Tell us about yourself and what got you into politics
I've spent the last three decades in the world of sports and have the opportunity to coach and lead teams here in Saskatchewan as well as other places. I've always enjoyed coming back to Saskatchewan, it's my home province. Over the years, as we've traveled, we've seen lots of different things that just make you wonder, OK, where do I want to continue to raise my family? Saskatchewan is that place.
When we moved back here several years ago, it was always in the back of my mind that I'd like to get involved in the political landscape and attending a convention there was some talk around the score pad not running in the riding. So, I gathered the team around me and and we gave it some thought and decided to throw my name into the ring and were successful in winning the nomination.
It was the three-person contest to win that nomination back in April, and ever since December we had been campaigning through that whole time for the nomination and then now for the provincial election.
What do you feel are some of the pressing issues for your constituency in this election?
Dakota-Arm River is obviously a rural riding, as we’ve been out knocking on doors, the key things that we are hearing is just to make sure we continue to do things that are going to help grow our small towns and help them flourish.
Making sure that our value-added agricultural industry continues to process what we produce.
When it comes to community safety, making sure that our communities are safe and have strong policies in place there, and overall, affordability measures for young families is really important to make sure that families can have their values lined up and be able to afford to raise their kids and lot more are choosing to do that in small towns.
It's exciting to see these small towns, bursting at the seams and having the opportunity for their kids to play local sports and local recreation activities. While at the same time knowing that they've got a future because of the things that we're doing with the DLC, the Distance Learning program and continuing to build new schools and infrastructure there to help them go to university and have that credit to stay here and work after they done their school.
I think those are some of the things that they initially address and then when they see our platform, they're very excited about those affordability measures.
What is your take on the housing situation in Saskatchewan?
Our housing situation is that we're the most affordable place in the country to be living right now.
We'll continue to make sure there's things in place for everybody, to keep it affordable to raise their families here.
In places like BC and Ontario, I think that that's where there's some real housing crisis.
When you look at the cost of inflation here in Saskatchewan at one point being one per cent, there's things in place that allow us to make sure that houses are being built, that there's infrastructure in place for that to be happening.
We're seeing families making that choice to, in some instances, move outside of the city into the smaller town because they want that quieter life. Then when they move into the smaller towns, they continue to find some good, affordable, safe housing and the communities are safe for them to be raising their kids.
What is your take on healthcare in the province?
We had an opportunity yesterday to be in Moose Jaw with Premier Moe and Minister Tim McLeod. The thing that I'm really excited about when it comes to keeping communities safe that’s tied in with healthcare, is mental health.
We've really been addressing (mental health) to keep those communities safe by making sure we got those 500 mental health beds available and to make sure that we're surrounding and supporting those that might be falling into a life of addictions, to help them get out of that and be able to help keep them safe.
I've spent some time in BC, and I I've seen how the mental health (treatment) has not been adequate. Here in Saskatchewan, we're taking steps to make sure we address that coming around to support those in that are in those situations.
What would you like to see done regarding policing and public safety?
Everything's in our platform there, in terms of continuing to increase the spots where we've invested into policing here in the province with 500 new positions, whether it's through local forces or through the RCMP or through the Marshall Service. Since 2011, we've had that increase, and we'll continue to make sure that we're doing all we can to make sure our communities are safe.
Like I said earlier, combined with what we're doing with mental health, we're not just picking one thing and addressing it. We're trying to address the whole package of concerns when it comes to that.
How would a reelected Saskatchewan Party Government improve the economy?
We're doing a pretty good job right now in terms of growing the economy and creating those jobs and making sure that we're exporting what we're producing here. I think that those are key measures and making sure that we've got a strong policy in place to allow investment to continue pouring into our province, whether it's the mining or Ag industries. There's a lot of innovation that's happening and we're going to continue to move that forward.