Local MP for Westlock – St. Paul Brian Storseth last week announced that he would not be seeking re-election once his current term as the region's federal representative comes to a close next year.
Speaking to the Nouvelle on Aug. 21, Storseth said he felt the party had accomplished “everything it had set out to do” since he was elected back in 2006 and that it was now time for him to settle down and spend more time at home with his young family.
“This is a decision that I obviously haven't taken very lightly and it's something that my wife Amel and I have been really thinking about and discussing for some time now,” Storseth said. “I will not be running in the next federal election. It's a big decision, but the biggest thing and issue for me (with this job) is time spent with family.”
He added, “As a Member of Parliament, I'm required to be 4,000 kilometres away from my family for eight months of the year. That's just part of the job, but I think I'm just about done with spending 100 days a year on an airplane.”
With all the issues surrounding the federal government's temporary foreign worker program (TFWP) well documented in the local area in recent months, Storseth was keen to point out that his decision had nothing to do with the controversial program and maintained that he would continue to fight the feds alongside the local business sector in the hopes of securing the necessary changes to the program.
Looking back on his near nine years in office, Storseth said there was much he could be proud of.
“I think I can safely say that it's been a very successful near decade for myself involved in federal politics, we've been able to accomplish all the major issues we ran on back in 2006 and I am proud of the record our government has achieved,” Storseth said. “We successfully eliminated the long gun registry, provided marketing freedom for farmers, reduced the GST from seven per cent to five per cent and provided real tax relief for the average Canadian family.
“Locally, we were able to go against the grain and secured countless projects and millions of dollars for projects in the Bonnyville area. I think former (Bonnyville) Mayor (Ernie) Isley said it best when I first got into office. He told me that the federal government hadn't been a funding partner for a long time on projects in the Bonnyville area and we were able to change that.
“We secured millions of dollars for the construction of the Centennial Centre, partnered up with the town on numerous road and other infrastructure projects,” Storseth added.
Having recently had twins, Storseth said it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to be away from his family and that he had several future projects in mind that would see him remain in Alberta.
“There's definitely a few opportunities a little closer to home that we're going to be looking at in the near future, but the most important thing for now I think is to reassure everybody that it's going to be business as usual in my office for the next year,” Storseth said. “I decided to make the announcement so that my board can search long and hard for my replacement, but I'm going to remain as committed as ever to representing the people of this region for the next twelve months.”
He added, “I look forward to continuing to work with everybody and fighting for positive changes as your Member of Parliament until the next federal election.”
