Martin Shields projected to be re-elected as MP for Bow River

Sep 22, 2021 | 12:03 PM

TABER, AB – Martin Shields is set to enter his third term as a Member of Parliament.

The Conservative incumbent for the Bow River riding to projected to be re-elected by a wide margin in the 2021 federal election.

“To be elected in the first place is an honour, but to be re-elected is incredible that people put their faith in you again. That’s always the challenge in an election that you put yourself out there for people to inspect and look at your warts and pimples and the rest of it. To be re-elected again, it’s a humbling experience.”

Prior to the election, Shields says many of his constituents were already questioning why an election was necessary, and it was clear to him it only took place “just to get a majority.”

Going ahead, however, he told LNN that he wants to focus on the issues that are important to rural Southern Albertans, namely, agriculture.

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That includes ensuring that promised funding for irrigation projects go ahead and those working in areas like beef and pork get the support they need.

Shields also wants to work on getting more people in rural and remote regions equipped with high-speed internet.

“Our agriculture is extremely high-tech, and so, we need broadband, but if you’re going to encourage people to live in rural [places] where they found quality of life more during COVID, we need for small businesses to be able to have also high-speed internet.”

While the official election results will still take some time, here are the unofficial vote counts for Bow River:

Martin Shields (Conservative) – 70%
Jonathan Bridges (PPC) – 10%
Michael MacLean (NDP) – 9%
Getu Shawile (Liberal) – 8%
Orrin Bliss (Maverick) – 3%
Tom Lipp (Christian Heritage) – 1%

For more election coverage, go to the Federal Election 2021 page on LethbridgeNewsNow.com here.

by David Opinko