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Dan Albas, the incumbent candidate in the contest for Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola, likes campaigning door to door, even when he encounters those who might not be supporters. He said his first responsibility is to listen.
Albas came knocking at the offices of KelownaNow for the latest in our candidate interviews for the upcoming federal election.
Dan Albas said, one of the most important elements of being a good MP is listening to people's concerns regardless of political affiliation. "Whoever ends up going to Ottawa should represent the entire riding," he said. "People need to hear that their representatives care about their issues even if it's not natural to their party." So when he meets a staunch Liberal on their doorstep? "They give me something to chew on," said Albas with a smile. He puts accessibility and accountability at the top of his list when it comes to serving his constituents.
"I really try to be as accessible as I can," Albas said. "I like to be accountable to people and so I also do a weekly MP report."
As for effectiveness, he's proud of the work he did on behalf of a wine industry stymied by barriers to sales to residents outside BC.
"In my first term I was able to pass a private members bill with the support of many, many people," he recalled, "to break down interprovincial trade barriers."
Albas later went on to act as deputy critic of the finance portfolio.
In our interview here at KelownaNow, it was Albas who brought the conversation toward the issue of climate change. A subject that other Conservative candidates sometimes avoid.
"Many people here in urban areas want to see more infrastructure for charging electric cars, that's an important step. How does that relate to people in Logan Lake and Princeton? Well, they have copper mines. And there's four times the amount of copper in an electric vehicle than in regular vehicles."
Albas doesn't shy away from the topic at all.
"Climate change is real, it's mainly factored by industrial activity, caused by humans," he acknowledged. But he's in line with his party's policy on the carbon tax, however, arguing that it's too costly in terms of international competitiveness. "Canada is a trading country," said Albas, "and if the cost of our products become more expensive than our competitors, that's going to leave us poor."
Albas said the Liberal government has left us less competitive.
We go to the polls on October 21.
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