Cypress Hills - Grasslands

Candidates:

Liberal: William Caton

William Caton is the Liberal Party candidate for Cypress Hills-Grasslands.

Caton is a cattle producer in southwest Saskatchewan. He is focused on agriculture and climate action, and says most of the voters he’s spoken to deny that climate change is happening.

“Paul Martin left some safety nets in place and good farm programs, and Harper completely gutted those, so those have to be redone. And they didn't do it in the last term, but they are ready and willing," said Caton.

Caton says he believes in Justin Trudeau’s ability to improve the Canadian economy, promote green energy and says the federal carbon tax will help lower emissions across the country.

Conservative: Jeremy Patzer

Jeremy Patzer is the Conservative Party candidate for Cypress Hills-Grasslands.

Patzer is the incumbent for this riding. He grew up in Frontier, and has worked for SaskTel for 10 years. He has also been involved with the Conservative Party in the riding for several years.

He says the most important Conservative platform point for Cypress Hills-Grasslands is affordability.

“We have a couple of items such as the universal tax cut, which is reducing the first income tax bracket from 15 per cent down to 13.75 per cent,” said Patzer.

He also highlighted removing the GST from home heating and energy bills, along with repealing the carbon tax within the first 100 days.

NDP: Trevor Peterson

Trevor Peterson is the New Democratic Party candidate for Cypress Hills-Grasslands.

Peterson grew up on a farm near Central Butte and has been a teacher for 25 years. He ran for the NDP in the past two federal elections. He says he is focused on policies that protect agricultural producers and small towns.

“Standing up for farmers in trade agreements, that's a huge issue down here. Also the mandate of the canadian grain commission, and protecting our public plant breeding system,” said Peterson.

He wants to create a strong rural economy that creates green focused jobs.

Peterson also added national Pharmacare and expanding medicare to include vision, dental and mental health are important issues for him in this election.

Green: Bill Clary

Bill Clary is the Green Party candidate for Cypress Hills-Grasslands.

Clary is currently semi-retired and works on a farm near Leader. He previously ran for the Green Party federally in 2011 in the Regina-Wascana riding.

Clary says he joined the Green Party because he feels it is the only party that has acknowledged serious climate change challenges.

"The veracity of the science is so clear around climate change, that this notion of having a debate about its legitimacy just seems absurd, when you've got so much science pointing in the direction of the challenges of climate change,” said Clary.

People's Party: Lee Andrew Harding

Lee Harding is the People’s Party of Canada candidate for Cypress Hills-Grasslands.

Harding grew up near Lafleche and currently lives in Swift Current. He worked as a journalist and spent several years lobbying for lower taxes and less government waste for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation throughout the constituency.

"What we want to see, changing equalization and not giving money to private companies. Not throwing too much money abroad, changing immigration,” said Harding.

The People’s party is also looking to restrict foreign aid, defund the CBC, balancing the federal budget and lowering personal taxes.

Independent: Maria Lewans

Maria Lewans is an independent candidate for Cypress Hills-Grasslands.

Lewans is a plumber in Swift Current. She has run for Mayor of Swift Current and provincially for the Green Party in the past.

She is running as an independent because she fells the federal Green Party policies do not go far enough when dealing with climate change.

“Agriculture reform is the biggest thing; I want to get chemicals and fertilizers out of food production. I think we have to go to more sustainable production,” said Lewans.