Despite an overwhelming United Conservative Party victory in the Lacombe and Ponoka riding, New Democratic Party candidate, Doug Hart has completed another season of candidacy after running in five provincial elections and one federal.

“I believe that if you value something you need to publicly affirm it. I’ve been asked by three different party leaders to run for their party over the last twenty-five or thirty years. I’m a social democrat and I am proud to be a social democrat. I believe in sharing and cooperating. I believe the public should own essential services including utilities and that the public is best served by a government that embraces public ownership as opposed to capitalization, privatization, and getting the highest price you can from the citizen,” said Hart on his candidacies.

Doug Hart was a little surprised by the substantial victory that the UCP claimed as he believed that the New Democratic Party had social policies that put them above the United Conservative Party.

“I didn’t think they were all of the same ilks. I didn’t think that even though they claimed to have a big tent I didn’t think that everybody who was in their tent shared the same values but apparently, jobs, the economy, and fighting Trudeau resonates with a lot of people,” said Hart after the election results.

Heading forward, Hart imagines that every party will be considering the fastest and most efficient way of getting the pipeline built to improve the economy and jobs but he does suspect that the UCP party have unforeseen challenges ahead.

“Prices are back up to double what they were in 2016 and so that’s optimistic, but to hope for 100-dollar oil in the near future I think is unrealistic.”

In many respects, Hart believes that the NDP were blamed for things beyond their control.

“I think the NDP did a wonderful job at a time when we were facing enormous challenges. People blame the NDP government for unemployment and people blame the NDP government for the recession but oil prices started dropping eight months before Rachel Notley was elected and Jim Prentiss called the early election because he could see the writing on the wall.”

In the meantime, Hart is not prepared to let the social policies of the New Democratic Party go by the wayside and is prepared to fight for some of the NDP’s strongest policies as the opposition party.

“I think Rachel Notley did a wonderful job I am proud of the work she did in four years. I am sorry she didn’t get a second mandate I think she deserved one but I am sure the NDP will form a strong opposition and keep the UCP leader’s feet to the fire. We will hold him accountable for social policy as well as economic policy. I do worry about schools, hospitals, and other public services.”

Although Hart is certainly disappointed by the results, he couldn’t really say whether we’d be seeing Hart signs up again in the next election.

“I didn’t think you’d see them up this election but I was proud of my team. I thought we mobilized a good campaign. We run a very frugal campaign; we spend under 10,000 dollars in our election campaign. Our cost per vote was under two dollars and both the conservatives and the wild rose cost is over five dollars per vote and so I am very proud of that. We run a clean ethical campaign with integrity and we say what we mean and do what we say.”

In the end, no matter what your political affiliation is, this long-time campaigner’s spirit and dedication to his beliefs is something to be both admired and sought after.