Regent Says Local NDP Has Momentum Right Off The Get Go
“We have more volunteers now on Day Four (of the campaign) than we had on the last campaign, it’s about double from the last time,” a confident Talon Regent, NDP candidate in the Moose Jaw - Lake Centre - Lanigan riding told MJ Independent late Friday afternoon following the official opening of his campaign office located at 107B Main Street N in Moose Jaw.
Having campaign up and running quickly is something he is proud of, it is something that the NDP has done across the country, Regent claimed.
Talon Regent, NDP candidate in the Moose Jaw - Lake Centre - Lanigan, cuts the ribbon on Friday morning to officially open his campaign office located at 107B Main Street North in Moose Jaw. - photo supplied by the Talon Regent campaign.
“We (the federal NDP) have the second most amount of signs in the ground across the entire country…there is a lot of pride. We are an organized group, we are a passionate group,” he said.
The speed at which the local NDP campaign got underway is a source of pride for Regent.
“We signed the lease (on the campaign headquarters) two minutes after the writ was dropped…we had signs out right away.”
Regent said he learnt a lot from his first federal run for the NDP in 2019 federal general election. Lessons he will use in his second attempt to capture the riding for the NDP. In the 2019 Regent finished a distant second with 7,394 votes versus the now retired Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski who garnered 30,801 votes.
There will be adjustments in the area of social media with him saying that this campaign will be more focused on social media with Regent himself posting the commentary.
“I will be spending less time on social media and doing more quick posts,” he said adding although there is a move away from social media that this time around he will be posting on Tik Tok for the first time.
“I moved into Tik Tok to connect to the youth vote.”
The emphasis this campaign will be on getting out and meeting more people and listening to their concerns as much as the COVID - 19 pandemic will allow.
“With the shorter campaign the strategy is to do more town halls and more functions if COVID - 19 returns we can move back to social media and video conferences with groups,” he said.
Other events Regent is looking forward to in the short campaign is a potential debate - in process of being arranged - put on by the Outlook Chamber of Commerce and the Moose Jaw all candidates forum put on by the Moose Jaw and District Chamber of Commerce.
Despite the strong momentum he said the federal election call was an unnecessary one and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s snap election call needs to be remembered and taken to task.
“It is an unnecessary campaign. One way or another Justin Trudeau did it for purely selfish reasons, to get a majority (government), and we need to hold him accountable for his selfishness,” Regent said.
PROSPECTS
Regent said this campaign there is the opportunity for the NDP to make gains in the riding.
“I see a substantially more positivity this campaign. Business owners from one end of Main Street to the other end of Main Street I have been approaching have responded with strong words of encouragement,” he said, adding there is the potential to make great gains for the NDP in the city.
“I would be grateful to win Moose Jaw for the NDP. Even people in the rural areas are really excited about NDP policies like Internet connectivity.”
POLICIES
At his campaign office opening Regent stressed two areas of policy - public and proper care for seniors and taxing the ultra-wealthy accordingly - the NDP will work for.
For taxing the ultra-wealthy Regent said it is based upon fairness. As many of the ultra-wealthy benefitted massively financially from the COVID - 19 pandemic while ordinary Canadians took the financial hit from it. he pointed to data compiled by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) - formerly Revenue Canada - as proof of it occurring.
“While ordinary Canadians struggled these ultra-wealthy individuals made made billions of dollars and they need to re-starting the Canadian economy (after the COVID - 19 pandemic),” he said.
Regent claimed some of the wealth acquired by the ultra-wealthy “was downright criminal” saying there are laws preventing people and businesses from jacking up prices in a crisis.
“It was rampant across the whole economy.”
Regent said the NDP had programs in their platform designed to help ordinary Canadians get back on their feet and the ultra-wealthy need to pay their fair share to help pay for these programs.
In the area of eliminating private care homes and providing a higher standard of care Regent said the federal NDP would advocate and use the financial powers of federal government to make the policies a reality.
“We need to get rid of for profit long term care homes and impose minimum standards of care…with my grandmother passing in the last year (from natural causes in a long term care home) the fact that it happened (her passing) makes it more closer to me.”
Although healthcare is a provincial responsibility the fact that the federal government providing the majority of funding could be used as a financial incentive for the provinces to adopt the NDP’s policy.
“If you (a provincial government) want to keep getting millions of dollars in funding we want to see some quality in the care provided,” Regent said.
In the area of agriculture the NDP platform contains safety nets to help farmers better survive the various downturns in the industry such as drought, he said.
“We want to put in place safety nets for farmers negatively impacted by extreme weather and at the same time addressing the cause being Climate Change so these extreme events don’t become more frequent,” Regent said.
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