Marie Grabowski is the New Democratic Party candidate in Red Deer-Mountain View in the federal 2021 election campaign. She is seeking public office for the first time.
She is a health care professional and labour activist who grew up in the Hinton–Edson area before settling in Red Deer County. If elected a member of Parliament (MP) she says she would work to promote and support health care in the riding and nation.
“I’m very involved with health care and I’ve been on the frontline doing COVID testing at the (Red Deer) hospital,” Grabowski told The Albertan.
If elected she would work to “build a fair pandemic recovery that benefits everyday Canadians and a more hopeful future we can all look forward to.
“I’m extremely concerned with our reduced access to rural health care. We’ve had a lot of disheartening things happen with our rural health care.”
As an MP she would work to increase federal health funding to provinces, she said.
She currently works in a microbiology lab where COVID-19 testing has been a key part of her job since the beginning of the pandemic. From that firsthand experience, she says she knows there are gaps in the current health care system.
Specifically she says she is “very concerned that people in rural areas are finding it ever-more difficult to access services while facilities in urban areas are increasingly overwhelmed.”
She says she also supports expanding health-care coverage to include prescription drugs and mental health supports.
If elected she said she would work to improve rural internet and cellular service in rural communities.
“The federal government can absolutely step in to help,” she said.
Through her activism in the labour movement, she says she “understands how much harder life has become for working people and how much worse this pandemic has made the situation.”
As the co-chair of her union local and vice-president of the Red Deer Labour Council, she says she has collaborated with other labour leaders to support advancements in labour law. She said she would continue those efforts as an MP.
“As your Red Deer–Mountain View MP, I will fight to make life better for working Canadians and their families by backing meaningful progress on affordable housing, universal pharmacare, and the development of a sustainable economy that addresses the climate emergency while creating well-paid green jobs,” she said.
Grabowski says she supports masking and vaccinations as COVID-19 prevention measures.
