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Arnold Viersen seeking re-election this fall

Incumbent Arnold Viersen has officially announced that he will run for a second term as the MP for the Peace River-Westlock riding.
Viersen Head Shot
Bernard Thibodeau

Incumbent Arnold Viersen has officially announced that he will run for a second term as the MP for the Peace River-Westlock riding.

Viersen was first elected in 2015 as the first MP of the newly-created Peace River-Westlock constituency, which was created by merging together parts of the old Peace River, Fort McMurray-Athabasca and Westlock-St. Paul ridings.

Viersen ran on behalf of the Conservative Party of Canada and he will do so again in the upcoming federal election, which is slated to take place on Monday, Oct. 21.

“Canadians will have a very clear choice this fall between the Liberal plan to tax and spend or the Conservative plan to help Canadians get ahead,” said Viersen, in a release.

“One thing is very clear: Alberta needs representatives who will be strong advocates in Ottawa for our way of life. I am running again to ensure that Northern Alberta has a homegrown voice standing up for the things we care about, including resource development, farming and firearms ownership.”

In addition to his normal duties as an MP, Viersen has also served as a member of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. He also served two years as Deputy Rural Affairs Critic and two years as the Deputy Critic of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED).

One of his notable achievements as an MP was introducing Motion M-47, which instructed the Standing Committee on Health to study the public health effects on children, women and men from the easy access to “violent and degrading sexually explicit material” on the Internet.

Numerous organizations that seek to reduce violence towards women and bullying came out in support of Motion M-47, including the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, the Retaeh Parsons Society, the Native Women’s Association of Canada and End Child Pornography.

As well, Viersen recently introduced Bill C-463, the Putting Victims First Act, which would amend the Criminal Code of Canada to allow youth victims of sexual exploitation to more easily lift publication bans on their own names.

The legislation was also aimed at offering more protection to victims of sexual exploitation who are teenagers, as well as making it harder for human traffickers to apply for bail.

Prior to his political career, Viersen worked as a mechanic for Stephani Motors in Barrhead, having earned a journeyman ticket from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. He also has a business degree from the University of Fraser Valley (UFV) in B.C.

Viersen was born and raised in the Neerlandia area and graduated from the Covenant Canadian Reformed School. He is married with three children.

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