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Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs back in Familiar Territory
Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs back in Familiar Territory
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs has been elected three times in the Riding of Lakeland and is currently campaigning for re-election.
The Vegreville News Advertiser caught up with Stubbs in the Village of Chipman, not too far down the road from where she grew up. Spotting the hitching post next to the Chipman Hotel on Main Street, she recalled riding her horse to town, hitching up and going to get slushies. “It was not unusual at all to see three or four horses tied up there all the time.”
She also reminisced about returning to her childhood home back in the fall of 2019 when she was also on the campaign trail. The new owners of the property gave her and her husband Shayne Saskiw a tour, and gifted Shannon with her old saddle rack. “It’s at our place now with saddles on it.”
She remembered Ross and Veronica Cossey let her ride their old gelding Rusty before she had her own horse. Shannon was a member of the Chipman Light Horse 4-H Club before it became the Elk Island Light Horse 4-H Club.
Besides horses, Shannon developed a love of politics and worked as an assistant for former Conservative MP Deb Grey who was Canada’s first-ever female Leader of the Official Opposition, serving in that position from March to September 2000. Grey retired from elected office after winning four straight elections. While Grey was a great mentor, Stubbs has earned great respect amongst voters. In 2019, voters in Lakeland elected her with the highest vote percentage of any female MP in Canadian history.
She has also earned the respect of her peers, receiving the Maclean’s Parliamentarian of the Year Award as the MP who ‘Best Represents Constituents.’ When asked what it feels like to be in Chipman, Stubbs replied, “It feels like home. I was just telling Shayne on the way here that in my job the last 10 years, I always know and at the top of my mind is that this is who I am, and this is who I try to represent to the best of my abilities. People here, around Chipman and Lamont, their values, their priorities. Luckily, this is representative of the views across Lakeland.”
As to why she decided to run again? Stubbs stated, “What I hope is that I have proven in my words and in my actions that I can be the best advocate for the people of Lakeland; for our priorities, our values, our businesses and our communities. I have spent every waking moment over the last decade fighting for our people in Lakeland, internally, externally, privately and publicly.”
Stubbs feels this is a pivotal time in Canadian history. “I believe that this election is the most consequential for Canadians and Lakeland certainly in my lifetime. So, I hope I can earn the trust and confidence of the people of Lakeland again to continue to fight for them and for our riding which is more important now than ever.”
She added, “It is absolutely the most important election for future generations and for younger Canadians. The anti-development policies, the tax hikes, the gatekeeping, the red tape of the last decade; that has done the exact opposite of what the Liberals and their backers have said. It has hurt vulnerable people the most. It has made the working poor and people on low income, fixed income, even more vulnerable. It has hollowed out the middle class. It has driven out hundreds of millions of dollars of investment into the United States, including sending jobs and businesses and technology with it.
Now, Canada is so extraordinarily vulnerable, not because of the last two months or the external threats going on, but precisely because of what the federal government has done to our country, especially our province and the communities I represent in the last decade.
So, I hope Canadians right across the country know that this is the election to make the choice for future generations and for young Canadians who deserve to have the same kind of opportunities and jobs and hope for their futures that generations had before them.”
