Article updated Aug. 18 at 5 p.m.
by Stephen Dafoe
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling a snap election for Sept. 20, candidates will be making their pitches to voters in the hopes of a seat in the House of Commons. But for Sturgeon River-Parkland voters, the choices, at least currently, are different flavours of cola.
CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA
Incumbent Conservative Party of Canada MP Dane Lloyd, who dominated the polls in the 2017 (77.4%) and 2019 federal elections (77.6%) is once again looking to return to Ottawa.
Lloyd is from a multigenerational farming family who farmed outside of Spruce Grove.
He graduated from Trinity Western University with a degree in History and Political Studies in 2013, and was a former Parliamentary Advisor to St. Albert-Edmonton MP Michael Cooper, worked for former Minister of International Ed Fast, and worked under Jason Kenney at the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.
Lloyd currently holds a commission as an infantry officer in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves.
https://www.sturgeonriver.ca/dane
PEOPLE’S PARTY OF CANADA
The People’s Party of Canada, which received 2.3% of the vote in 2019, is running Murray MacKinnon.
MacKinnon was born in Northern Alberta but has lived in the Edmonton area most of his life.
He is currently serving his second term as a Métis Councillor with the Papaschase Cree Nation. In that role, he has looked after consultation, economic development and legal and land claims.
MacKinnon’s professional career has involved sales to oil and gas, construction, maintenance, mining and oilsands.
The candidate has served many years as a volunteer in his community as a coach, teacher and mentor to young people.
https://www.peoplespartyofcanada.ca/murray_mackinnon
MAVERICK PARTY
The Maverick Party, formerly Wexit, is running Jeff Dunham.
Dunham was born in Saskatchewan and came to Alberta through his work in the oilfield where he worked for a decade in seismic-graph, pipelines, service and drilling.
Following his oilfield career, he went to university and became a Government of Alberta wildland firefighter, starting after 8 years with the government his own wildland firefighting business in operation since 2005.
Dunham is married with a 2 1/2-year-old son.
https://www.maverickparty.ca/sturgeon_river_parkland_ab
Christian Heritage Party of Canada
The Christian Heritage Party of Canada has added Jeff Willerton as their candidate for Sturgeon River-Parkland.
According to his campaign biography, Willerton was bitten by the political bug at age 26 and his life has not been the same since.
The 57-year-old is a father of two adult children. He served in the military for eight years and followed that with three years for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. During his time with the CTF, he wrote a weekly political column for three small northern Alberta weeklies. Those articles were compiled and commented on in the book Fix Canada sold on Amazon.ca but rejected, according to the candidate by Chapters for “being politically incorrect.” Willerton says he has sold 70,000 copies of the book door to door since publishing it 21 years ago.
https://www.chp.ca/jeff-willerton
As of Aug. 18, the Liberals, NDP, and Green Party of Canada have not identified Sturgeon River-Parkland Candidates.
Candidates are free to and are invited to submit a column on their campaign to editor@morinvillenews.com
