Westlock County Coun. Bert Seatter is the fourth person to seek the Progressive Conservative nomination for the Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock constituency.
He made the announcement on Dec. 29, adding he wanted to wait until after the Christmas holidays to share his decision.
“I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time,” he said. “When we sat down and looked at it – the community involvement that I’ve had over the years and experience – I was quite surprised to see how many different types of committees and things I’ve been on.”
Seatter has been a Westlock County councillor for seven years and said this involvement with municipal politics is a “plus” and despite the differences in governance, he said his experience puts him in a good position to lead the constituency at the provincial level.
“On a council, no one is representing a party or a party platform or a party philosophy,” he said. “Provincial and federal are both very similar in that now you are part of a group that has policy, that has a philosophy, that has a way that they want to do things.”
He said there is no party that one will agree with 100 per cent of the time and that it is of utmost importance to represent ratepayers — something he said is the same in municipal politics.
Since the race began Dec. 9 when longtime MLA Ken Kowalski announced he would be retiring from his post after more than three decades, three other candidates have announced their intention to seek PC nomination.
Town of Westlock Coun. David Truckey, Westlock County deputy reeve Maureen Kubinec and Barrhead’s Tim Schultz are also vying to replace Kowalski as the PC representative for the area.
Seatter said he was unsure if the dynamic in county council would be altered with two councillors running for the position.
“I’ve been there long enough now with the seven years that they pretty well understand where I’m coming from when it comes to issues that come up,” he said, adding he doesn’t think his decisions will be changed to get votes. “That’s a concern with any council that has a candidate running for a position like that.”
He said having four candidates announce their intention to run can only benefit the riding.
“You’ve got (four) candidates all trying to cover the constituency and it can only be good for the exposure of the party,” he said. “I think for as many people that want the job, it keeps everybody on their toes.”
