William Petryk is running as the NDP candidate for Battlefords-Lloydminster-Meadow Lake. (William Petryk/Facebook)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

NDP Candidate

Trump, inflation and healthcare: NDP candidate William Petryk hears from Battlefords-Lloydminster-Meadow Lake

Apr 7, 2025 | 1:44 PM

A first-time candidate has thrown his orange hat in the proverbial ring of federal politics and in the highly conservative riding William Petryk knows “it’s an uphill battle.”

He’s running to be the NDP member of Parliament for the newly drawn Battlefords-Lloydminster-Meadow Lake.

“I’ve always been interested in politics,” he said, adding he was approached to run and he wanted to give it his best shot.

“I didn’t want to give it up because I knew for the rest of my life I’d say ‘Whoa, I should’ve done that, I should have at least had the experience.’”

Petryk explained that his party wants to invest in Canada’s future rather than what he calls the Conservative’s singular focus on cutting the deficit and cutting expensive.

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“Even though some of those cuts could be improvements…this is the wrong way to go about government,” Petryk said.

“You have to invest in the future of the people.”

Drawing comparisons to John Diefenbaker’s decision to shutter the Avro Arrow program, which Petryk called “one of the biggest mistakes.”

“After World War I, Canada had a lot of aviation engineers that could have been used for developing of an aircraft industry, but he had a short-term focus,” he said, referring to what became known as ‘Black Friday,’ which put roughly 30,000 people out of work and caused a subsequent brain drain as engineers left the country to work for NASA.

“Right now, we have to buy aircrafts from foreign companies, whether it be commercial or military,” he said.

“I bring this up because it’s a short-term focus.”

The NDP, Petryk explained, has a better platform.

“The NDP focuses on the worker. In other words, eliminating barriers to (EI) employment insurance, because if you look forward, there’s already talk about layoffs.”

As the campaign is under way and Petryk said residents have three things on their mind: Trump, inflation and healthcare.

“How we’re going to survive the next four years,” he said.

“In healthcare, you have to bring up doctors from elsewhere, actually, one thing I’ve always said – it’s not an NDP policy – but we spend more resources of bringing up hockey players than we do doctors and professional people,” said Petryk.

Of those players, less than one per cent play in the National Hockey League.

“I can’t see why we can’t have the same kind of infrastructure to bring up exceptional students and professionals. So, we do need to do that, otherwise we’re always going to get short-shifted and relying on foreign doctors.”

In the riding, Petryk noted the industries – agriculture, oil and gas and forestry – have to find new markets.

“There’s also the climate change factor, I mean increased droughts, so there has to be research into drought-resistant crops,” he said.

“In terms of the forest industry, we have to find new markets for that – China’s also an unreliable market.”

As for oil and gas, Petryk said the party has pushed for renewable resources.

“Let’s face it, oil and gas are going to be with us for a little while and we’re pushing for an all-Canadian market coast to coast, from the west right to the Maritimes,” he said.

With roughly three weeks to go before the country casts their ballots, he’s realistically hoping for at least a minority government.

“Historically, it’s the Liberal Party that has usurped NDP policies or ran with them,” he said.

“That goes from CPP and to EI, which is why we’re more likely to support Liberals than Conservatives, who have their own priorities – mainly reducing debt.”

Meanwhile, Petryk wants to see economic growth.

“Canada needs a free trade because our market is just so much smaller than the American one, the Chinese one or the European Union one,” he said.

“We need free trade so that our businesses can grow and expand. So, we’re a free trade nation, now all of a sudden this is – we’re being constrained to 18th or 19th century where people look for…economic surplus and all economists have said ‘No, no, that’s not how things work.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattiisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social