Chris Warkentin was re-elected as Grande Prairie-Mackenzie MP in October's federal election. Photo by Emily Keller.

By Curtis Galbraith

Federal Politics

Year-End Interview: Chris Warkentin

Dec 24, 2019 | 4:30 AM

2019 was a busy year in federal politics.

The SNC Lavalin scandal was followed by an election that saw the Liberals re-elected with a minority, then Green leader Elizabeth May and Conservative leader Andrew Scheer stepping down.

Grande Prairie-Mackenzie MP Chris Warkentin says the election results in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where the Conservatives won all but one riding, sent a message to Ottawa.

“The current government is not responding and, quite frankly, (is) making life difficult for people who live here in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and, really, in other parts of Western Canada as well.”

“We saw that sentiment, really in other parts of the country as well, with the rise of the separatist Bloc in Quebec and, of course, our party made breakthroughs in places that we had lost seats in 2015.”

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Warkentin says a minority government is a chance.to hold the government accountable and “will force the Prime Minister to start responding to the expectations of Canadians.”

He adds Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent months defending SNC Lavalin, a company that has since admitted in court to fraud and corruption charges.

Warkentin thinks this is just the beginning.

“We know, because of other trials that are ongoing around the world, that this company has been engaged in some of the most grotesque behaviour and, yet, the Prime Minister went out on a limb to really use significant political capital and, quite frankly, goes so far as to break rules and the law to defend this company just to save a few thousand jobs.”

“Here in the Peace Country, and across the Province of Alberta, we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people being impacted, over 100,000 people in the energy sector that have lost their jobs over the last number of years.”

A former SNC executive was also convicted of charges in a bribery case by a jury.

Warkentin says his party will continue to advocate for farmers.

Poor weather meant a lot of crop stayed in the field and a lot of hay was of poor quality.

Warkentin adds grain, livestock, even honey producers have also been hit hard by international trade disputes and many are worried about their operations surviving.

“We do believe that government does have a role to play in terms of protecting the interests of farmers and providing a path forward and so, we’re going to continue to call on the government to intervene and to help make what is a horrible situation a little bit better.”

“We know the government can’t fix the weather, they can’t fix the markets, but there are things they can do to open up markets.”

Warkentin says the government can help out by resolving debt repayment issues on government programs.

He adds it has been “interesting to watch” what has happened since Andrew Scheer stepped down as Conservative leader.

He says there are a number of rumours going around about people wanting to run to replace Scheer.

“So, it should be an exciting leadership race. Leadership races are opportunities for parties to rethink who they are and the efforts that they will undertake in the coming election. We are in a position of a minority government, we are not sure when the next election might come and so we have to be expeditious in terms of picking our leader and very wise in terms of finding somebody that is ready to go, somebody who is in a position where they can fight an election in short order.”

Warkentin believes the next federal election could come “a lot sooner than people expect.”