The Liberals have just gained a very high profile candidate for Medicine Hat Alberta. Norm Boucher has taken a leave of absence from his job as mayor to give the Conservative candidate LaVar Payne, a run for his money. And he has already come out swinging.Medicine Hat Mayor Norm Boucher officially declared his candidacy for the federal Liberal party on Tuesday. In a passionate speech in which he announced he would be taking an unpaid leave of absence from the Mayor's office for the duration of the campaign, Boucher tore into Conservative candidate and incumbent Medicine Hat MP LaVar Payne. Boucher criticized Payne for what he called a lack of proper representation for this area, and said Payne has failed to deliver on a number of issues important to Medicine Hat — from funding for the proposed Regional Event Centre to a 24-hour border crossing at the Port of Wild Horse to health care.And before anyone says a thing about his leave of absence, remember Shelley Glover took a leave from her job as a police officer in Winnipeg to act like an idiot for the Conservatives.
"We went from a good parliamentarian in Monte Solberg to a heckler in LaVar Payne," said Boucher. "His own party treats him like a member of the opposition."
Dare we hope the West wakes up and realizes that they need representation in Ottawa, not just a hallelujah chorus for Stephen Harper. He handles that fine on his own.
Norm Boucher has a clear message - it's that Alberta (and particularly our corner in the SE of the Province) has been taken for granted too long by the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper. Our current MP (LaVar Payne) "inherited" the job from Monte Solberg when he retired suddenly, and because of Membership rules, there was a very LIMITED POOL of talent in that Party to choose a new Candidate.
ReplyDeleteNow we seem to be stuck with LaVar, known for his Heckling (MacLeans Mag. Oct 2010) and his ineffective representation of our Region. LaVar often says he doesn't "know any more than we do" about issues raised in his Town Halls - and has pretty much lied to Municipalities and Local Governments as they applied for Stimulus and other Monies from the Feds.
For Norm, it is just NOT GOOD ENOUGH - and as a Past RCMP, NATO Police Officer in Bosnia/Croatia. past Police Chief and two term Mayor of Medicine Hat - Norm has taken a Leave without Pay from the Mayoralty Chair and is stepping up to be our Member of Parliament!
The political elites of the PC (Provincial) and Harper Conservatives (Federally, who have been denied a Nomination to replace LaVar) are waking up - Norm Boucher is a popular, honest, independent fellow - guess you could call him a "straight shooter." He's passionate about all of the communities in our Riding - and he's running to WIN!
Thank you Fran. He sounds like he will make a wonderful Member of Parliament. If there's anything I can do ...
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