Residents of new Banff-Kananaskis riding look for candidates to tend to unique needs

Most people take the Trans-Canada Highway to the mountains to get away and escape the chaos of everyday life. 

It's this Alberta destination that brings people from across the world to the mountain towns of Lake Louise, Canmore and Banff and Kananaskis Country.

But residents aren't there to vacation. They support visitors and have built a home in the Bow Valley. And for the upcoming election, they are looking for a candidate who can support their "live, work and play" environment. 

"This is, I think, a hidden gem," said Lowell Harder.

He's a business owner in Bragg Creek, an area he says is somewhat of a bedroom community for Calgary but also has a lot to offer on its own — and is at the doorstep of the mountains. 

Ask the locals what they want from a government and you will hear a lot about traffic and environmental concerns like the increasing wildfire risk.

When it comes to flood mitigation, there are people here, Harder included, who aren't happy with the NDP's decision to go ahead with the Springbank dry dam.

"When a provincial party campaigns on something and says they are going to reverse a decision that impacts voters and right after an election reverses course — that broken promise isn't appreciated," Harder said. 

Other priorities include the four-way stop at the intersection of Highway 22 — known as the Cowboy Trail — and White Avenue in the town. Local businesses have held that this congested stop isn't just dangerous and overtaxed because of the summertime traffic. It's also taking away from business.

An hour away, tourism and housing come up in a conversation with Cheryl Cooper, co-chair of the Bow Valley Chamber of Commerce. 

"A lot of the challenges we've been facing have to do with the whole effort to diversify our economy," Cooper said. "People come here with the idea that they would love to join the Bow Valley and be a part of our amazing community — but it's very expensive to live here."

She gives the current government credit for meeting with the business community about some of the concerns they have but says action is slow.

Especially on getting Canmore and Banff recognized as resort towns — something that she says would give the area a funding mechanism to invest in infrastructure and other improvements to help handle the influx of visitors. 

"What they need to do is reward those areas of the province that are sustaining our economy right now," she said. "Getting support for different aspects of our economy is really essential." 

The new Banff-Kananaskis riding is mostly made up of communities working in the tourism industry. It's a shift from what the district looked like in the 2015 election. 

It's a redistribution of an electoral district created in the 1940s that's been known as the Banff-Cochrane riding since the 1970s. 

The new boundary doesn't include Cochrane — a town with more than 25,000 residents. Instead, Cochranites will now vote in the Airdrie-Cochrane riding in 2019. Kananaskis Country is moving from the Livingstone-Macleod riding, and Springbank was added to the constituency.

According to the last electoral boundary report from the province, these changes were made to group the Bow Valley mountain communities together instead of mixing them with agricultural interests of the Foothills communities around them. 

The riding also will have two First Nations reserves: the Stoney Nakoda and Tsuut'ina Nation, which, the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission said, would give a stronger Indigenous voice throughout the riding. 

The old riding of Banff-Cochrane had been held by the Progressive Conservatives since the '70s. But in 2015, first-time runner Cam Westhead took the riding for the New Democratic Party. 

I'm really proud of my track record. I'm proud of the things that I've accomplished.- Cam Westead, MLA for the Banff-Cochrane riding

Before running for the party, Westhead was a nurse. He said he always pictured a future in politics as a child and was partly inspired to run after seeing the way his community in Bragg Creek came together in the 2013 floods. 

Westhead said he's been campaigning since September. 

"I'm really proud of my track record," he said. "I'm proud of the things that I've accomplished." 

He rattles off improvements to the Kananaskis area, flood mitigation projects as well as affordable housing initiatives — all things his constituents told CBC they are looking for as they consider who to vote for in 2019.

While his volunteers plan for an evening of door knocking, he's sure to tell them he only has a few hours before his appointment to cross-country ski with the Canmore Young Adult Network at the Nordic Centre. 

In another corner of the riding, Miranda Rosin — a United Conservative Party candidate who won her nomination late in October — heads out with a young team of volunteers to door knock. 

On a Monday night, she's canvassing in Elbow Valley, a community just outside of Calgary in Rockyview County. 

'The riding is big'

It's dark and the country retreat is lined with parklands. The community is dotted with signs that read "Private Property" and "No Trespassing" in well-designed green and yellow signs. 

"Our riding is so diverse, given it encompasses over 12 separate, full communities," she said. "The riding is big, and it's daunting." 

At the doors, she says, residents are talking to her about the carbon tax, small business and the effect of minimum wages along with concerns about the provincial debt. 

UCP candidate plans to make people 'proud to be Albertan again'

Rosin says her constituents are conservative, and they will get more answers about the UCP platform in a few weeks, the platform will be a positive way forward for them.

"I'm excited to bring our positive conservative vision for our riding," she said. "We're going to get people proud to be Albertan again." 

Earlier, at the Cinnamon Spoon, a local Bragg Creek coffee shop in the same strip as the Shell Gas station, a barista points out three men at a table. 

Coffee shop talk

They have all the time to talk about politics and aren't shy until a voice recorder comes out. One of them talks at length about his concern with the provincial debt — but he doesn't want to give his name. 

However, Tom Walker, who was a photographer in Calgary for years, pipes up. He says he's always voted conservative but there's more to it than party lines. He says he's not done seeing the conservatives out of power.

"I'm going to look for an opportunity to let the conservatives know that they haven't fooled me," he said. "I'm torn, I'm ready to let them try again. But I'm ready to see if the conservatives can really reinvent themselves, not just in the name alone."

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