Maverick Party candidate Ambrose Ralph (Photo: Ambrose Ralph / Facebook)

By Shaun Penner

Maverick Party

Ambrose Ralph pleased with foundation laid by Maverick Party in first election

Sep 21, 2021 | 8:21 AM

Grande Prairie-Mackenzie Maverick Party candidate Ambrose Ralph says while he was pleased with his campaign overall and the overall support for his young party, he was disappointed to see another Liberal minority be declared.

Ralph, who completed his first ever election campaign over the past 36 days, says he knew it was an uphill battle to take the Grande Prairie riding from incumbent Chris Warkentin. However, he feels he and his party took the first step in the building process.

As of Tuesday morning, the Maverick Party had not earned a seat in the House of Commons.

“We came in here with expectations to build a foundation,” said Ralph. “It goes back to exactly what the Reform Party did in the 90’s. The Reform Party at that point went into an election and never won a seat but built a strong foundation and a strong base.

“And that’s exactly what we’re doing with the Maverick Party.”

Ralph spent much of his campaign taking aim at the Conservative Party of Canada and Warkentin, accusing the party of moving to a “Liberal-lite” platform.

He feels his campaign was able to send a message to the MP-elect that there are many grassroots conservatives in the riding.

“Our goal here was to put pressure on Mr. Warkentin to stop moving to the left, and I believe we have accomplished that,” he said. “He was forced to go out and campaign, and that is what our goal was.”

With Warkentin earning a sixth term in office, Ralph hopes Warkentin will push for reform on certain policies, such as the carbon tax and the fiscal stabilization formula.

“Our lives matter too, not just Toronto and Quebec. We are not happy with the carbon tax… we are not happy with equalization, and it’s up to Mr. Warkentin to make sure all of the constituents, as he is serving all of the constituents in this riding, not just the ones that are voting for him.”

With very little change in the makeup of Parliament compared to prior to the election, Ralph called this election a $600 million “waste of time”.

“It wasn’t necessary in a pandemic,” he said. “Going to the voting booths today and seeing the struggles of the staff that were working there, I want to commend them for what they are doing and working a pandemic election,” said Ralph. “But it was an absolute waste of time. We are exactly where we were before.”

Ralph says he will now take time to consider whether he will run when a federal election is called again. However, he said the people of the Peace Region have not heard the last of him regardless.

“As a political activist, I am not going anywhere. My voice is loud around the Peace Region, and it is going to stay that way.”

(With files from Jeff Henson)