City of Grande Prairie Council Candidate Profile: Craig Reid
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Craig Reid is one of over 20 residents running for a City Council position.
He was asked to answer the following four questions with a 600-word limit.
1. What has inspired you to run for mayor/council/school trustee in the Oct. 20, 2025, municipal election?
I’m in communication daily with many young families and small businesses that are struggling and just see hard or harder times ahead and they are getting burned out. Since I’m at a place in my life where my family are all grown up and doing their thing, I can afford time to speak for these Grande Prairie families and businesses and stand up for them. I speak for a young family that came here from overseas in 2018 and their family has grown to 4 children and they are struggling big time. The father works 2 jobs and is at work 7 days per week. The mother works 5 days per week and has weekends to manage the household and they are getting burned out. In 2020 they could buy a family pack of ground beef for $12-$14 and now it’s $28 to $30. They used to buy apples for $1.50/lbs and now those apples are $3.00/lbs. 100 increase. That’s their real inflation. So when their rent goes up because property taxes went up, it hurts and they don’t understand because they see a list of all the things property tax money goes to and they are confused because they don’t use most of those services but they still have to pay for when they have to sacrifice so many things as a family and struggle to put food on their table. Another family who were raised in the Grande Prairie area and have bought a home on the south side of Grande Prairie, have 3 little girls and he makes good money in the oilfield but they still struggle to put food on their table and make mortgage payments, car payments and insurance. The dad wonders why, when he is trying to do the right thing, are they being punished and squeezed and forced to pay for things in their property taxes and income taxes that they never use. He asks himself why is he trying so hard to provide a nice life for his family when he gets penalized at every angle. He thinks that if they didn’t have extended family here, they maybe would have an easier time surviving if they lived in the US.