Wainwright trucker honks for votes

GEOFF LEE WRITER

Matt Powell is politically untethered.

The 44-year-old long-time Wainwright resident and trucker is running as an independent candidate in the Alberta provincial election on May 29.

“As an independent, I can speak freely, sharing the concerns of the people I will represent,” states Powell on his campaign profile.

He dropped by the Meridian Source on Monday to introduce himself and fully explain what he offers the electorate as an independent in the Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright riding.

Powell and his wife are raising three children in Wainwright where he owns Strong Boy Trucking Inc., providing winch truck ser - vices with a pilot car in Alberta, Saskatchewan and beyond.

“Mostly it’s rig moving and heavy equipment,” he said.

“It is an over-extension of the abilities that a municipality or a town should have access to,” said Powell, citing bylaws about land rights, as an example.

“They’ll have the ability to restrict anything you want to do on your own property and they’ll have more say than you for anything else you want to try to do in the community,” he said.

He says what motivated him to seek election started over concerns about bylaws that were happening around Wainwright and have spread across Alberta.

Powell fears there’s a growing overreach of government powers in municipalities made possible through practices written into the Municipal Government Act.

Powell says when you need to get a permit to plant a tree, you may need an environmental assessment depending on the location, and pay a professional to do it.

“It’s just getting ridiculous, the level of powers they are getting,” said Powell.

He says the electorate is also irked to see the government create a revenue source from it when we already pay enough in taxes.

“There’s a lot of interest in the issue because we don’t want any more laws,” said Powell.

“We have people right now running around breaking into houses, drug abuse problems; we have a lot of crime.”

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