CALGARY- Progressive Conservative leader Jim Prentice spent part of Friday campaigning in High River, a southern Alberta community hit hard by the 2013 flood and located in one of the most interesting political battlegrounds of the provincial election.
The riding will have a new MLA following the May election after Danielle Smith lost her PC nomination race to Okotoks councillor Carrie Fischer. Many Highwood voters say they felt betrayed when Smith left her leadership position with the opposition Wildrose party to join the governing PC party.
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The town is still rebuilding from the disaster, and critics say Prentice is not doing enough to help the community recover.
“I knock on doors and people are crying because they are losing their homes and they can’t get support,” said Wayne Anderson, the Wildrose party’s candidate in the Highwood riding. “Mr. Prentice says he’s going to hire 15 new administrators…well they have yet to hire them. People are upset… the flood issue is still a big issue.”
But Jim Prentice says the province is doing all it can for the community.
“We are dealing with some of the tougher cases now,” said Prentice. “Some of the cases where families were really devastated by the flood and we have good case workers that are on that and doing the best job that they can.”
For her part, the riding’s PC candidate Carrie Fischer says she doesn’t believe flood recovery issues will play a major factor in the May election.
“I’m not hearing the flood factoring into the election at all,” said Fischer. “Not at all in High River.”
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