Edmonton Centre Liberal candidate Eleanor Olszewski speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about running in the upcoming election.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Michael Higgins: A lot of focus this week on parties dropping candidates, but it was Edmonton Centre, where Liberal candidate and incumbent Randy Boissonnault dropped off the ballot on the day before the election. You were drafted in afterwards. What happened?
Eleanor Olszewski: it was Randy’s personal decision to decide to withdraw from the campaign. I know what my job is and that’s to continue the amazing advocacy and the strong voice that he was for the people of Edmonton Centre. You’ve talked to Randy before, he’s a never ending source of energy.
MH: You were originally Edmonton Strathcona. Does that become at all confusing for voters?
EO: I don’t think so. I have run in Edmonton Strathcona before but I’m a practicing lawyer in downtown Edmonton and I lived in Edmonton Centre for many, many years.
I was door knocking a couple of days ago and I was right across the street from the school where my son went, Westminster, so there’s a lot of nostalgia. I lived in Edmonton Centre for a very long period of time and raised my family there.
MH: Alberta is obviously a conservative stronghold, and as you say, you are familiar with Edmonton Centre. It is a riding it has flipped back and forth between the Liberals and the Conservatives over the past years. What gives you the confidence to run as a Liberal in that riding?
EO: I think it just goes without saying that times have changed. The ballot issue really is, who’s the best person to stand up to President Trump and the threat of tariffs and the threats to our economic sovereignty?
I have no hesitation in saying that I believe Prime Minister Mark Carney is the man to do that, and very excited about being part of a team that would move his plan forward. His plan for strengthening our country and dealing with the threat that President Trump poses at the present time.
MH: What do you prioritize when you’re door knocking? What’s the first thing that you hit when you encounter a new voter?
EO: I want to introduce myself and tell voters a little bit about myself but I find this election different than when I campaigned before. And by that I mean a lot of voters that I talk to, when they come to the door, they already know what’s at stake with respect to our sovereignty.
For a lot of voters, they already know they’re going to be supporting Mark Carney and they believe that he has the gravitas and the experience with the global economies, the experience with Brexit and the financial crisis of 2008, and they won’t really ask me anything. They just tell me that they’re going to be supporting Prime Minister Carney.
That’s different, being a Liberal in Alberta. That’s different than what I’m used to.
MH: How do you respond to voter anxiety over questions of the impact of the tariffs, of the threat of annexation. How do you calm that voter?
EO: You raise a really good point. You mentioned the word anxiety and I see a lot of anxiety at the door. The counter to that is just to remind people that, if they’re watching what Prime Minister Carney has done over the past couple of weeks, they’ll see that he started out with a plan to strengthen our country and over the last couple of weeks, virtually every single day he’s added an initiative that he wants to take.
To me, all of those initiatives, they’re substantive and they’re sensible and they all support the main goals, which is to strengthen our economy, to protect our borders, protect our sovereignty, to invest in the Canadian Army, and most importantly, to protect Canadian families.
The prime minister has done a number of things in the last few days to address the issue of affordability as well because he has made the point that an economy just isn’t about numbers on a piece of paper. An economy is something that has to work for the people, and so he’s taken a number of steps to make sure that things will be more affordable, not just for Albertans, but for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
Certainly putting an end to the carbon tax was one of them, and then proposing middle income tax cuts as well, and GST reduction on homes.
MH: As a prospective MP, how would you handle relationships with an Alberta government?
EO: I would like to see those relationships improve. It’s unhelpful when the premier of our province and others in her government are antagonistic towards the federal government.
I understand wanting to protect the oil and gas industry. This is a fundamental part of Alberta’s economy and it’s going to be so for many years to come. It’s important, not just for Albertans, but for other Canadian provinces who are going to be depending on us, and for countries that we’re going to ship our oil and gas to as well.
So part of what I would like to accomplish is to be a strong voice from Alberta for the oil and gas industry, to work with the province, but to be a constructive voice, as opposed to a confrontational, negative voice.
