Liberal Candidate for Prince Albert Estelle Hjertaas (Michael Joel-Hanse/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Federal Election 2019

Federal Liberal candidate gears up for campaign

Aug 17, 2019 | 2:11 PM

The federal election is only a few months away and candidates are gearing up.

Estelle Hjertaas is the Liberal Party of Canada candidate for Prince Albert. She opened up her riding office downtown on Central Avenue today. Hjertaas said with the election coming up having an office with a central location will help with visibility while providing a place to coordinate their campaign efforts and volunteers.

“We do have a core base of volunteers that have been helping out for quite some time. [I’ve] got a few people helping out doing the campaign office,” she said.

This week the scandal involving the Liberal government and the Quebec based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin re-entered the news cycle. The ethics commissioner found Prime Minister Justin Trudeau violated conflict of interest rules by directing by his staff to lobby the attorney general to offer the company a deferred prosecution agreement.

Hjertaas said she was happy to see a report undertaken by former Minister of Justice Anne McLellan come out which made recommendations such as improving education for parliamentarians and thinks implementing that along with other changes will be a positive step.

BDO Debt Solutions

Deck the Halls Without Breaking the Bank: Tips for a Budget-Friendly Holiday

12h ago

RPCN Artist

'Felt like a movie': Chris Chipak making waves in the art world

12h ago

MMA

"The Lion" roars in New Brunswick

13h ago

“Things happened and what we need to do is make sure that this kind of thing never happens again,” she said.

The Liberal candidate said the SNC-Lavalin affair has not been brought up much in the local riding. She said in the times it has been brought up, most people have been satisfied with the recommendations of the McLellan report and Hjertaas’s support for implementing those recommendations.

Hjertaas admits it will require a lot of hard work for her to win the riding, which in it’s current incarnation has never sent a Liberal to Ottawa. However, Hjertaas said she thinks the Conservatives are out taking many voters for granted heading into the next election. She added she thinks she can attract some conservative voters.

“I don’t see Mr. Hoback on the ground knocking on doors,” she said.

Along with getting out into the community, Hjertaas believes she can draw in New Democrat voters as the party has not nominated a candidate in P.A. Hjertaas thinks there is still frustration about how the federal NDP dealt with Erin Weir when he was kicked out of the caucus and added that there was at least one supporter of the party who had come out to celebrate the opening of her office.

“I think that I have a lot in common with some of the people that generally support the NDP,” she said.

—

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn