Juno News - United Conservative stronghold at risk？ Local candidate weighs in

00:00:00.000 so just in the pure interest of giving you both sides of the story we want to be fair and balanced

00:00:07.400 here at juno news and so after interviewing cam davies the leader of the republican party of

00:00:12.920 alberta we thought it would only be fair to talk to his opponent in the upcoming by election so

00:00:18.840 i am very pleased now to be joined by tara sawyer tara is a farmer a business owner and an

00:00:25.220 agricultural leader running as united conservative party candidate in old didsbury three hill in the

00:00:30.420 by-election that is taking place on monday so tara thank you so much for joining the show

00:00:35.280 thanks very much for having me i appreciate it i could tell you're out campaigning and we caught

00:00:40.280 you uh in your car so we do appreciate your time here so first of all why don't you just tell us

00:00:45.040 a little bit about yourself and what uh brought you into the world of politics yeah so um my family

00:00:52.260 farms here in the acme just outside of acme in in the riding of old didsbury three hills and

00:00:59.700 our family's been farming here since 1903 and my my background with our kids is raised our family here

00:01:07.960 and my family's uh pretty passionate about you know policy and having a farmer's voice at a table and

00:01:13.900 and um you know representing the rural people so we've done i've done a lot of advocacy work my

00:01:21.400 background with being the chair of alberta grains before that uh alberta barley commission before we

00:01:27.180 amalgamated has been being the voice for wheat and barley farmers of alberta in fact in this region

00:01:32.420 region two where i am that's who i represent so i've been representing the farmers of this region for

00:01:37.100 over eight years already and um fighting the liberal government on issues that affect farmers and i feel

00:01:44.440 really strongly i i have a strong sense of community um you know we're active in our community with

00:01:50.860 volunteering and just giving back where you can and and uh i just i feel really strongly about being

00:01:57.520 able to represent people so this this opportunity to run and especially right now it's such a pivotal time

00:02:04.060 uh i'm i'm deeply honored to have this opportunity well it's interesting because you know i think that the

00:02:11.000 the the separatist cause is is sort of overshadowing some of the other big issues in of the day in

00:02:17.800 alberta and so i'm just wondering tara like when you're going from door to door when you're talking

00:02:21.560 to people in the riding what are the issues um that are you're hearing what are the big concerns on the

00:02:26.740 ground yeah i'm i'm hearing from people you know of course they're concerned on on health care and

00:02:33.100 education and and you know there's families that are struggling to you know pay for groceries and

00:02:39.540 their and jobs so they're frustrated with you know the decline we've seen in our oil and gas industry

00:02:46.180 i was at a door yesterday and the gentleman had just been laid off after years and years um he was

00:02:52.500 an older gentleman he just he just got laid off i mean that's the type of things that in our riding

00:02:58.500 and our seniors are concerned with with housing and and those supports those are those are those are

00:03:04.500 topics that i'm i got uh on all the doors and of course um that discussion on um separation in

00:03:11.460 alberta and alberta getting a fair deal is what you know people are talking to me about well certainly

00:03:17.780 after the federal election i think we were all surprised uh watching justin trudeau you know what

00:03:23.460 happened to him what he did to our country and to his own party it seemed like the conservatives were

00:03:27.860 a shoe-in and that we were going to finally have you know a change and and maybe a path to prosperity

00:03:34.180 um i think we were all a little surprised to see what mark carney was able to do i'm i'm wondering

00:03:40.260 like what what do you make of cam davies your opponent in the riding you know he's the leader of

00:03:45.860 a party uh a new party that he created the alberta republican party and i i guess they're basically

00:03:51.300 saying that the ucp doesn't take the separates the separatists seriously enough and that we that you

00:03:57.780 know that that's that's the way to go uh so what do you what do you make of cam davies and his party

00:04:04.100 look i'm i'm running a clean campaign i i'm not i'm not going to disparage other other other candidates

00:04:10.740 um i think the statement if that's what they're saying is is incorrect because i think the premier and

00:04:16.420 our party have been very clear that we're putting alberta first and that we want a sovereign alberta

00:04:23.620 in a united canada and being a sovereign alberta means we want to be getting what should be ours that

00:04:30.740 the federal government has gotten in the way of we want we want them out of our way to let us be a

00:04:36.100 prosperous province i've heard the frustrations of the people i feel it myself my goodness that's

00:04:42.100 i've been i've been battling with that government like i said in my other role um what i would say

00:04:47.940 where they're incorrect is we have a premier who's standing up for us right now very clearly she's not

00:04:53.700 just in words it is in action we take that seriously which is why she lowered the threshold

00:04:59.940 and to allow for the people to make this decision i think the mistake that's being communicated

00:05:06.500 is that we aren't taking it seriously these are the people we represent absolutely do we want

00:05:11.940 we want to have a province that is strong and we have these amazing resources not just oil and gas

00:05:19.460 i mean i'm an agriculture background the issues we're having with our tariffs and we haven't had

00:05:24.500 a government speak up for us this government is speaking up for us and there's no need to go to

00:05:29.380 another party to go the avenue of having that we have i fully expect there would be a referendum

