Medicine Hat’s federal candidates making final pitches ahead of election day

Motz easily swept elections in Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner in 2016, 2019 and 2021, building on decades of conservative dominance in Alberta’s southeast.

While polling aggregator 388Canada shows that Motz is on track to keep the local riding, nationally the Conservatives appear to be the underdog in a tight race against the Liberals to form government.

Tom Rooke, the Liberal candidate for the Medicine Hat riding, repeated his argument that southeast Alberta would have better representation with an MP part of the governing party.

“Vote for Tom Rooke would mean you’ll have a representative on the government side,” he said from inside his downtown campaign headquarters.

“We have the strongest leader of all the leaders across the nation. And he is going to, with his intelligence and his training — a trained economist, a world-class economist — he’s going to be able to lead this country to greater and better things.”

Motz and Rooke, who live in Medicine Hat, are the only candidates campaigning in the riding this weekend.

Both said they plan to hit as many doors as possible and are also training volunteers to represent them at the polling stations, a role previously known as scrutineers.

Green candidate Andy Shadrack, who lives in British Columbia, is canvassing in the final days before Monday but not in Medicine Hat. for Paul Manly in Naniamo.

“I’m campaigning in Nanaimo Ladysmith for Paul Manly — I’m trying to get a third Green elected in Canada, so I’m split between two campaigns, as it were,” he said.

But Shadrack said he is still fielding questions online from Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner residents on the topics of housing, health care, animal rights and Palestine.

For the Greens, he added, the main objective is to get two per cent of the ballot nationally.

“We need two per cent of the votes in order to get our election expenses paid for. It’s that simple, that’s my final message to people,” Shadrack said.

“Vote Green, make sure we’re still around and on the ballot in the future.”

New Democrat candidate Jocelyn Johnson, who lives in Calgary, said she won’t be returning to Medicine Hat before election day and was unavailable for an interview Friday.

Meanwhile, federal leaders were on the road Friday to kickoff the final stretch of their campaigns.

Mark Carney of the Liberals focused on U.S. tariff threats in a steel town and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre campaigned on his anti-crime platform in Saskatoon.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh campaigned in Ontario in Liberal-leaning ridings in Toronto, Hamilton and London.

— With files from The Canadian Press

by Olivia Thorington

Medicine Hat’s federal candidates making final pitches ahead of election day

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