麻豆传媒AV

REGINA - Jeffrey Walters, candidate for the Liberal Party in Regina-Wascana, feels optimistic about the party’s chances in the 2025 federal election.

“Things are going actually very, very well,” said Walters, noting that he is picking up a different mood from voters towards the Liberals.

“Relative to 2021, it's very civil out there, which is something that's been missing for a long time, I think. I was in Saskatchewan and it was kind of dicey for a long period of time, but things have turned around and even Conservatives who are, you know, unabashed Conservatives have been, you know, relatively nice to us. We're not used to this kind of thing as Liberals.”

Walters has his own sense of why that change in mood is out there in Regina.

So it's a new climate. And I think that people are genuinely, you know, rehashing in “Well, existential crises has a tendency to bring us all together,” Walters said. “

And I think that for the most part, we now understand that since November, we're probably in a new world — the old world has been shifted.”

What Walters was referring to was the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, and his focus on tariffs and trade wars and musings about Canada as a 51st State.

“And we have to start thinking where we actually fit in this new world,” Walters said. “And I think that for that, it's much more important than just saying we hate Justin Trudeau or we hate the carbon tax, which are no longer issues. And we can start focusing on things that truly matter policy, what we can expand on to help our citizens and just where we're going to be and who our new allies are and how we can reconfigure ourselves in this new age.”

Walters has been active with the Liberals particularly at the provincial level, where he has stood for election and also served as provincial Liberal leader from 2021 to 2023. The reason he got involved, he said, was because of the struggles his family faced in getting a correct diagnosis for the health problems afflicting one of his daughters.

“It turns out that she has Parkinson's. And for a young person at that time when she was preteen and going into her teens, it was almost unheard of,” said Walters. 

“But it's not something that could not have been easily diagnosed had the health care system been properly functioning. When you have to wait three years just to get a genetics test, you know that something's wrong.”

He said what sparked him to get into politics was a conversation he had one day with his father-in-law sitting across from him. 

“And he's an old political hand from Moose Jaw,” Walters said. “He looks at me, he goes, ‘well, you know, instead of bitching about it, just go off your ass and do something about it.’ You know, very farm language.”

The next day, he said, he joined the Liberals and offered himself as a candidate for the provincial election. 

“So that's essentially what it's about. You know, it's too late for my daughter, but there's a lot of families out there that are suffering because we're not properly funding certain things that help benefit their lives, which we should be. And really, that's what government is for, right? The greatest good for the greatest number of people, not how they can somehow turn a profit for certain people.”

In terms of the top issues and what he wants to see happen, Walters pointed to the tariffs and trade issue and said what was needed was “a reconfiguration of how we work within Canada and how Canada is projected in the world.”

“And that means more east-west relations as opposed to north-south. So rather than relying on, let's say, our neighbours to the south that we have for so long, pretty much since NAFTA and probably a little bit before, it's not serving us well now in the chaos that we have. And so getting east-west relations… would strengthen that exponentially.”

Walters said it is  “more about recreating and reimagining Canada in a certain way to make us stronger so we're not so reliant on one major power, to the whims of that one major power, should they themselves become unstable and chaotic.”

Other issues Walters finds important is $10 a day daycare. 

“I mean, it's a big deal. We've had five kids,” Walters said. We recognize how expensive daycare can be, and not everybody is perhaps as comfortable as we are now to be able to absorb that, and it's a big deal for a lot of families. Those are the types of things that can be at least expanded on to a certain extent to ensure that it just doesn't disappear, because there's a shelf life for this, right? And a lot of families are depending on it.”

He also pointed to dental care, “especially with seniors and newly landed immigrants,” he said, and programs such as the Child Tax Benefit and PharmaCare.

Walters also pointed to the need to “have certain sober second thoughts on how we're spending,” as well as the housing issue. 

On fentanyl, Walters pointed to the need for federal money to go to the provinces to the areas where that issue can be directly addressed.

“So again, it just takes a bit of reimagining and a way to ensure that money is not just disappearing into the ether, but it's going to where it should be. And so when it goes circling back to addictions, it's not just about trying to reduce harm, it's not just about trying to stop it at the border, because addictions is much more than just fentanyl. It's about creating an entirely macro support system to be able to try and filter that out slowly but surely out of our society.”

On the removal of the consumer carbon tax Walters said “setting that back to zero consumer-wise was the smart move, because even if policies are the best things in the world, ultimately governments are supposed to be representative of the people.” As for the industrial carbon tax, “I think that the idea is for the Carney government to really sit down and really rethink how we're going to affect climate change, how the policies are going to work. There's going to be a complete and utter rehaul that's not going to look anything like we've seen before… So it's more a sit down after all things are said and done, right, with his team Canada, which is what he wants, and trying to hammer out something that is much more conducive to and more pliable for the citizens, of course, voters, people like us, but also enough that it actually will make a difference. There's a fine line in that. But it will be reimagined for sure. “

More particular to Regina, he said, is the need to have representation in the federal government at the caucus table.

“The silver bullet for us here in Saskatchewan, and this is really what the election is probably hinging on, is that we need to get back to the points where we have representation in government once again, the ruling government, to try and advocate for things that are specific to Saskatchewan or even with Regina.”

He pointed to housing as an example. “Certain things, if they're creating policy in Ottawa, they will create the policy and the different sections or whatnot based upon those who are advocating for it. So if it's Toronto Centre and Atlantic Canada who have the representation, then the policies will tend to show that.

“If you don't have a seat at the table, like Saskatchewan, they don't get your input. And if we don't have the input, then we don't really have a say in how these policies are created. So for example, something that would work in Regina-Wascana, let's say just typical zoning things or whatever that's specific here for housing in particular, is much different than say Toronto Centre. 

“But if there's nobody at the seat at the table, let's say a Ralph Goodale like we used to have, we used to do that quite effectively. If we don't have that, they don't hear it.

And if they don't hear it, there's no advocacy. And I think that also feeds into a lot of Western grievance because we don't feel like we're being heard. But the issue is that it's because we don't have somebody that's advocating for us in government that can help shape those policies that can be specific to Saskatchewan and Regina needs.”

On the election itself in Regina-Wascana, Walters calls it “a true toss-up. There's no doubt about it.”

“Like, it can go one way or the other, and we're not just saying that. It literally is a toss-up here. It's just more of really getting out our vote.”

Because it's a close race, Walters said, it's “just a matter of getting the vote out as much as we can and identifying people who will probably vote Liberal but still have that fear of voting Liberal and just kind of celebrating that, you know, at the very least, at the very least, there can be a Liberal Party that can compete and can, in fact, win again. And we lost that with Ralph (Goodale), but we can get there again.”

He said the campaign has been “hectic, but it's well worth it.”

“No matter what the outcome is, I think that we're building something rather than just dissipating, right? We're not disappearing for six years again, right? This is more of a starting point. And when we do win and we can go to Ottawa… it'll be our pleasure to actually advocate for stuff that actually helps people here in Regina, Saskatchewan. My kids depend on it. My family depends on it... a lot of other families do, too.”