A single Saskatchewan Liberal candidate is running in the current Saskatchewan by-elections, with Weyburn’s Aidan Roy entering the Swift Current by-election campaign.
Roy will inject a youthful perspective on the Swift Current Constituency by-election race, with the 20-year-old handing in his nomination papers this past Sunday.
Roy, who sits as the Youth Representative on the Saskatchewan Liberal Party Executive, was born and raised in Weyburn and currently pursuing his Bachelors of Secondary Education degree from the University of Regina.
“I am running in this election because for far too long our province has been polarized by the SaskParty and the NDP. In the last general election we were given the choice to either vote for the far-right party or the far-left party, without any attention given to the moderate parties, which the majority of Saskatchewan citizens are moderates,” Roy said during a phone interview this past week.
He felt the top issue for all three by-elections is the Carbon Tax issue and what it is going to do to families across Saskatchewan.
“Coming from rural Saskatchewan I’d fight strongly against the Carbon Tax,” he said. “However I see the Carbon Tax isn’t perfect, but we have to use it.”
He noted that with a Manitoba lawyer having stated that the Supreme Court of Canada will likely uphold the implementation of a Carbon Tax on all provinces, Saskatchewan should begin to prepare for the inevitable decision. He pointed to the unsuccessful opposition to the GST in 1991 as an example.
“With the battle we’re fighting right now, it’s not just us versus the Federal Government any more. It’s us versus all of the provinces.”
“What I would like to see us do is to cut our provincial income tax in half, using the Carbon Tax money. This would save the average worker over $2,000, which the average amount of money that the Carbon Tax would cost a family would be $1,250. So the plan that we have in motion would save the average worker $750 with the Carbon Tax taken into account.”
Roy said the revenue from a Carbon Tax could be used to cut the provincial income tax in half, put $400 million towards education, lower small business taxes through a $250 million investment, plus pay off $600 per year to pay off debt.
“Coming from rural Saskatchewan I’d fight strongly for lowering personal income tax, lowering small business tax, while supporting our oil and gas sector. When it comes to our economy we need to apply policies that will stimulate job creation and following a fiscally conservative agenda is the proper way to do that.”
He said the pressures on education would rank as the top issue in Swift Current.
“I feel that education is one of the biggest issues right now in Swift Current. A lot of families are concerned about the original education cuts of last year’s budget. And now with Scott Moe’s recent light hearted investment that he took towards education, it simply is not enough to address the issues that we currently have.”
He added that one of his platform ideas is to place a priority on renewing the Social Studies Curriculum in Saskatchewan.
“If your children are attending High School right now, they are receiving information in Social Studies that is anywhere from 20 years old to over 50 years old. This is a great concern because we are teaching our children information that is completely outdated. So because of that, we need to make the proper investment into our education system to renew these curriculums. And that’s just one of the many, many issues that Swift Current has been voicing to me.”
