“… It was talking about how none of the other candidates besides Brian Jean were really (fully campaigning). And that inspired me to … (say) you know, he’s not going to win easily now because I’m here to fight him for this.”
Reimer’s other big reason for running is to stimulate more voter turnout – especially among younger voters. He’s got a Facebook group going online, and hopes to stir up some interest among the traditionally apolitical youth.
As for the issues, Reimer says that he favours a slowdown in oilsands development to let infrastructure catch up. He also supports further reductions in the GST and is opposed to a carbon tax. To read more of his platform, see votereimer.webs.com.
Besides Jean, Reimer and Strydhorst are competing against John Malcolm of the First People’s National Party, Mark Voyageur of the New Democratic Party, John Webb of the Liberal Party and Dylan Richards of the Green Party.
Voters in the Fort McMurray riding now have a regular smorgasbord of candidates to choose from. No less than six people are trying to take incumbent MP Brian Jean’s job away from him. Counting him, it makes seven candidates – although you wouldn’t know it from the array of campaign signs evident around Slave Lake.
The newest (at least to us) candidates on the list are Neerlandia farmer Jacob Strydhorst and Shawn Reimer, a student from Fort McMurray.
Strydhorst represents the Christian Heritage Party, which bills itself as ‘the only pro-life, pro-family party in Canada.’ And he’s not exactly a latecomer to the election. His wife Sya told The Leader last week that Strydhorst was the second name on the list.
Reimer is listed on the Elections Canada website as an independent candidate. Strydhorst’s profile on www.chpelection.ca presents him as an active member of his church, of the Christian Labour Association of Canada and a former hog and dairy farmer who now raises beef cattle, grain and hay. He is married to Sya and they have four children.
“His conviction is that the CHP has the best policy platform, not only for life and family, but in many areas of the mandate of government…” says the profile. “His desire is that ‘the supremacy of God and the rule of law’ ascribed to in the preamble to the Canadian Constitution will again be upheld and honoured.”
In a telephone interview on Oct. 2, Strydhorst said he doesn’t expect to be able to make it to Slave Lake during the campaign.
“I’m still a full-time farmer,” he says. “I’m very limited in what I can do.”
According to Reimer’s campaign website, he’s an 18-year-old university studies student at Keyano College in Fort McMurray. He was motivated to run, he says in a Fort McMurray Today article, when he read an editorial lamenting the lack of competition for incumbent Conservative candidate Brian Jean.

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