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Cochrane candidates trade barbs at Airdrie-hosted election forum

For nearly two hours, the four candidates – incumbents Angela Pitt and Peter Guthrie from the United Conservative Party (UCP) as well as challengers Shaun Fluker and Daniel Nelles from the New Democratic Party (NDP) – took questions pertaining to several political topics, such as health care, public education, infrastructure, affordable housing, the cost of living crisis, and Alberta's energy sector, among others.

Two of Cochrane's political candidates vying for votes in this month’s provincial election went head-to-head for the first time this campaign during an all-candidates forum at the Bert Church LIVE Theatre in Airdrie on May 9.

For nearly two hours, four candidates – incumbents Angela Pitt and Peter Guthrie from the United Conservative Party (UCP) as well as challengers Shaun Fluker and Daniel Nelles from the New Democratic Party (NDP) – took questions pertaining to several political topics, such as health care, public education, infrastructure, affordable housing, the cost of living crisis, and Alberta's energy sector, among others.

Airdronians Pitt and Nelles are running in the Airdrie-East riding this election, whereas Cochrane residents Guthrie and Fluker are contesting the Airdrie-Cochrane seat.

The Airdrie Chamber of Commerce put on last Tuesday night's forum, in partnership with the City of Airdrie. Former chamber president Nicky Nordick moderated the proceedings, which included introductory and closing remarks from each candidate as well as several submitted questions.

The candidates responded to over 10 questions each, taking turns answering queries submitted by the Airdrie Chamber of Commerce, Airdrie City council representatives, and members of the audience. Candidates were given 60 seconds to answer each question before their microphones were silenced. 

Early into the event, Nordick asked the two Cochrane candidates how they and their party would reduce inter-provincial trade barriers. In his response, Guthrie took a shot at Canada's federal government, arguing the Liberal Party of Canada has been “obstructionist” in the last several years, preventing Alberta from prospering on the global trade front by implementing policies like a carbon tax.

“We have countries like Japan, Germany, Korea, Philippines coming to ask for our help,” he said. “The world wants to do business with Canada. We have a great reputation. We’re a supplier of choice and we need to maintain that [reputation].”

Fluker's response in turn was to criticize the Alberta Sovereignty Act, which Premier Danielle Smith promoted throughout her UCP leadership campaign, and which was passed in the Alberta legislature shortly after she officially became premier. 

“Inter-provincial trade, inter-governmental relations – all of these require Alberta to be seen as having a stable, competent, and serious government,” Fluker said. “Not passing legislation like the Sovereignty Act, scaring away investment. Alberta needs to be seen as a jurisdiction that is stable, competent, and serious. Therefore, willing to engage in other provinces, nations, and show the rest of the world we’re a welcome place to do business. It’s time to get back to that.”

When it came to locally specific issues, the candidates took questions from members of Airdrie's city council pertaining to advancing local health care resources, the need for more public schools to be built, infrastructure needs, and municipal funding. 

Asked how his party would advance health care access, Guthrie spoke mostly about EMS, bringing up his party's new provincial task force that has been assigned to evaluate systems and processes for ambulance response times. 

“We’re now implementing that plan to reduce response times and that care,” he said. “We’ve been seeing those results thus far. Response times are improving in urban areas. We've seen a 44 per cent improvement in responses. Red alerts are down significantly. In April, Edmonton had 10 minutes of red alerts compared to 295 in November, and in Calgary that was four minutes compared to 254.”

Fluker's subsequent response was that “all Albertans deserve to be able to access a family doctor within a day or two,” regardless of their financial means. He also said ambulances designated for one community need to stay in that community.

“There are two primary ways an Alberta NDP government would accomplish this. One – restore a positive and trusted working relationship between paramedics and their government by ensuring they have a supportive working environment. Two – a primary piece of our campaign platform is our family health teams plan, whereby we’re going to ensure at least one-million Albertans have acces to a family physician when they need it in their community.”

Other topics the candidates discussed included orphan well clean-ups, electricity consumption caps, renewable energy, their stance on Smith's previously proposed Alberta pension plan, rent control, and private-versus-public health care.

Roughly 70 people were in attendance at Tuesday's forum, parts of which were also streamed live via the City of Airdrie's YouTube channel.

Other candidates running in Airdrie-Cochrane this election include independent Ron Voss, Solidarity Movement of Alberta candidate Michael Andrusco, and Green Party candidate Michelle Overwater Giles. According to the forum's moderator, the candidates who were invited to the May 9 forum were those whose nominations were declared on the Elections Alberta website as of May 3.  

The provincial election will be held on May 29.

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