A familiar name in municipal, provincial, and federal politics locally is one of the ten candidates vying for a seat on Swift Current's city council.
Maria Rose Lewans, who ran for Swift Current mayor in 2016 and for council in 2020, is now back for a third attempt at being elected at the municipal level.
"When I look at human history and the plight of humanity, I see a lot of repeats in history and lessons that we really seemed to fail to learn as humans," she said. "I really hope that I can bring a perspective that can help balance and maybe challenge current notions of what good governance and what democracy looks like."
The local business owner of Lewans Plumbing disagrees with how the City of Swift Current has spent its money in recent years. She claims their focus has been on wants and aesthetics instead of needs and necessities.
"There's wiser ways to spend money," she said. "I sat through a town council on homelessness the one year and the City pleaded poverty that they didn't have enough money to put a bid on a secondhand bus from the Shriners. Then here's $600,000 going to a walking path. I just think sometimes our priorities aren't really in line with making sure everybody is looked after in our community."
Lewans in her bio shared on the City of Swift Current's website that she'd like to end the "Bread and Circus" type of government. She said the individuals making a new leisure centre a focal point instead of providing proper maintenance on the facilities we already have.
"It's always humans, we want bigger and better and shinier and newer," she said. "I think these tolls on the environment are catching up to us and we're still really narrowminded in our focus where we think our current way of living is responsible."
Her political resume also includes two attempts at becoming the MP for Cypress Hills-Grasslands constituency as an independent in 2019 and 2021, a failed attempt at becoming the leader of the Green Party at the provincial level, and running for the Green Party in the 2018 provincial byelection in Swift Current.