The Alberta Party has nominated its candidate in the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills constituency for the upcoming provincial election.
Chase Brown, 21, is seeking public office for the first time.
Although an election date has not been set, it is widely speculated that voters will go to the polls this spring.
The Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills constituency is currently represented by United Conservative Party (UCP) MLA Nathan Cooper, who has already announced his plans to seek re-election.
A rancher near Hussar, 55 kilometres south of Drumheller, Brown says a key campaign issue for him will be rural crime and the need for more to be done to reduce property crimes in the region and across the province.
“The Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding is an extremely rural riding and it seems that rural crime is on the rise across the board, increasing in both severity and frequency,” said Brown, who has been a member of the Alberta Party for three years.
“The Alberta Party and myself are committed to addressing some of these problems. It is a problem that everybody has a role to play in. We can’t just stand back and say ‘oh well, not my problem.'"
Working with stakeholder groups such rural crime watch associations, citizens on patrol and RCMP detachments would be one of his goals, he said.
“Rural crime in general is one of my biggest issues and one of the things I’m most concerned about,” he said.
A University of Alberta student, Brown is scheduled to graduate with a bachelor of management degree with a major in economics this spring.
The Alberta Party’s centrist position should make it attractive to district voters, he said.
“A lot of what is happening in this province which I don’t like is the polarization,” he said. “All the major parties are trying to divide Albertans and really make us feel like there is not as much commonality as there is.
“I’m a big believer in coming across the floor and working together. This is a group effort. If we sit up there in the legislature and just toe the line, that is not putting the best interest of Albertans first.”
While he says he “has a lot of respect for Nathan Cooper,” Brown says “what the Alberta Party’s message is as compared to the UCP is that message of a centrist, of a pragmatic, principled alternative. Albertans want change but that doesn’t mean we have to come in and slash funding to crucial social programs.”
Brown said he would take part in debates and candidate forums during the election campaign.
The NDP and the Liberals had not nominated candidates in the riding as of press time Monday.
