After spending the latter half of 2015 getting adjusted to political life in Ottawa, Peace River-Westlock MP Arnold Viersen is looking forward to what 2016 will bring.
Since his victory in the Oct. 19 federal vote, the rookie MP has already sat in Parliament as part of the Official Opposition.
In his two months on the job, Viersen said he’s been adjusting to the role of holding public office.
“It’s been a steep learning curve, but we’re definitely going to hold the Liberals’ feet to the fire on a lot of things,” Viersen said.
“Getting to be the representative for Peace River-Westlock and sitting in the House of Commons, for me personally, has been a huge honour and privilege.
“I’ve stood up in the House already and spoke to the concerns of agriculture and I hope to continue to do that when the House is sitting.”
In November the 29-year-old mechanic from the Barrhead area was named to the Tory shadow cabinet as the deputy critic for the rural affairs portfolio.
“It wasn’t something that I was expecting, seeing as I’m new to the Hill. I thought I’ll be able to settle in a little bit, learn the ropes,” Viersen said.
“To get thrown into the deputy-critic role is a real honour and it provides me with a lot of opportunity just to be a strong voice for our area.”
After his first session, the Neerlandia native is now home for the holidays while Parliament is on recess.
When the House returns at the end of January, Viersen said work will continue.
“We’re concerned that rural Canada seems to be left out of [the Liberals’] whole plan. There was no mention of agriculture, the forestry industry and softwood lumber,” he said.
“They don’t seem to be concerned about these things at all. That’s going to be something we continue to push hard on.”
Outside of that responsibility, Viersen said the upcoming year will be focused on addressing the issues of his constituents.
Among those will be continuing to welcome Syrian refugees into Canada and lobbying the government to support pipeline projects.
“Syrian refugees, welcoming them to Canada and welcoming them into our communities – that’s going to continue to be a top priority for this government and we’re going to have to work with all levels of government to ensure we’re open, welcoming and hospitable,” Viersen said.
“Pipelines continue to be an issue for us, we’re definitely looking to this government to push hard on getting some pipeline approval happening. It’s not something they’ve seemed real willing to move on.”
Viersen said with the current tanker moratorium in place on the west coast it nullifies western pipeline projects.
“We’re still pushing for the Energy East Pipeline, we’ll see where they go on that,” he said.
Another issue with local implications is the Canada-United States softwood lumber agreement that expired in October.
“We’ll be watching that very closely to see if the Americans do anything on the softwood lumber and we may need to be in negotiations with that again,” he said.
“That’s something that’s for our area, Slave Lake, La Crete, Peace River, Whitecourt — the lumber industry is huge in those places.”
