Loud And Enthusiastic Crowd Attends PPC Open House

PPC opens campaign office to a loud crowd of just shy of 50 people. Party leader headed to Moose Jaw this Thursday.

It was a loud and enthusiastic group of just under 50 people as Chey Craik candidate for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) in the Moose Jaw - Lake Centre - Lanigan riding cut the ribbon officially opening up his campaign office - located at 33 High Street West - on Monday afternoon.

“It’s a Monday and mid-afternoon and I have this show of support, it’s fantastic, and I think we are turning the tide,” a confident Craik said to reporters doing his best to speak over top of the loud and enthusiastic group of supporters who filled his campaign headquarters.

“There are ten times the people from last time. People in all areas of the riding have come forward this is absolutely huge,” he said when asked about what type of support he had been seeing this campaign.

A confident Chey Craik cuts the ribbon officially opening his campaign headquarters. Photo courtesy - Moose Jaw Express

In the 2019 federal election campaign he said his office was “at home on my kitchen table” and the large turnout showed the excitement and growth in support not only for himself but the PPC as well.

Craik ran for the PPC in 2019 and managed to garner 1613 votes in a lop-side race easily won by the Conservatives.

“People are disgusted with their representation or their lack thereof,” he said about the growth he has seen in support from the 2019 campaign and the 2021 campaign.

“We have a huge amount of support…I think that I am going to surprise people….the people turning out to vote aren’t the people turning up in the (voter intention) polls.”

Asked about traditional Conservative supporters - seen as key and the main supporters of the PPC - Craik said that although none of the campaign team for now retired Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski had crossed over to the PPC many ordinary and traditional Conservative supporters were now supporting and helping out with his campaign.

At the present time opinion polls have Craik polling at 7.5 percent more than double the 3.5 percent finish he garnered in the 2019 vote.

Craik said he has seen lots of support in the hundreds of doors he has already knocked on.

At the present time he has been campaigning on his time off from work but after Tuesday he will be campaigning full time until the end of the election.

To show how much the PPC sees the riding as attainable Maxime Bernier, the Party leader, will be in Moose Jaw this Thursday September 2nd at the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre (217 Main Street N) from noon - 2 pm he said when asked by MJ Independent why a federal leader would visit Moose Jaw during a campaign. The free event is a drop-in affair and everyone is invited to attend.

Asked why a federal political party leader would come to Moose Jaw after numerous campaigns where none from all of the other Parties had bothered to make a stop in by MJ Independent Craik said it was because of the support.

“He (Maxime Bernier) sees a strong candidate and this is the riding he is going to win (that is why he is stopping here),” Craik said.

Asked for a brief breakdown of what the PPC was about Craik said “we are a pro-freedom” Party.

Those freedoms include things such Craik described as '“pro-Canadian”.

The PPC was in favour of pipelines from coast to coast to deliver Canadian resources, he said.

“We are pro-gun…you should have property rights,” he said, adding “we will balance the budget within two years.”

The PPC would balance the budget by “cutting foreign spending, get out of the UN and the Paris (climate) accords and then “focus the money back in Canada.”

On the issue of the Carbon Tax Craik said “we are the no Carbon Tax party…all other (political) Parties have a carbon tax of some form.”

“No amount of money can fix the atmosphere.”

The Carbon Tax was introduced by the federal government as a means to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases by progressively increasing the cost of hydrocarbon based fuels (coal, natural gas, oil etc) thereby overtime forcing change and less use of hydrocarbon based fuels.

Craik said he would stick up for the riding unlike many of the other people in the race. He would not be silently sitting in a chair in Ottawa.

“I am not going to sit down and be an empty seat in Ottawa…I will be a vocal proponent for the riding. I will stand up for us. I will stand up for Moose Jaw.”

“People know who I am. People know who the Party is. (If people don’t know us) when we speak about policies they know they are with us,” Craik said.

During the ribbon cutting Craik asked those who attended to come back inside and sign up to volunteer to help out with the campaign MJ Independent saw many taking him up on the offer.