Workers’ rights and soldiers in Afghanistan are among the issues capturing voters’ interest throughout the federal riding of Wetaskiwin.

The riding covers a huge area, including samples of almost every raw resource Alberta has to offer. From the muskeg and forests of the foothills to the lakeside parks at Sylvan and Gull lakes and the rich farmlands along Hwy 2, the riding is a treasure trove in all of Alberta’s four major industries: oil and gas, forestry, agriculture and tourism.

Despite its disparities, Wetaskiwin is a rural riding spattered with a few dots of dissension on an otherwise indelible background of Conservative Blue.

Business operator Carolyn Kent of Rocky Mountain House says she will look for the candidate who has the right answers concerning immigration and programs for temporary foreign workers.

Kent heard one candidate in a previous campaign say that temporary foreign workers don’t matter because they don’t vote. That does not wash in Rocky, where people have come from 35 different countries to fill in the labour gaps, she says.

Immigrants, and especially temporary workers, are vulnerable to abuse, says Kent. Canada needs to strengthen its requirements of employers to ensure that guest workers are given the tools they need to survive in a new culture. Those tools include proper housing and help understanding factors Canadians take for granted, like the need to dress properly for cold weather.

“The first candidate that brings that up, this is something we need to look at in terms of how we are attracting, promoting, looking how to bring people to Canada, and how we protect and develop the individuals when they get here,” says Kent.

“They’re guests and we need to protect them.”

Guest worker Rubilyn Gappi, who came from the Philippines, says she would dearly love to be able to vote in Canada. Because that is not an option, Gappi hopes those who do vote can send a message to Parliament about the need to improve conditions for temporary foreign workers.

“Some temporary workers, they don’t know what’s going on. Employers are abusing them. They don’t get enough clothing or shelter when they get here.”

Immigration rules should also make it easier for temporary workers to extend their stays, she says.

Korean-born Jinja Kim, a Canadian citizen for the past 30 years, says she will consider how the various candidates view Canada’s role in Afghanistan when she casts her vote.

Kim supports Canada’s efforts to help build schools and improve conditions for people in Afghanistan, and says she will support the candidate who takes the strongest position on upholding human rights in Canada and abroad.

Like Gappi, she believes the government needs to provide better support and acknowledge the sacrifices people make when they leave their homes to work in a foreign country.

“We’ve been putting all our effort while we are living here. We have sacrificed something you guys never have experienced,” says Kim.

A few blocks away, sisters Kari, Lori and Patricia Vallee say they want to see the federal government take a stronger role in developing employment and educational opportunities on Indian reserves.

All young adults, the Vallee sisters have moved back and forth between Calgary and their First Nations band and are upgrading their skills at Norquest College in Rocky.

Kari says she doesn’t get involved in politics because it has never been a part of her life.

“I wasn’t taught about politics, so I never really gave it a thought. My goal is just working and going to school.”

But she shares with her sisters a powerful determination to create a safer and healthier environment on the reserve.

At a coffee shop in Rimbey, retiree Albert Odenbach and his friend, Joe discuss the value of the upcoming election.

It really doesn’t matter who wins or who loses, everybody will be back in the coffee shop the next day, says Odenbach, 88.

Joe, who declined to give his full name, says he is pretty sure that Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will win the election. What’s important, says Joe, is that the Harper government comes back with a majority.

“I hope (the government) doesn’t change, because if it does, we’re in trouble.”

Neither he nor Odenbach support Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan.

“What are we fighting for? Let them fight their own battles,” says Joe.

Canada got into something it should have left alone, says Odenbach.

“They can’t get out and they can’t do nothing. Seeing the pictures in the paper, it makes you sick,” he says.

At another table in the same coffee shop, retiree Doris Siebold and a few friends also ponder their fortunes with an election looming.

“We’re Tory Blue here,” says Siebold, who shares a common belief that the Conservative Party is the only option.

