Mazier reclaims his seat in Riding Mountain
May 7, 2025, 11:53 am
Ryan Kiedrowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Conservative MP Dan Mazier is first to credit the work of those around him for another successful campaign in Riding Mountain.
“That was due to a heck of a great team that I had around me, that’s for sure,” he said when asked about his thoughts on the April 28 election results. “A lot of hard work and a lot of hours were put into a short period of time, but wow, we definitely reached every corner, and I had a lot of good conversations.”
Mazier was able to keep his seat as Conservative MP for the riding with 67.4 per cent of the vote. Next in line was Liberal Terry Hayward with 22.5 per cent, the NDP’s Andrew Douglas Maxwell with 7.4 per cent, then Jim Oliver of the PPC and Liz Clayton of the Green Party, both with 1.3 per cent.
A big component of what Mazier believes helped his campaign most was the ‘boots on the ground’ effort put in.
“I went back to kind of old style politics and door knocking, and applied it to a rural area,” he explained. “It’s such a big area and it’s a struggle to try to figure out how you’re going to approach it, but really you just take one community at a time. It’s all about connecting with people, and having those conversations, however long it takes.”
Mazier estimates knocking on more than 20,000 doors “which is unprecedented for the riding and definitely for me,” he said.
Compared to previous election campaigns, the fast-paced race has been the closest to normal Mazier has experienced thus far. His first attempt at the MP seat was in 2019 when he had about a year to get his name out there to those who may have not already been familiar with Mazier and his involvement as president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers.
“The name recognition was there, and a lot of people have heard of me on the radio and stuff like that, so that was good in the area, but people were pretty open,” he said.
However, the next campaign two years later would prove to be interesting times.
“In 2021, we hit Covid, and that one was a tough election,” Mazier recalls. “People really wanted their freedom back, basically, and to get Covid past us.”
One aspect Mazier noticed was the number of first-time voters in Riding Mountain, something he was pleased to see.
“What really blew me away, there were lots of first time voters,” he said, adding that he saw many young people and new citizens excited to cast their first ballot. Overall turnout at the polls was decent in Riding Mountain, with just over 65 per cent of eligible voters showing up.
“We did really good, I was quite surprised,” Mazier admitted, noting that his team had dropped literature in a majority of the over 200 communities in the riding.
All along the campaign trail, Mazier heard constituents list affordability, crime, and government accountability as the top three concerns.
“Crime is bad in rural areas,” he said. “We’re pretty vulnerable, because we have a catch and release system in Canada here, implemented by the Liberals.
That is the truth, that’s not as partisan as it sounds, it is the truth. C5 and C75 were two bills that basically enabled the catch and release system, and these guys are committing these repeat offences and able to serve time right in the community where they committed crimes. That’s even worse, because then they can intimidate you, and they can do a bunch of bad things—especially in smaller communities, everybody knows who these guys are. It’s like being controlled by a bunch of criminals, and that’s not good for any community.”
As for the topic of affordability, Mazier noted it is far-reaching and affects all demographics in his riding.
“Affordability came up more and more, especially with the people that are working for a living or they’re on the tail end of their retirement,” he said.
“Students know that dollar doesn’t go as far. You get a summer job, they used to be able to save up for university or get at least your accommodation money during the summer. Those days are gone. You talk to the seniors, you get some pension money and maybe some rent money and that, but even then, the taxation is basically robbing the seniors as well.”
A general mistrust in the federal government was felt across the riding when Mazier spoke with constituents.
“The accountability and just the basic Liberal government, how they stonewalled and kept everything under secrecy and meanwhile the auditors were coming out with these different reviews; they were saying there were conflicts of interest and there was no way of tracking the money,” Mazier said. “We were pushing forward as the opposition before Parliament rose. Accountable government you need, and you need to be transparent. It’s definitely something I’m going to be following up on as we get back into Parliament, because the players haven’t changed as much as they want. The players have not changed at all.”
