Damien Kurek says he doesn’t plan to stay away from politics for long.
The former Conservative MP recently gave up his seat in the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot so that party leader Pierre Poilievre could run there.
Poilievre, who lost his longtime Ottawa-area seat during this year’s federal election, is hoping that Monday’s byelection in Battle River-Crowfoot will put him back in the House of Commons.
The riding is widely considered a safe bet for Conservative candidates. Kurek first won it in 2019, and was re-elected in April with 82.8 per cent of the vote.
Poilievre will have a staggering 213 rivals for the seat, but the majority of them are part of the Longest Ballot Committee, an organized effort to stack ballots in order to advocate for electoral reform.
Kurek says he expects Poilievre will beat them all handily, and be a great advocate for constituents in Battle River-Crowfoot.
Nevertheless, Kurek says he expects to be back on the ballot himself the next time a general election rolls around. Here is part of his conversation with As It Happens guest host Catherine Cullen.
Battle River-Crowfoot is considered one of the safest ridings in the country. Is this a done deal for Pierre Poilievre?
When my wife Danielle and I made the offer to Pierre, and he accepted, he came and started meeting with supporters and volunteers and constituents. The first thing he said is Battle River-Crowfoot doesn’t owe him anything and he’s going to work for them, work for their votes.
And over the course of the last three or so months since that time, that’s exactly what he’s done.
If it’s not a sure thing, then how much muscle [have] you got out there on the ground today? How big are the Conservative forces trying to ensure that people who would vote for Mr. Poilievre make it out to the polls?
We’ve got a great local team of people. And then we have a whole bunch of others. They’re excited about the potential of a national leader running local.
You brought in some reinforcements, Damian?
Yeah, there’s some people that have come, you know, some members of the Conservative caucus that have come out and knocked [on] a few doors at different points in time. But at the foundation of it, I tell you, my team here on the ground locally, they’re both exceptional and they’re excited about the potential of having Pierre Poilievre as their member of Parliament.
You set a pretty high bar for Mr. Poilievre, perhaps unintentionally, in the election in April [with] 83 per cent of the vote. Do you think Pierre Poilievre can meet that bar?
I don’t know what the percentage will be. That’s up to the people here.
None of these other, you know, 200-plus names seemed to even know where Battle River-Crowfoot was prior to Pierre running here in this byelection.
But when it comes to Pierre and fighting for the values of this region, he’s done that his entire political career. He took calls when it came to local issues, fighting for national issues that have big local impact.
Mr. Poilievre is being scrutinized, right? He’s got a leadership review coming up in January. What kind of message do you think it sends if he can’t reach the level that you did?
I have not had campaigns run against me of any serious nature throughout my time in politics.
It seems like all the other parties ignore us here in rural Alberta until, all of a sudden, they could see their name in the light. So when it comes to what the result is, I don’t know. That’s up to the people of the Battle River-Crowfoot. But when we go from town to town, people are excited about the fact that Pierre Poilievre wants to fight for them.
What’s at stake for Pierre Poilievre in this Alberta byelection?
Last month, As It Happens spoke to another one of the [independent] candidates, Sarah Spanier, who’s running against Pierre Poilievre. Let’s listen to a bit of what she told the show:
“People voted overwhelmingly for Damien. They did not vote for Pierre here. And the voices are getting louder and louder of people saying: Hey, we don’t want Pierre here because he’s not Damien. What he’s doing is insulting, it’s frustrating, it’s costing us money. Just because people here support Conservatives, that does not necessarily mean that they support Pierre.”
What do you say to that?
It’s up to the people to decide, but when it comes down to it, at the thousands of doors that Pierre and I and our team of volunteers has knocked [on] … they’re not afraid to ask Pierre tough questions. They’re not afraid to talk about the challenges that they’re facing, why we so desperately need a change in that Liberal government
She mentions the cost. Conservatives talk a lot about not wasting money. How do you justify to the people in this riding that they had an elected representative — you — that they were perfectly happy with months ago, and now all this money is being spent, ultimately, it seems, to benefit Pierre Poilievre?
Pierre Poilievre is the right man to be prime minister, who will bring accountability back to our government. And I think that it’s time for that to be given the priority.
Are you going to run again in the next general election? Is this a one-time thing for Mr. Poilievre or is he to be the representative for Battle River-Crowfoot in perpetuity going forward?
In the conversations we had immediately after, he asked what my plans were and I said: “Look, I want to continue being involved in politics. This is my home. I still have a farm here and look forward to being able to continue to stand for politics.”
And then he asked if I would like to stand as a Conservative candidate in the next general election. I said that it would be an honour to ask the people whether or not they would send me back. And certainly, that’s what I plan to do. But, ultimately, that will be up to the people.
OK, so you’d like to come back. This is, to your understanding, a one-time deal for Mr. Poilievre?
Yeah, I certainly don’t plan to be finished my time in politics.
