Peter Shokeir | [email protected]
Todd Muir is campaigning on pursuing western independence as the Maverick Party candidate for the Yellowhead riding.
Muir is a high school teacher in Drayton Valley, where he lives with his wife Thanh and their two kids. He has taught physical education and social studies.
Muir said he became involved with politics due to the increasing national deficit, the growth of the federal government, and the “browbeating” of resource-based economies in the west.
“(The federal government is) getting a vast amount of their money from Alberta and other western resource-based provinces from equalization, another federal program,” he said.
“But there’s a lack of support for our actual resources that pay those bills.”
Formerly known as Wexit Canada, the Maverick Party rebranded last year with the goal of achieving greater fairness and self-determination for Western Canadians.
Muir described the Maverick Party as Conservative-based, except his party would speak for the interests of Albertans, unlike the Conservative Party of Canada, which he asserts has to cater to Quebec while western MPs are silenced.
“We will not be silenced. We don’t have to appease Ontario or Quebec, and that’s another appealing aspect of the Maverick Party for me.”
The party has adopted a “twin-track approach” with one track involving constitutional change and the other proposing the creation of a western nation.
“If we had to leave Canada to get a better deal for ourselves, I would be disappointed, but I’d be willing to do it,” Muir said.
“But I think that we should at least say what we want clearly and try to get a better deal.”
While Muir said he was excited for a snap election, he wished it were a couple months from now in order to give his party more time to promote itself.
“Once people in this riding learn who we are and look at our platform, a good majority are going to be brought to it, and I really think we can win this election.”
Muir added that he wasn’t worried about splitting the vote, because Conservative incumbent Gerald Soroka won 82 per cent of the Yellowhead vote last election.
“If we split exactly 50/50, or let’s say I get 42 and he gets 40 per cent, we’re still 30 per cent up on the NDP or the Liberals, and even if you combine the vote, we’re still 25 per cent up on them,” Muir said.
“Vote splitting is not an issue, so I think voters who want a Conservative-based party, do they want the same old, same old, somebody who has to speak for Ontario or Quebec, or do they want somebody like myself who’s free to speak for Albertans?”
The 2021 federal election will take place on Sept. 20.
Learn more about Muir at www.maverickparty.ca/yellowhead_ab
