St. Albert-Edmonton riding Conservative Party members will select their candidate for the next federal election on Nov. 22.
The nomination contest is between Michael Cooper and Ryan Hastman, who have both been campaigning for over a year.
Membership sales for those hoping to vote in the nomination contest were cut-off in late October. The vote is being held at the St. Albert Inn from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Both candidates are young – Hastman is 35 and Cooper is 30. The winner will take on independent “small-C conservative” Brent Rathgeber, the current MP for Edmonton-St. Albert and the candidates for other federal parties in the next federal election, expected in fall 2015.
The Conservative spot on the ballot is open because Rathgeber parted ways with the party in June 2013.
Cooper is a lifelong resident of St. Albert who has been involved in the Conservative Party for years, even serving on the national board. He’s a lawyer with Ogilvie LLP.
“I think that having lived in the riding all my life, having been involved in the party and the community for a number of years, knowing key community stakeholders and leaders and my background as a lawyer taken together provide me with the right background the right experience and the right familiarity with the riding to be a strong and effective voice for the people of St. Albert-Edmonton,” said Cooper.
He describes himself as a “small-C conservative.”
“I believe in lower taxes, less government, making sure that we strengthen our criminal justice system and working hard to defend the interests of Alberta, particularly in terms of working to get Alberta energy to market,” Cooper said.
He believes those values and policies are reflected in the current Conservative government, and thinks people in this riding share those beliefs.
“I think basically the policies and priorities of the Harper government are reflective of where most people are at in this riding,” Cooper said.
Hastman has recently relocated with his young family to St. Albert after growing up in Edmonton. He’s run for the Conservatives in Edmonton before and worked in the prime minister’s office. He’s a regional director for the University of Alberta’s Office of Advancement.
“I think we need a representative who has the political experience to understand how to get results in Ottawa, but also brings, you know, a family perspective and a community perspective,” Hastman said.
When it comes to policies and values, Hastman said he puts families first.
“We are a community of young families and families and children are our future, so anything we can do to help parents provide that stable, safe, prosperous upbringing that many of us had is good,” Hastman said, adding praise for the federal government’s recently announced expansion of the universal child-care benefit.
“There’s other things we can do and I’ll continue to push for them, but for me this is about people and the message I’ve been hearing at the door,” Hastman said.
That message is that politics can be frustrating but let’s make it matter, Hastman said.
Both Hastman and Cooper promised community consultations if they succeed at winning the nomination and then the seat in the general election.
Cooper said he’d do any number of things, from continuing to knock on doors to town halls to mail-outs to keep in touch with his constituents.
Hastman also promised community consultations, but added that he’d in turn table reports from the community to the government.
