Eleven months to the day before the next federal election must legally be held, an Airdrie businessman has launched his challenge for the Banff-Airdrie riding, currently held by Conservative MP Blake Richards.  

33-year-old Nicholas (Nick) Flaumitsch a husband and father of a seven-month-old girl said in a release today (November 21) that he would be an Independent candidate for the Banff-Airdrie riding.  Flaumitsch is the owner of a home-based business in the city doing custom uniforms for sports associations.  

In the release, Flaumitsch says his campaign, "aims to draw support from those of all political stripes who are eager for change, and who are tired of identity politics, political correctness and kowtowing to international corporate interests."

Flaumitsch says the idea to run came about through being invited by Richards to sit on a small business committee about two months back.

"I felt, quite strongly, that the issues the Chamber of Commerce are fighting for are actually against their own interests, such as fighting minimum wage.  I feel that if people can't afford to pay for anything above their mortgage or rent and their utilities, it's going to be very hard for them to support small businesses."

 Flaumitsch says there are a number of issues he considers important, the greatest being controlling federal debt.  He says addressing federal debt must be done to address all other problems.  Flaumitsch believes the choice between austerity or creating more debt is a bad choice, as well as a false choice. 

The reason that Flaumitsch decided to run as an Independent is because he's against the system of having a party government.

"I don't believe that parties represent constituents whatsoever, especially in Alberta.  It's hard to get a Conservative or Liberal or NDP representative that is going to be interested in actually representing our area.  They're always going to vote in line with their party and their party is always going to look to get the most votes nationwide, so they're always going to bend to the will of Ontario and Quebec."

Flaumitsch is in the process of getting his election team together.   He's currently seeking a campaign manager, volunteers, and people to help with campaign financing.  He plans to do a great deal of door knocking during the campaign and while he says he doesn't hold out high hopes to win in Banff-Airdrie in 2019, he hopes the future is a different story.

"For this term, I'd just like to get the focus on some real discussion on new ideas.  If I did win that would be fantastic but I think it's probably unrealistic with such a short time frame and with no recognition.  If I can build up the recognition this round, maybe by the next election period I could take a real swing at it." 

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