By Sheldon Spackman

Lacombe-Ponoka

UCP candidate Orr says party laser-focused on economy

Apr 10, 2019 | 8:00 AM

The UCP candidate for Lacombe-Ponoka is seeking re-election this year in hopes of addressing significant needs in his riding.

Ron Orr says the main issues in his constituency are currently unemployment and the agriculture sector.

“Maybe Lacombe has fared a little bit better than some other communities, but there are hurting people there – people losing their houses, losing their means of employment – so we really do need to get our economy back and going again,” he explains.

“The other part, though, is we are strongly an agricultural community, and there are some real issues for agriculture as well.

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“Farm receipts have gone down, employment has gone down, even in the agricultural sector and so we need to stand up for agriculture in Alberta, it’s one of our key drivers.”

Orr says what separates the UCP from other parties is their focus on the economy.

“We’re focused on the needs to get our economy going, to get our fiscal house in order and to make sure that we manage our debt in a way that doesn’t hamper us in the future, to be able to pay for the services and delivery of services that we need in central Alberta,” says Orr. “It’s about the economy and jobs more than anything else for us and we’re laser focused on that and that’ll be what we work for.”

Aside from being re-elected, Orr says his goal for the campaign is simply to meet people and answer their questions.

“People have a lot of questions and concerns about the Conservative movement generally,” admits Orr. “Truthfully, we have been in a process of renewal and revitalization in the last few years. Honestly, in 2015, the Conservative movement was struggling, we didn’t have what people felt that we needed to give them and I think that’s a fair assessment.”

Orr adds, however, the Conservative movement has been able to rebuild its vision over the past four years.

“I think we’re stronger now than we’ve ever been,” exclaims Orr. “So my goal is just to be able to reassure people that I think we have got some good direction, some really good policy put together by our membership and that Alberta actually can recover from this recession we’re in and we can do much better than we’re doing.”

Equitable funding for healthcare in central Alberta is another area of concern for Orr.

“There’s been a centralization of mentality in government for quite a while that I think has left central Alberta not equitably funded for healthcare infrastructure,” laments Orr. “I’m prepared to actually work with central region MLA’s and if you want a small, central caucus that would work together to represent central Alberta issues, I think that’s really important for us in the central region.”

As for undecided voters, Orr encourages residents to look at the UCP’s policies.

“Judge us on policy, not on past history,” says Orr. “We are committed to actually really getting our economy going, to reducing the barriers to job creators and allowing people to be home here and work instead of having to go all over the world to find the work that they need.”