CARROT RIVER VALLEY — Glen Leson said that if he is elected as MLA for Carrot River Valley constituency, his focuses would be on healthcare, education and the promotion of business.
Leson, who’s running for the Progressive Conservatives, is a self-described senior, father, grandfather and businessperson. He previously operated an ambulance until 1985. From 1974 to 2010 he operated a funeral home.
“I’m quite concerned with the way our world is headed now, and I’m hoping people will look to Conservative values to be a good source of getting us back on track,” Leson said.
“We’re all put on this world to work and it’s my belief if we’re capable of working, we should be working.”
Leson said the issue he would like addressed in healthcare is the waiting lists.
“The waiting lists are really backdated. I know people who are waiting a couple years for surgeries and their conditions a lot of times deteriorate. They end up having to use painkillers and a lot of things exacerbate the health problems as well.”
To cut the wait times, Leson said he would like to expand surgical equipment and operating rooms to cities and larger towns across the province.
“I can’t speak on this as party policy, I can only speak on it as my own views. Certainly there could be additional surgical and recovery centres that are already in the system, expanded to places that are larger like the Yorktons, Nipawins, Humboldts – any of the larger centres that already have the ability.”
To gain the funding to do this, Leson said he would boost the economy by promoting travel from larger urban centres outside of the province that are more impacted by COVID-19.
“With this pandemic, I think there is a huge opportunity for Saskatchewan to broadcast into the world and into North America for people who may want to get out of the areas that are very valiant in cases of viral pandemic – things that are highly communicable,” Leson said.
“I know a lot of our people with travel restrictions now are doing more planning for cottages and summer things and different activities right within our province and area, but I think we can attract people from the largest urban areas in Canada and possibly North America to enjoy our rural way of life.”
Leson said to accomplish this he feels Saskatchewan needs to do a better job of promoting the province and the way of life.
“We are a very, very distinct society in Saskatchewan,” Leson said.
“We have to increase our tax-base and certainly get more people working in this province.”
For education, Leson said he would like more basics like handwriting and children learning which side of the road to walk or ride a bike on.
“I understand that handwriting has been taken out of schools, different things. Certainly we have to adapt to the current world, but at the same time we can’t leave everything in the past,” he said. “The basics have to be there, the reading, writing, arithmetics, and get by without calculators and computers.”
