The Alberta provincial election is drawing closer and more candidates are stepping forward to vie for a position at the legislative desks.

42-year-old Airdrie resident Rick Northey is in the ring now, running for the Freedom Conservative Party (FCP) in the Airdrie-East riding against Alberta Party candidate Alex Luterbach, Roxie Baez Zamora of the NDP and incumbent MLA and UCP candidate Angela Pitt, the other declared candidates so far.  

Northey has forayed into politics before, running for Airdrie City Council in the last municipal election.  He formerly served as both the UCP and Wildrose Constituency Associations President in Airdrie.  

It was disillusionment with the result of the amalgamation of the Wildrose and UCP parties that made Northey start to look elsewhere for a party he could believe in.

"When the merger happened, like everybody else, we were excited, we were going to defeat the NDP, we had a new leader.  I think for me it was the "Grass-roots Guarantee," when that went by the wayside and Jason Kenney said, 'I'm the leader, I hold the pen,' I started looking for some other options and started thinking how do we have a party that actually reflects our values and our interests.  The Freedom Conservative Party I actually think really carries on the Wildrose mantle, the Wildrose traditions.  That's what really drew me into it."

Northey says he was the Chairman of the committee that wrote the FCP constitution which leaned heavily on the Wildrose example so he wants to see the party carry on the Wildrose legacy.

Northey believes the number one issue in the upcoming election is the economy.  "People are really hurting, people have lost their jobs, people have been laid off and their benefits are running out," says Northey.  However, beyond the problems with the economy, Northey believes there is a trust issue with what he calls "the establishment and the elites in Alberta and Ottawa."

"They don't seem to have the best interests of the people in mind.  They seem to have their own agendas and they seem to be pursuing their own ideas of power and I don't think they're looking out for us as much as they should be.  I'd kind of like to make a statement in Airdrie that they run the country and they run the province for us, This is actually our country and they should start listening to us again."

When it comes to local issues, Northey says one he hears a great deal about is traffic, and he agrees.  "We need an MLA that's actually able to get something done on this file.  To work with city hall and actually get that overpass built at 40th Avenue.  We could go a long way to solving the issues with traffic in the city if that was actually completed, and I know city hall and the mayor have been working really hard on that."

Northey says since he works full time and isn't available during the day, he's planning a number of coffee style get-togethers for his campaign.  But, when he does get the chance to door knock he'll be out there since it's something he came to love during the municipal campaign in Airdrie.

"Being out door knocking and meeting people was actually really exciting it was a really interesting experience," explains Northey.  "I learned quite a lot just from talking to people and asking questions.  You're telling people about yourself, but if you actually stop and listen people will tell you what they want and what their concerns are.  It's actually quite an amazing process.  I know most people aren't interested in doing it but I found it fascinating."

When asked to say what makes the FCP different from the other parties in Alberta, Northey sums it up in one word.  Accountability. 

"I believe that the NDP has a socialist agenda, the UCP ideology is basically the pursuit of power so I don't trust them to keep their promises.  I see the UCP as just generating slogans, and there's not a lot of meaning behind those words.  Even the grass-roots guarantee itself was just an empty slogan to be discarded when it became inconvenient.  I would say that's the difference, accountability, honesty, integrity, those kinds of issues."

The Alberta election must be held before the end of May.  

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