(submitted photo/Cathay Wagantall campaign)

By Cam Lee

Conservative candidate

Wagantall looks for re-election in Yorkton-Melville

Oct 18, 2019 | 4:35 PM

The incumbent Member of Parliament for the Yorkton-Melville constituency hopes to return to Ottawa.

Cathay Wagantall of the Conservative Party said she has been pleased with how her campaign has gone heading into election night on Monday.

She and her husband have been driving around the constituency in their travel trailer.

“We have parked amongst the hunters over the past few weeks in various campgrounds and then worked from there going out into communities, doing door knocking and meet-and-greets and town halls and meeting with individuals,” Wagantall said.

The riding stretches from St. Brieux to Hudson Bay to Esterhazy, and Wagantall said taking on a rural riding this size is a huge commitment for the candidates.

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Wagantall is the favourite to be re-elected in a riding she took by over 14,000 votes in 2015. However, she is cautious about taking anything for granted.

“What motivates me is doing what my job requires of me and what I want to do, and that is reach out and really know what the constituents in my riding are thinking, whether it’s during a campaign or serving as their Member of Parliament,” Wagantall said.

She said many people she has encountered have expressed their frustration at where Canada has gone the last four years under the Liberal government, with concerns about the economy, the high debt load, and the loss of major economic drivers.

“I’ve met oil field workers that are now living up in the northern area of the riding and doing what they can to work for farmers, because they haven’t had work for so long in the oil field,” Wagantall said who added that many people she has talked to are feeling that it’s harder to get ahead financially.

Another major issue in the riding, according to Wagantall, is the federal carbon tax. That is especially coming to a head after a challenging growing season that has led to most farmers having to dry their grain. She said she has had many bills sent her way highlighting the amount of carbon tax farmers are paying to the federal government.

Wagantall said the Conservatives have set out their platform very clearly and everything is costed, with a variety of credits that will make a difference for people in the lower tax brackets.

The Conservative environmental plan is also a highlight of their platform, Wagantall said. She said the plan is extensive and practical, and the party wants to take the global climate change flight global, by showing the world how countries like China could benefit from innovations like the carbon capturing program used in Estevan.

Wagantall said she hopes that Andrew Scheer is the next leader of the country.

“I’m certainly hopeful, very optimistically hopeful, that we will have the opportunity as a Conservative government to have Andrew Scheer as the next Prime Minister and bring our country back to where Canadians want to see it, where it’s profitable and we value the input of Canadians into our economy,” Wagantall said.

All candidates responded to our request for interviews except the Green Party’s Stacey Wiebe.

Stay tuned for results of Election 2019 on Saskatchewan’s New Beach Radio on Monday, Oct. 21.

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca