NDP Leader Rachel Notley and Brooks-Medicine Hat candidate Gwendoline Dirk at her campaign office on Oct. 26, 2022. (Photo Courtesy Bob Schneider)

By Chris Brown / CHAT News Today

Provincial Politics

Notley: NDP’s Dirk has local connections her UCP rival can’t match

Oct 26, 2022 | 5:16 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – NDP Leader Rachel Notley says voters in Brooks-Medicine Hat should give serious thought to how connected byelection candidates are to the region.

Notley spoke at candidate Gwendoline Dirk’s downtown campaign office on Wednesday and highlighted the differences between Dirk and United Conservative Party candidate Danielle Smith.

She said Dirk has lived and worked in Medicine Hat for most of her life.

“That’s a big contrast to UCP leader who is running here, who’s never lived here before, who doesn’t live here now and is refusing to commit to actually move here after the election,” Notley said. “She is not only a parachute candidate, but she’s a parachute candidate who has no plans to stay here once she lands but rather to just pick up and leave again.”

Dirk is a retired Medicine Hat educator who grew up in a farming family. She says her decades spent in southeastern Alberta and making connections with the community give her an advantage.

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She says when talking to constituents she doesn’t hear about conspiracy theories. The main issues she hears surround the UCP-created chaos in health care, affordability and having a stable and resilient economy.

“I know what the issues are. I know where the riding lines are. I don’t campaign in the wrong riding like I heard a small rumour that someone did,” Dirk said. “I go to doors and probably every 10th door I know somebody or they know me or they knew my family because I’ve got a very large family who lives here, a number of cousins. I was very involved in the community for 30 years and so I have roots here and I know what Medicine Hat and Brooks and Bassano and Duchess and Rosemary and all the small areas in between need and want.”

Alberta Party candidate Barry Morishita has long ties to the riding, his family having settled in the Rosemary area in 1947. He owned an auto parts store in Brooks from 1989 to 2016 and served 15 years on city council, the last five as mayor.

The Independence Party of Alberta’s Bob Blayone currently lives in Peace River but has committed to moving to the riding if he wins. The Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta’s Javeen Mangat resides in Calgary.

The byelection takes place on Nov. 8.

Dirk’s office is at 621 Second St. SE.