Prince Albert MP Randy Hoback campaigned with federal leadership candidate Peter MacKay in Saskatoon Monday.
Hoback was one of three Saskatchewan caucus supporters who joined MacKay in his quest to gain leadership supporters in Saskatoon. He met members and collected ballots at Prairieland Park and at meet and greet events in Saskatoon.
MacKay is considered a frontrunner for the party’s leadership, alongside Erin O’Toole, which was last led by Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer.
Scheer will continue as the party’s interim leader until a new leader is chosen later this month.
Other candidates for party leadership include Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan.
Monday’s day of campaigning was MacKay’s second in the province. He visited Regina earlier on in the campaign. He is, so far, the only leadership candidate to visit Saskatchewan twice.
In addition to Hoback, MacKay was joined by Saskatoon MP Kevin Waugh and Senator Denise Batters, along with former Senator David Tkachuk.
According to a press release, MacKay discussed his eight-point Jobs Plan for Canada and his plan to create a prosperity corridor across the country featuring pipelines to ensure oil and gas products from the prairies can reach international markets. MacKay believes the corridor will ensure increased prosperity across Canada.
MacKay also opposes carbon pricing of any kind, including the regime promised by O’Toole. MacKay has called that plan, which says it will focus on making industry pay and capture all greenhouse gases while not taxing ordinary Canadians, a “carbon tax by another name.”
MacKay is also pledging an expansion of high-speed internet to rural and remote Canada, and acknowledged frustration in western Canada. He says only a Liberal defeat can strengthen national unity.
“Our country’s unity is under more pressure than we have seen in a generation,” MacKay said in a press release.
“With a resurgent Bloc Quebecois in Quebec and a growing Wexit movement in western Canada, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has made Canada more fractured than at any time in recent memory. We will get our country back on track by treating all regions of the country with respect and by focusing on what matters to Canadians — creating jobs, managing our economy and improving the lives of Canadians in all parts of Canada.”