While she will support the Tory candidate, Siebold says she has some issues, particularly with a pension cheque that continues to fall behind the rate of inflation.

“When Old Age Security goes up, it’s about $2.15. You can’t even by a latte, you have to buy cheap coffee.”

Joking aside, Siebold says the insurance on her home has nearly doubled in the last three years, while her pension has increased at only three per cent a year. That does not seem fair, when elected officials at various levels of government have given themselves some whopping raises, she says.

Unlike the men in the corner, Siebold and her companions, who also lived through the Second World War, are fully behind Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. The problem is that mainstream media have focused on the loss of soldiers without painting a true picture of their mission’s accomplishments in Afghanistan, she says.

Soldiers have helped build schools and improve conditions locally, so people are better off now than they were before, says Siebold.

“If the soldiers still want to be there, then that’s where they should be. They’re the ones that go there,” says Aileen McKeagg.

Lacombe-area farmer Jack Cookson, a former MLA who was Environment minister in Peter Lougheed’s government, says Harper’s views on the Canadian Wheat Board may have caused him harm in some areas of the country, where farmers are more inclined to support the board.

Younger farmers, however, share the desire for a free marketing system, says Cookson, who had brought in a bucket of canola for sampling.

Right now, the fall harvest takes priority over politics, he says.

Farmers are looking at good yields with good quality and, for the first time in years, wheat and barley are actually worth something.

Cookson says he doesn’t see a big change this election.

But oilfield worker Howard Busat from Ponoka, taking a coffee break in Clive, ramps up some of the cynicism expressed by Joe and Odenbach.

“It’s a waste of time and money and there’s nobody to vote for. I think it’s a farce, myself,” says Busat.

His coffee companion, Leroy Reynolds, says Harper called the election because he thinks he can win it.

“He’ll get returned. It’s no problem.”

While large numbers of people within Alberta definitely lean to Tory blue, office worker Wendy German, who lives west of Ponoka, says she is going to attend the forums and research the candidates and then make her choice.

German says she cannot support a candidate who attacks other candidates.

“I’ve just been watching the hate campaign that’s going on. I think it’s really important that the candidates state their case, tell us their point of view, but quit slandering each other.”

German says she thinks it’s “terrible” that some people will spurn the polls on election day, especially considering that women had to fight for the right to vote in the 1920s and that aboriginals weren’t enfranchised until the early 1960s.

“We have the power to make the choices,” says German.

Contact Brenda Kossowan at bkossowan@reddeeradvocate.com

Wetaskiwin

• Population — 107,914.

• Area — 15,133 square km.

• Eligible voters — 78,390.

• Communities and area — Wetaskiwin spreads across part or all of six rural municipalities, including all of Wetaskiwin, Lacombe and Ponoka Counties and parts of Brazeau, Leduc and Clearwater Counties. Major urban municipalities within the riding include Wetaskiwin, Rocky Mountain House, Ponoka, Lacombe and Rimbey. The riding wraps in a number of smaller centres as well, including Alix, Mirror, Clive, Blackfalds, Bentley and Eckville in the southern region. Also included are four Indian reserves: Louis Bull, Samson, Montana and Ermineskin at Hobbema.

• 2006 election — 47,709 ballots cast, with 105 spoiled ballots.

• 2006 winner — Conservative Blaine Calkins with 35,776 votes or 75.2 per cent.

Candidates:

• Blaine Calkins, Conservative Party of Canada (incumbent)

• Rita Dillons, Liberal Party of Canada

• Shawn Mann, Canadian Action Party

• Les Parsons, Green Party of Canada

• Tim Robson, New Democratic Party

Voters go to the polls on Tuesday, Oct. 14. Polling stations are open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Advance polls are open on Friday, Oct. 3, Saturday, Oct. 4, and Monday, Oct. 6.

Returning officer Ralph Scarlett and his staff can be reached in Lacombe at the Greenway Inn. Phone toll-free, 1-866-499-8004.