are now users of food banks,” Notley says.

Smith and Dirk are joined in the byelection by the Alberta Party’s Barry Morishita, The Independence Party’s Bob Blayone and the Wildrose Independence Party’s Jeevan Mangat. All five will have the opportunity to exchange ideas at a forum hosted by the Medicine Hat & District Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 3, before voters cast their ballots on Nov. 8.