Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta leader, Paul Hinman, and candidate for the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche riding is hoping to gain traction in the Lac La Biche region by door knocking on Saturday, January 29 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with his team. Hinman says he hopes to meet with residents to share his campaign platform on unreasonable COVID-19 restrictions, opposition to the equalization program and carbon tax, and how provincial and federal leadership has failed the quality of life for Albertans.
“The Wildrose Independence Party is all about taking control of the future,” Hinman told Lakeland This Week. “We are going to collect our taxes, we’ll have our own immigration policy, we’ll have our own environmental standards. We do a very good job and we don’t need the easterners telling us what to do.”
Federal government intervention and the UCP leadership, Hinman says has forgotten the needs of Albertans throughout the pandemic and believes green initiatives are attacking the oil field which has created animosity among rural communities and it needs to be addressed by strong leadership, he said.
“This idea that we can shut down our oil and gas industry, save the world, do some good and virtue signalling is just unacceptable…we need to elect somebody in this region that actually believes in the benefit of the oil sands, gas industry, agriculture, forestry and all of the good things humanity has discovered and built.”
Political life
Hinman began his political career under the Alberta Alliance party as the MLA for the Cardston-Taber-Warner riding from 2004 to 2008. He went on to lead the party that became the Wildrose Alliance party from 2004 to 2009 before stepping down.
Later, he won a seat under the same banner in the 2009 byelection for Calgary-Glenmore but lost during the election in 2012.
Political personas
Afterwards, Hinman went on to support Jason Kenney during the 2017 leadership for the UCP and believed that he would provide real change, he says unfortunately over the years his leadership was filled with broken promises.
“He said all the right things; he said he was going to protect our freedoms, he said he was going to stand up for Alberta, get pipelines built, reduce taxes, balance the budget, all of the things he’s failed to do so…Our greatest expectations was our biggest disappointment. He has failed and betrayed Alberta.”
Hinman says the NDP and Brian Jean do not understand rural Albertans nor are they reliable leaders who provide real solutions for the oil and gas industry and protect individual freedoms.
In recent times, the only political party that could create a working relationship with Albertans values and his party's beliefs is the federal Peoples Party of Canada (PPC), led by former Conservative MP Maxime Bernier.
“Maxime Bernier is the only federal politician that’s actually presenting solutions instead of more of the same,” he said. “Everything from decentralizing government, protecting freedoms, changing the equalization program. If you’re following the PPC and you read all of that… it just that makes sense, that’s what we need to do.”
Issues for Hinman’s campaign also focus on the current pandemic and working on new solutions to maintain freedoms and health at the same time.
Zinc, Vitamin D and hydroxychloroquine
Finding solutions for rural Albertans throughout the pandemic has created fear, taken away freedoms and forced people to get vaccinated, he says under the restrictions exemptions program and vaccine passports the government has taken away what little social and mental health rights people had left.
“It’s time for them to stop the divisive Restrictions Exemption Program since its individual harm far exceeds any public benefit. Vaccine passports need to go and they need to go now.”
Rather Hinman says, the provincial and federal government should focus on building peoples immune system, physical health and uses experimental remedies as opposed to restrictions as a solution to the pandemic
“Early treatment protocols that are proven, safe and have long track records,” he says regarding the use of “Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamin D, zinc and exercise” that is widely available and should be utilized.
“When you look at the people that were dying in the first six months it was overwhelming; they were people that were past our average life span. The average death of people…in Alberta was 82; they never said that. How many times have they tried to instill fear that we’ve had a young child die of no co-morbidities and a few days later say that well actually they didn’t.”
Paul Hinman, Wildrose Independence Party candidate for Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche
While there are alternative treatments available that aren’t being used, he says there are more issues regarding reported COVID cases that need to be transparent about people’s ages and people with underlying health conditions as opposed to healthy people, he said.
“When you look at the people that were dying in the first six months it was overwhelming; they were people that were past our average life span. The average death of people…in Alberta was 82; they never said that. How many times have they tried to instill fear that we’ve had a young child die of no co-morbidities and a few days later say that well actually they didn’t.”
Ultimately Albertans and constituents of the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche riding need to focus on moving forward from the pandemic, get back to real life, support industry and rural communities who have for the most part developed their communities on their own, he said.
Supporting the region
Hinman attributes the progress of the province’s rural northeast to municipal leaders and private organizations.
“The local mayors have worked hard with the big industries here that have recognized they have to create a place for their workers to live. They have stepped up and all done a good job.”
Hinman’s approach to supporting not only the riding but the province he says requires moving away from equalization payments, less federal involvement and fortifying local tax dollars for Alberta’s benefit…and as a potential repressive for the riding, he plans to do so during the upcoming election season.
No specific date has yet been declared for the byelection in the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche constituency. The MLA seat for the area has been vacant since August of last year when former MLA Laila Godridge left provincial politics to become the acclaimed MP for the region. Under provincial election laws, it must be announced by Feb. 15 and voting must happen within 28 days.
Currently, the other candidates running for election in the riding are UCP nominee Brian Jean and Ariana Mancini for the NDP. Lac La Biche’s Brian Deheer has expressed an interest in running under the provincial Green Party banner, but has yet to formally announce his campaign.
