His riding may no longer be in existence, but David Yurdiga is prepared to lead the new constituency of Fort McMurray – Cold Lake.
“I have a lot of connections here in the community, I did some contracts with the military and have been here many times before in the private sector. In my past role, the riding was even larger but I made a point of going to each and every community within my riding,” Yurdiga said.
The Conservative candidate for the Fort McMurray – Cold Lake riding first got his start in politics in 2007 as a member of the Athabasca County municipal council. He later served as reeve for the county from 2009 to 2013. During his time as reeve, Yurdiga said he came to know many elected officials in the Cold Lake area.
In June 2014, Yurdiga ran a successful campaign that saw him get elected MP in what would be the last election of the Fort McMurray – Athabasca riding. As an elected official he sat on both the Transport and Canadian Heritage Committees.
“It has been an honour representing Fort McMurray – Athabasca since I was elected last year, and I am proud of the work our Conservative Government and I have done. From supporting families, to passing new tough on crime legislation, we have made this country safer and a better place to raise your children,” expressed Yurdiga.
He added that his experience as MP would now help him better lead the new riding of Fort McMurray – Cold Lake.
“Infrastructure is important to our riding. This is one of the reasons I am so glad I have this opportunity to represent it. My year in Ottawa representing Fort McMurray – Athabasca taught me how to get infrastructure opportunities identified and approved.”
That is one skill that could be particularly useful, as Yurdiga has identified Highway 28 as being one of the main priorities he heard from residents during his door knocking.
“I'm going to work with the province with the Highway 28 twinning. It's important because it's a very busy highway,” said Yurdiga. “Traffic is down now but as soon as the economy turns around it'll be busy again. It's time to plan and to have this highway twinned.”
Through what he has been told by Cold Lake constituents, the MP candidate cited commercial air service and continued support of families and seniors as being his other main priorities specifically for the city.
“I met with the Mayor of Cold Lake while I was MP and I committed to ensuring that we do have commercial air traffic to Cold Lake and it's a priority for me.”
Being a member of the Conservative Party, who Yurdiga believes is the only party that respects the roles of Canada's military, the local nominee expressed he will support service men and women in whatever way he can. Starting in his own riding, the housing issue at 4 Wing Cold Lake is one he intends to bring to the surface.
“Right now it's the housing, obviously it's put a lot of hardship on military families. We have to open the books again and see what we can do as a government to see that the housing issue is addressed.”
Looking at the bigger picture, Yurdiga said this campaign overall is about leadership. He stated that voters need to consider which party has the experience and know-how to bring the country back into prosperous times.
“As we all know, our economy is going down because of the lower price of oil and we have a proven track record coming out of the last recession. (The Conservatives) have a track record of dealing with a slow down in economy,” Yurdiga explained.
He added, “Global instability and security have affected all countries and I believe our government has risen to the occasion. We are on the right track and Stephen Harper is the right leader.”
Yurdiga is already on the campaign trail in Fort McMurray – Cold Lake. While he may be up for re-election, in the southern parts of the riding he is a new candidate. To get himself and his platform known, Yurdiga was out and about going door to door and putting up signs in Cold Lake last week to aid in his campaign efforts.
“I'm just going out and finding out what concerns local citizens have. In order to represent the community, you have to understand where the community is coming from.”
Growing up on a family farm in Grassland, in combination with his past career experience, Yurdiga said he is the ideal person to represent the residents of the Fort McMurray – Cold Lake constituency.
“My background is pretty well everything we have in our communities, whether it's farming, small business or municipal politics. I was the reeve for Athabasca County, I was a businessman and serviced the oil and gas industry, and I have an agriculture background. I understand the issues with cattle and grain producers because I'm a cattle and grain producer myself.”
As the Conservative candidate, Yurdiga will be running against Kyle Harrietha for the Liberal Party, Libertarian Scott Berry, NDP Melody Lepine and Christian Heritage Party's Roelof Janssen. Voters will head to the polls on Oct. 19.