00:05:35.140 question but even if there isn't we're doing the work right now for all the things that everybody's

00:05:40.180 frustrated about we're doing the work right now to make that change and this this idea that it won't

00:05:46.740 split a vote is incorrect it we've seen what's happened we need to stay strong united conservatives

00:05:52.980 because that's the caucus in that has the power one seat in this riding is not going to make a

00:05:58.260 difference but it is going to make a difference to the ndp that's we saw it happen before when we

00:06:03.140 splintered and we cannot afford four years of ndp again that was a pain that nobody wants we're still

00:06:09.220 suffering from backlash from a lot of what the ndp did um as people try and do better so um yeah that's

00:06:17.300 what i i would say is you know a lot of what i hear coming from that other party is exactly what

00:06:24.900 we're already saying like we're already doing these things right and i and i i would point out

00:06:30.500 you know the the other piece is as someone who lives in this riding whose business is in this riding

00:06:36.260 i'm saying no one cares more than me to make sure that that not only this province but these people

00:06:42.820 that i can potentially represent are represented strongly so their voice is heard right and i mean

00:06:50.660 the party just had a you know a vote on on premier smith's leadership and i think she got 91 approval so

00:06:58.020 it doesn't seem um that the party is unhappy with the way that the premier has been leading things it's just

00:07:02.740 uh yeah maybe impatience on on behalf of some i'm wondering uh tara what did you make of prime

00:07:09.700 minister mark carney's um meeting with the premiers the first minister's meeting and his new bill c5 it

00:07:16.500 seems to me he's signaling a change federally in terms of wanting uh projects built we we actually just

00:07:22.660 did a poll here at judo news unbelievably uh we we reached over 6 000 canadians and i think it was 98

00:07:29.700 of them said they wanted more pipelines built including 96 of people in quebec um across the

00:07:35.940 country overwhelming majorities of people are tired of the policies that have harmed our economy and made

00:07:43.140 it really hard for young families and for everyone um to get by so do you think that carney is signaling

00:07:49.540 a change do you think do you see that as a success for the conservative movement or are you still weary

00:07:54.740 of the party that he represents and some of the people around him

00:07:57.220 i'm always going to be the area of a liberal government but i do think i will begrudgingly give

00:08:04.820 credit what the he's at the table step one which is more than we can say that um trudeau ever did now

00:08:13.380 and i will say because i was in quebec uh it would have been in march in my my role with grain

00:08:19.380 growers of canada i was down for the pgq agm and i can tell you speaking to the farmers there who first

00:08:26.340 of all we're really excited to see someone from alberta coming and being able to interact and they

00:08:30.820 were giving me fist bumps saying we need that pipeline from east to west they a level of support

00:08:37.700 from the people there is a shift now mark carney needs to to take us seriously that's great he came

00:08:45.780 to the table let's see the action not just the words and that's where our premier is holding him

00:08:51.620 accountable to that i'm willing to give him a a little bit of room because he's come to the table

00:08:57.700 um so i'm hopeful he's taking us seriously he should because the premier means business

00:09:05.780 we're not allowing status quo anymore alberta deserves to be free from the shackles of that 0.99

00:09:12.020 liberal government and we are going to be giving that push back to give the people what they're asking

00:09:18.020 for which is we want a free alberta we want exactly what quebec has been given all these years there's

00:09:24.580 no excuse not to well 100 and look i'm not an albertan i lived in alberta for a while and i went

00:09:33.700 to school there and i now live in ontario but i i think you know it it seems to me uh what danielle

00:09:40.660 smith is doing is exactly what our country needs we need a balance to the liberal government and it's

00:09:47.140 certainly not going to come from ontario and doug ford so you know i i think our audience by and

00:09:54.180 large is you're tremendously excited and and loves what premier daniel smith is doing and so um i uh

00:10:02.900 wish you the best of luck on monday uh should be really interesting to see that by election and

00:10:08.100 do you have any uh final final thoughts or any final comments on the by-election tara

00:10:13.140 i mean yes i i mean we're i'm working hard every day it's important to me to get out to the people

00:10:18.980 and this week of course we're three days out it's making sure that people know we need them to get

00:10:24.100 out and vote we need them to remember it's it's a strong united conservative party that's going to get

00:10:30.100 it done and you know under danielle smith you we we have a very exciting time ahead for alberta and i just

00:10:39.940 want to be the i want to be the person to help push that forward because i believe in it just as much

00:10:45.300 as everybody else and i want it as much as everybody else well thank you so much for your

00:10:50.660 time that's tara sawyer she is the conservative united conservative party candidate in the upcoming

00:10:55.700 by-election in old didsbury's three hill really appreciate your time uh tara take care and best of

00:11:01.220 luck on monday thank you so much appreciate your time as well all right folks that's all the time we

00:11:06.900 have for today like i said we will be back on monday to provide coverage and we'll be bringing

00:11:12.820 in the election results for you uh thank you so much have a great weekend we'll be back again

00:11:17.300 i'm candace malcolm's this is candace malcolm show thank you and god bless

00:11:27.220 you

Juno News - June 21, 2025

United Conservative stronghold at risk？ Local candidate weighs in

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