Maguire seeking re-election in 2019

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This article was published 13/12/2018 (1960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Conservative MP Larry Maguire says he plans on seeking re-election in Brandon-Souris, as his party sets its sights on winning back the House of Commons in 2019.

Speaking to The Brandon Sun by phone from Ottawa, Maguire said he has enjoyed representing the people of Brandon-Souris and would like to help get Canada back on track, whether it’s on the national deficit, getting pipelines built, eliminating the carbon tax or tackling crime.

“I take nothing for granted in any election, and so you have to work hard all the time,” he said.

“It’ll be my 10th election, if you count provincial, Wheat Board elections and the federal elections that I’ve been involved in, and I don’t know of anybody in our national caucus that’s been involved in 10 elections before. So I certainly bring experience to the table here in Ottawa and on behalf of the constituents of my rural and urban area.”

Maguire was first elected as the MP for Brandon-Souris in a close 2013 byelection, in which he narrowly won with 44.2 per cent of the vote and defeated second-place Liberal candidate Rolf Dinsdale by only 389 ballots.

In 2015, Maguire won re-election with a 50.3 per cent share of the ballots and a 5,328-vote lead over Liberal candidate Jodi Wyman.

Prior to that, he served in the Manitoba legislature as the Progressive Conservative MLA for Arthur-Virden, winning in the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections.

He is also the past president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association and was elected twice to the Canadian Wheat Board Advisory Committee.

Maguire said he believes the country’s finances will play heavily in the next federal election, with the Liberal government in Ottawa running “deficits as far as the eye can see,” despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promising he would balance the budget in his first term.

The federal government’s fall fiscal update released in November showed the national deficit is projected to be $18.1 billion this current fiscal year and will increase to $19.6 billion in 2019-20, before dropping to $11.4 billion in 2023-24. The government is expecting to eliminate the deficit by 2045.

Drawing similarities to when the former Manitoba NDP government ran deficits and increased the PST, Maguire said: “We’re going to end up with a situation where the interest on the debt will end up being nearly more money than spent on health care if we keep going this way across the Canadian budget, as well.”

Maguire also criticized the federal government’s carbon tax — adding people on fixed incomes, including seniors, can’t afford to pay another tax — and said Canada needs to build more pipelines.

“It makes no sense that we can’t move our oil products and our fuel products from one side of Canada to the other, when we’re allowing oil (in) from countries who really don’t process it as well,” he said.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has yet to unveil a plan for the environment, but Maguire said something will be announced next spring.

Maguire also denounced the Liberal government’s firearms legislation — which expanded background checks and required gun retailers to keep sales and inventory records for at least 20 years — for targeting law-abiding firearms owners instead of going after criminals.

Earlier this month in Winnipeg, Scheer announced a series of proposals that formed part of his A Safer Canada strategy, including cost-shared anti-gang law-enforcement initiatives with the provinces and territories, a grant program to help municipal police forces buy new equipment, improving the exchange of information between police agencies on guns found at crime scenes, strengthening backgrounds checks for people applying for gun licences, increasing funding for the Youth Gang Prevention Fund by 25 per cent and making retraining programs for inmates more effective.

In November, Maguire held a series of town halls across Westman to gather ideas on how to address rural crime and recently submitted a list of 13 recommendations to the federal standing committee on public safety and national security.

Maguire’s decision to seek re-election comes as his colleague, Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa Conservative MP Robert Sopuck, announced this year he would not be running again.

Maguire said it has been a pleasure working with Sopuck, particularly when it came to conservation and wildlife initiatives.

“He is a very well-educated person in regards to those areas, and his practical experience just adds to that. He’s brought a lot of depth to that part of it and his agricultural knowledge to our rural area has been exemplary, as well.”

Maguire also welcomed former Keystone Agricultural Producers president Dan Mazier, who received the Conservative nomination for Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa in November.

» mlee@brandonsun.com

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