Battlefords-Lloydminster candidate Ken Rutherford is running for the Maverick Party in the upcoming federal election. He is someone who self-admittedly does not have a lot of experience in politics, but the one thing he does know is that he has become “politically homeless”

“My political experience is very little actually. I became more interested in politics; I felt like I was politically homeless really,” explained Rutherford, “I’ve been a lifelong Conservative voter, and I feel like they have moved into serving those in central Canada, leaving us in the west alone. That’s what brought me into politics.”

He has always made sure to vote and keep informed on the issues, but after the Maverick Party people in the area reached out to Rutherford, he knew his new political identity was set.

“They reached out to me, and after I researched the platform I found I had a new political home and that was that.”

He is very impressed with the Maverick Party’s ideology, and doesn’t want people to view the upstart as a pure separatist party. Instead the Mavericks want to take what is called a “twin-track approach” according to Rutherford, that would first allow the party to work within Canada.

“I like that approach,” said Rutherford in explaining the idea, “It is about moving towards independence. What does that look like? It can be as much as collecting your own taxes, having your own police office, having control over immigration.”

These idea’s align with Rutherford as someone who is not a radical person, but does see what kinds of positives a Maverick MP in the area could bring. Thanks to his past business experience and recent foray into federal politics, he feels it finally time for the west to “rip off the band-aid”.

“It’s time to kind of acknowledge where we are at in our relationship with central Canada. We shouldn’t be ashamed of our resources, we shouldn’t be ashamed of our agricultural background, and we shouldn’t have to apologize for that,” said Rutherford, “Somebody needs to stand up for the west, and there wasn’t any party doing. That’s where the Maverick Party comes in. I’m a prairie boy, born and raised in this area and my family is pretty much either in the oil business, or the farming business.”

He doesn’t appreciate the continued support of things that have hurt the industry in past years such as the Carbon Tax, or other bills that have affected western infrastructure. In some of these cases the results that come are ones that can deeply affect a family, and Rutherford says that he cannot stand by and watch that happen.

Rutherford knows how tall of a task it will be to take down the Conservatives, and the Liberals for that matter from their position at the top. What he also knows, is just how many people feel the same way as him.

“I’m not alone in my frustration. There are a lot of people feeling this way. People that just own a farm, truck oil, weld. You know they just try to make a living, and are tired of being stomped on and made to feel like a second class citizen because of the way they make their living.”

Some of the party’s supporters still believe that immediate separation is the best way to go, but Rutherford is not one to subscribe the radical idea.

“Some people do say we need to separate tomorrow morning, but some people say we like the balanced approach,” laid out Rutherford, “There is a lot to running a country. There is trade agreements, money supply. What about army? Postal service? You can’t jump into those things without a lot of thinking and a lot of planning, but what we can do, is start standing up for the west right now.”

This specific language is something that he figures could turn a Conservative voter, as the CPC really isn’t aligning in the best interests of the west as much as past election records would indicate. Rutherford knows a ton of people who would get behind that message, and is convinced that the 2021 election presents an opportunity for the Mavericks to make a splash. Sometimes running for a new party could be considered a waste of time, and usually Rutherford would agree, but that’s not the case here.

“That not the case at all. There is a lot of support,” said Rutherford, “We have a lot of businesses who have told us to hang a sign outside. That’s kind of unheard of for companies to want to pledge their political allegiance publicly like that, and there's a lot in the North Battleford, Lloydminster area.”

Another thing Rutherford wanted voters to know when it comes to the Maverick Party, is that they only ran candidates in strategic locations. The plan was based around running in areas where vote splitting would not let a Liberal or NDP candidate through. Looking at some numbers in the example below, they decided they could run a strategic campaign in the riding thanks to the opportunity to sway Conservative votes.

Rutherford believes that provinces should have greater autonomy when it comes to their issues because of just how different everyone is. If a governing body wants to take a specific side on something that could greatly benefit them, he believes they should have the right to go ahead with it. The approach is something that could be very tough and frankly impossible with a nation as large as Canada, but now is the right time to bring the topic up and introduce just how working class Canadians who have created their own living, are somehow being punished just for embracing their business culture.

Rutherford wants just as much as anyone to leave a bright future for everyone. Some voters may still be skeptical about what the Maverick Party represents and that is fair, but someone like Rutherford is a perfect example to promote the morals, and realism’s of what the upstart political party is trying to attain.

You can learn more, and find out to how get in contact with the Maverick Party through their contact page.