"I care what happens here. This is my home," said Liz Reimer when explaining why she intends to seek the Conservative nomination for Portage-Lisgar.
Current Member of Parliament, Candice Bergen, announced last year she would not run in the next Federal election.
Reimer spent her teenage years on a farm northwest of Portage la Prairie before moving to Brandon to attend Assiniboine Community College. Over 20 years ago, she moved to Morden where she has remained since.
"This is my home, a place I live and have chosen to raise my family," said the single mom of two teenagers and one young adult.
As former business owner, former assistant to Manitoba Finance Minister and Morden-Winkler MLA Cameron Friesen, and a regional director for the Manitoba PC Party, Reimer feels she is uniquely qualified to represent Portage-Lisgar in Ottawa and has the skills to work on behalf of those she would represent as the Conservative candidate for the riding.
"On a personal level, I know how to listen with intent and hear what people are saying, and then translate that into action," said Reimer. "Plus, as a single mother I understand all too well the challenges the recent costs of living brings to every household, especially those on a fixed or tight budget. Inflation, the high cost of housing, gas and groceries are a factor every day."
Inflation is just one of the major issues Reimer says is affecting the Riding. The others include a continued focus on availability and improvements to health care, labour shortages across industry, the climbing costs and availability of housing, the need for specific large infrastructure projects, and continuing economic pressures on ag producers.
"I believe that Government should provide incentives to ensure that our farmers are using best practice for our provincial conditions. All levels of government need to work together to improve our infrastructure requirements and our healthcare system, just to name a few," she outlined. "To ensure that skilled and educated immigrants will be on a fast-track for credentialing, to support the Manitoba Government as they work towards streamlining the process for healthcare students to work inter-provincially. We need to work together. I don't have all the answers, but I can promise that I will listen, and I will speak in Ottawa to address the needs that are affecting us in Portage-Lisgar."
Reimer says Portage-Lisgar is a diverse and dynamic riding with agriculture at its core - the wet and food processing industry located in the Portage la Prairie area, and light manufacturing in the south and southeast - each with its own concerns.
The riding is also home to several Hutterian communities and First Nations, and Reimer says she looks forward to hearing and learning from, and getting to know more of the people who call it home.
"The CPC (Conservative Party of Canada) is a big-tent party. There are people from all walks of life and backgrounds and from all countries. Many ethnic backgrounds that have come recently to Portage-Lisgar from Syria, Nigeria and Ukraine, including those from the Philippines, India and the Middle East," said Reimer. "I believe strongly in the freedoms that we have enjoyed as Canadians and I will, as your Conservative Party of Canada candidate, defend them with vigor."
"I will represent Portage-Lisgar, the sensible and pragmatic people that we collectively are, to Ottawa. I promise not to represent Ottawa to Portage-Lisgar."