(Facebook/Shawn Tylke-Alberta Advantage Party)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

LACOMBE-PONOKA

Alberta Advantage candidate Shawn Tylke wants to give citizens more say in running of province

Apr 13, 2019 | 5:43 PM

The former Wildrose Party has been reborn as the Alberta Advantage Party and its offering up 28 candidates throughout the province, including in Lacombe-Ponoka.

The candidate there, Shawn Tylke, says the party’s platform is virtually the same as the old Wildrose’s, but their biggest concern is ensuring Albertans have more say in how the province is run.

“As soon as that election is called, and somebody gets in, they go back on their words, they change their thoughts and ideas, and people don’t have a say, but it’s the people that make the province go round,” Tylke says.

“One of the biggest issues is getting Albertans back to work again, because if you think about the whole thing, if we don’t get back to work we don’t get anything else. We need money flowing.”

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Tylke adds that wasteful spending on healthcare and education can be better allocated to help those areas.

He also believes crime needs addressing, which he says the party would deal with by up-training sheriffs to RCMP levels so that they can be utilized in rural areas, hiring more crown prosecutors, building more courthouses, and implementing forced restitution.

“Where else we differ from some of the other up and coming parties is that we’re not for separation,” he says. “We’re not a separatist party, but we will use it to get what we want and need for Alberta against Ottawa.”

An alumnus of Olds College and Ponoka native, Tylke has a message for undecided voters.

“Please get out and vote, and vote with your heart and mind. Most people will vote out of anger and frustration and that’s what got us into this mess we’re in right now,” he says. “I looked into things, got a little more educated, and now I look at things different than I did six months ago.”

The Alberta Advantage Party was formed following the 2017 merger of the PCs and Wildrose parties by Marilyn Burns, who serves as the party’s leader.

The party’s website says, among other things, that they would allow for schools, rather than the government, to decide whether to permit the creation of a GSA, and to allow for parents to be notified of their child’s involvement.

It also says the AAP would “work to free Albertans from being Canada’s debt slaves,” in reference to equalization, and that the party believes citizens should be able to recall elected officials.