Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer to attend: Pro-resource rally set for February in Moosomin
January 29, 2019, 2:09 am
Kevin Weedmark
Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer will visit Moosomin on the February long weekend to speak at a pro-pipeline, pro-resource rally.
The rally will take place at 11 am on Saturday, February 16 at the new IJack assembly plant just north of Moosomin on Highway 8.
Speeches will begin at 11 am sharp and a barbecue lunch will be served following the rally.
The premiers of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick—provinces that would be impacted by Energy East—have also been invited.
The plan for the rally grew out of efforts by the town and RM of Moosomin to bring discussion of Energy East back to the national agenda.
The town and RM submitted parallel resolutions to SUMA and SARM last winter to ask those organizations to raise the issue with higher levels of government. The town and RM then appointed Sinc Harrison to take the lead on the issue.
“The voice of the silent majority needs to be heard,” says Harrison. “Polls that have been done across Canada show there is support for pipelines. To sit back and do nothing is unacceptable, so we will do what we can. We were very fortunate to have the Leader of the Opposition agree to come speak at the rally. Hopefully that will help attract the national media, because we want to get our message out to the whole country.
“It took a lot of work to secure Andrew Scheer as a speaker, but because of his national profile, our event should get a lot of attention, and we want that attention because we have a message that we want to get out to the country—that for places like Moosomin, where people are familiar with pipelines, where people know what pipelines are all about, there’s a lot of support for pipelines.”
The decision was made to also invite premiers of provinces that could be impacted by Energy East. “We’ve invited premiers of Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick,”said Harrison.
He said planning for the rally has gone well so far. “The committee that’s been working on this has been wonderful to work with,” he said. “We have had lots of enthusiasm, we’ve had lots of people offer to help in the community and we’ve had financial contributions from outside the area.
“We're still finalizing all the details, but I’m sure we’ll get a lot of support, and I’m sure we will have a great rally.
“The good thing about the location is we have a quarter section of parking, so parking definitely shouldn’t be an issue. We hope that everyone who has concerns over the future of pipelines and our oil and gas industry can come out and have their voice heard.”
Harrison will speak on plans for the rally at the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce meeting this Wednesday, Jan. 30 at 11:45 am at the Canalta Hotel.
Background information on Energy East and Moosomin’s role in it can be seen at www.moosomin.com/energy-east
