The new United Conservative Party candidate for Lethbridge-West says she hopes to bring positive change to the riding. Cheryl Seaborn was Lethbridge-West UCP constituency president for approximately three and a half years, until vacating the position in 2022, which is when she began considering running for office.
Seaborn says she had planned to put her name forward this election but backed out because of personal reasons. She stepped forward to run for MLA after the previous UCP candidate, Torry Tanner, resigned.
“It wasn’t as though I hadn’t already been considering it… I was excited to do it and actually really looking forward to representing Lethbridge-West and maybe creating some positive change there and some positive momentum,” Seaborn says. “The challenge really is with making sure that people get to know me and I think that that is where the challenges really lay so ultimately I need to get out to the doors and meet people and help them to see what my vision is and just who I am and what I represent.”
Healthcare and affordability are top of mind for Seaborn, who as a registered nurse, believes her career gives her an understanding of the complexities of healthcare.
“People want access to free public healthcare,” she says. “I am proud to be a part of a party that says that that’s something that they stand behind, that free access to public healthcare.”
Seaborn says the UCP has a plan to address the shortage of healthcare workers and she is happy to continue forward with it if elected.
“Our physician shortage started long before the UCP ever came into power, we already had a physician shortage then. It just wasn’t as publicized — I think COVID really accented that and it’s really a North America-wide phenomenon that we are seeing happen and that’s an interesting thing to see that happen, but again the UCP party, the premier and her caucasus have worked really hard being able to bring physicians to the area,” she says.
She says she supports the UCP’s suspension of the gas tax and utility rebates and the economy is her second biggest concern after healthcare.
“We have poor fiscal policy coming to us from the Liberal-NDP coalition and that is affecting people in a very unique way — people are finding it harder to put gas in their vehicle to go to work, they are finding it hard to feed their families, they are finding it hard to pay their rent or their mortgage, so again happy to be and proud to be part of a United Conservative Party that is looking to help mitigate some of the effects of what the economy is doing,” she says.
Election day will be on May 29.
Keep an eye on our website and listen to 94.1 CJOC for more local Alberta election coverage, including more candidate profiles.
RELATED: Neudorf focusing on affordability, jobs and healthcare