Former Medicine Hat councillor Samraj running for mayor

Samraj said a broad range of skills are needed with both positions.

“You have to understand the organization and kind of how those processes work. You have to understand policy and then you have to be able to communicate,” Samraj said.

“You’ve got to work with lots of different kinds of people because you don’t know what your council is going to be like. So you do have to kind of adapt on the fly to who your team will be.”

Samraj said his focuses are affordability, balance and cooperation.

“I think a lot of people are struggling with affordability there. I think municipalities have a role to play in that, and then balance. You always want to balance stability with moving forward,” Samraj said.

“You can’t move too fast, but you also can’t move at all. So trying to figure out the balance between those things and then cooperation,” he added.

“I think there’s one thing that I learned the first time around, and then just watching this council as well as you really can’t do anything by yourself. And so you really have to take really a team approach to everything there.”

The 45-year-old Samraj moved to the city in 2012 from Vancouver, growing up mainly in Lacombe after his family immigrated from India when he was nine.

He worked at the Medicine Hat Public Library for five years prior to his four year term on council from 2017-2021.

Since that time he lived in Edmonton for two years after his wife was accepted into grad school at the University of Alberta.

He worked as a policy analyst for Alberta Municipalities over that time.

Samraj said coming out of the pandemic and being on council during that time frame was a hard time for everybody.

“I think I just needed a break from there. And there’s also so much happening on city council at the time that I just felt like I needed some time to reflect on the experience, just to kind of think about all the things that I’d learned,” Samraj said.

“So much comes at you so fast. There’s really no time to think and learn about those things. I think I needed just some time away,” he added.

“I had thankfully a chance to develop some new skills, had some great opportunities to work for Alberta Municipalities.”

Alberta Municipalities is a member organization made up of municipalities from around the province.

“I got to see how different communities are handling these things, got to travel around to lots of different communities,” Samraj said.

“I think it helped me gain some perspective that we’re not the only one struggling with these issues. Everyone else is also dealing with similar things.”

“In the grand scheme of things Medicine Hat, we have our challenges, but we’re in a pretty good place here.”

Samraj said having the first term on council was beneficial with the learning curve being quite steep.

“You spend a lot of time just trying to learn the process, how everything works, and then you’re trying to analyze the issues there as you’re trying to work on them,” Samraj said.

“It was helpful for me to, because I quit my job at the library and I did the councillor thing full time. That was helpful to kind of fast track my learning.”

Prior to his initial term on council he spent three years going to every meeting sitting in the gallery and watching the previous council work.

“It’s a hard job. That’s why I don’t like to criticize whoever’s running it because I understand how hard it is,” Samraj said.

“It’s something that you definitely have to take seriously.”

“There’s things you can control and things you can’t. I’ve tried to put in as much preparation as I can to get ready.”

If elected mayor, Samraj said there are many things that this council has started that need to be finished.

“Whether it’s the future of the energy business, or Southside Recreation Center, or the Stampede [grandstand], there’s a lot of unfinished business,” Samraj said.

“Trying to tidy up loose ends. I think that’s probably one of my goals. That’d be the first thing kind of going in there.”

Samraj said after living away from the city, you start to appreciate really what Medicine Hat is like.

“There’s so many great things here,” Samraj said.

“When I used to tell people in Edmonton that Medicine Hat is a beautiful place, people don’t really know until you get here and you get off the highway. It’s really pretty,” he added.

“The trails that we have here. Just the nature and being around here. The people are great. For me, like the size is pretty perfect. I’ve lived in all kinds of cities and the size of Medicine Hat works for me.”

Visit our dedicated municipal election page for more information on the 2025 municipal election and other local candidate profiles published to date.

by Jesse Gill

Former Medicine Hat councillor Samraj running for mayor

Our Community