By Charles Lefebvre

Alberta Advantage Party has local candidate

Mar 29, 2019 | 5:58 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The Alberta Advantage Party will be running a candidate in Cypress-Medicine Hat in the upcoming election.

According to Elections Alberta, Terry Blacquier will represent the party when Albertans head to the polls on April 16.

Blacquier, who has worked in the oil and gas industry for 30 years, is running for office for the first time.

“I was never really political, but I got into it just because all of the hypocrisy and everything that’s going on in politics and the corruption, it’s bugging me,” he said. “I got involved because I was sitting there one day, listening to that quote ‘put up or shut up.’ From watching a lot of my colleagues and friend’s businesses that have been established, long-time running businesses being forced to close, stuff like that, that is what motivated me the most.”

The Alberta Advantage Party has candidates in 28 out of 87 ridings in Alberta, according to Elections Alberta on Friday. They became a registered provincial party in 2018.

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The party was founded by former members of the Wildrose Party who were not satisfied following the merger of the Wildrose Party and the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta in 2017. Marilyn Burns is the leader.

Blacquier, who was a Wildrose supporter when the party was active, says his focus for the riding if elected is the economy.

“This region here, (the biggest issue) is jobs, basically across Alberta I find is jobs and the economy,” he said. “Everyone you talk to has got a story of somebody who has lost their job, and is basically making it from paycheque to paycheque. It’s about getting people back to work.”

In addition to Blacquier, candidates on the ballot in the riding include Drew Barnes (United Conservative Party), Anwar Kamaran (Alberta Liberals), Peter Mueller (NDP) and Colette Smithers (Alberta Party).