The Liberal Party of Canada has picked its candidate for Peace River-Westlock and it’s a name known to federal NDP supporters.
Christopher W. Brown, the Town of Slave Lake’s communications officer, sought the Liberal nomination after being snubbed by his first choice, the New Democratic Party. Canadians head to the polls Oct. 19 to elect their next federal government.
“I originally put my name forward for the NDP, but after they decided they were going to have top down government style, where the voices of Peace River-Westlock wasn’t going to be heard and they were going to appoint a candidate, I decided to step back,” Brown explained.
“Then after some disgruntled NDP supporters, and Conservative supporters, came up to me and said, ‘You should run for the Liberals.’ I thought no, I’m out of the game, I had my chance and I walked away.
“But when you hear time and time again that they’re still upset with the other candidates and they need a true progressive voice, I started thinking about it and talking to other people and it was a good fit.”
The 29-year-old isn’t fearful that his defection to the Grits from the NDP makes him look like a political mercenary. Rather, he’s said he wants to provide a local option for voters who he said have been ignored by their elected representatives.
“As a life-long Liberal I’ve always believed that a progressive voice is needed in Ottawa, and for so long northern Alberta has been forgotten under the previous two MPs,” he said.
Based on community feedback, Brown sees the three biggest issues facing the riding as economic issues, gun rights and aboriginal issues.
“These are the three issues that no matter where I go, even if it’s in Kinuso, Fox Creek, down in Barrhead, these are the three issues that people are talking about,” Brown said.
He also thinks he’s better able to address issues like gun rights and First Nations disparity than NDP candidate, Nakota-Sioux chief and former RCMP officer, Cameron Alexis, the man the New Democrats picked over him.
“It’s not about the person who is truly that candidate, or that ideal of a candidate, it’s the person who can represent all these issues.”
Brown said he’s focusing on a grassroots campaign and aims to travel all over the riding, knocking on doors and drumming up support.
He feels such an approach, and focusing on local issues is key to winning the newly created seat, even if that brings him into conflict with wider party policy.
“Right now I’m focused on the local issues and what people are saying to me,” Brown said.
“I’d be a strong voice … I think that we need that strong voice, I think we need someone who can champion the local issues and we can go head-to-head with our leaders and say you know what, this might be the national issue but this is what I’m hearing at the ground level.”
In an economically diverse riding like Peace River-Westlock, Brown said he could be all things to all people, even if those issues came into conflict with each other.
Say for example, oil and gas exploration and extraction on prime agricultural land.
“I’m going to sit down with each individual stakeholder group across this riding,” Brown said. “The municipalities, logging, natural resources, oil industries … I’m going to sit down with them and have an in-depth conversation on a monthly, bi-monthly timeline.
“We need to keep in contact and that’s what the job of MP is to do, to keep in contact with all sections of this riding. Not just the sections that you may agree with.”
Economically, Brown isn’t worried about the price of oil, saying that getting the product into the global market has been the biggest failing of the Conservative government.
Although, he didn’t suggest what he would like to see changed in the oil supply chain system, preferring to focus on striking a balance between extraction and environmental issues.
“Getting our natural resources to market is our biggest domestic issue,” Brown said. “We have crude oil that’s about $30 a barrel and we need start getting our oil to market and we need to do it in an environmentally sustainable way.
“For so long we’ve seen that the Conservatives have sat around and not pushed this issue forward. Where under a Liberal Party we would push this issue forward in an environmentally sustainable way.”
Hailing from Newcastle Ont., Brown worked as a journalist in Orono, Ont. before a stint at the Lloydminster Source.
