With the fall federal election in Canada less than five months away, party leaders have been showing off their pancake flipping, and campaigning skills at one of the many breakfasts during the Calgary Stampede.  

Yesterday (July 7), one of them brought those skills to Airdrie and had his candidate who plans to run in the Banff-Airdrie riding in the election at his side.

Maxine Bernier, who formed the People's Party of Canada (PPC) after losing in the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada to Andrew Scheer, was at the King's Court Church in Airdrie for a pancake breakfast.  With him was Nadine Wellwood, the party's nominee in Banff-Airdrie who hails from Cochrane.  From Wellwood's point of view, the people of Banff-Airdrie haven't had a strong conservative voice in Ottawa for some time.

"The local residents of Banff-Airdrie deserve a voice in Ottawa and I think it's been a number of years where they haven't necessarily had the strongest representation and someone who's willing to take their issues and park them in front of the people in Ottawa, namely politicians, and say 'look, we're real people, we've been ignored long enough and it's time to have our voices heard in Ottawa.  We have families here, we're committed to having job security, pipelines need to get built so stop playing politics with our day to day lives'."

Wellwood says she was motivated to run for the PPC because of being the mother of a seven-year-old girl who she wants to see have a future in the province of Alberta.  She believes the party will do that because of what she calls integrity and principles.  

"I think that the platform that we stand on is the platform that we're going to promote is the platform that we're going to do," says Wellwood. "Like Max (Bernier) has already said, 'we're not going to compromise on our principles.'  If you like what you hear and you like what we stand for, join us.  We're not going to pretend we're something we're not and we're just going to fight for Alberta."

Many feel that the PPC and Conservative Party of Canada will be trying to reach the same voters and thereby split the vote, Wellwood isn't worried about that happening.  "It (Alberta) is historically a very Conservative province.  So really they have a choice between if they want to go with the Conservative Party of Canada which has moved far left and left conservative voices behind.  That's where Maxime and the People's Party of Canada have come up and we've stepped up to the plate and given Alberta a real conservative voice.  So can we split the vote?  No."

In summation of her thoughts, Wellwood says, "We have to decide how strong a voice do we send to Ottawa so we get heard."

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