A Lac La Hache rancher will be a candidate for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) in the upcoming federal election.
Ken Finlayson said he met leader Maxime Bernier at a rally in Kelowna a couple of weeks ago.
“I was thinking about running as a candidate but I have to confess something, I have a personal basis against Quebec politicians and it’s just because for 150 years of confederation our vote in the west has never counted. The election is always won or lost before it ever gets to the Manitoba-Ontario border,” Finlayson said.
“However when I met Bernier and talked to him I liked him. First of all, I liked his policies, I also really believe the guy is sincere, I believe he’s bold.”
Finlayson said Bernier believes the equalization payment system in which funds from the west go to the east with more than half to Quebec needs to be ‘cut off’.
“Max is going to change that. He promised to do so and I believe him,” he said.
“Another radical difference between the People’s Party and the other mainstream parties is we do not believe in manmade climate change caused by carbon dioxide and that is because we got it on the best authority from the best experts one of which who spoke at our rally in Kelowna and that’s Dr. Partick Moore. Between Dr. Moore and Bernier I decided to enter the PPC candidacy. Both good men, both straight talkers, they won’t bs you.”
Finlayson who moved to Lac La Hache last year from North Battleford, Saskatchewan added that he has always been interested in politics.
He said he had contested a nomination as a federal candidate in that area two years ago but did not make it through the vetting process because he would not stick to the ‘script.’
“They told me there were certain issues that I could not talk about and in our case, it was rural crime that is also linked to racism,” Finlayson said.
“It needs to be talked about and the Conservative party decided not to let me be a candidate for those reasons because I insisted on talking about it because it’s tearing our communities apart. The condition of our Indigenous peoples here is probably Canada’s greatest human rights failure.”
Other candidates for the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo include Conservative incumbent Cathy McLeod, Liberal Terry Lake and New Democrat Gina Myhill-Jones of 100 Mile House.