BATTLEFORDS - William Petryk is seeking election for Canada's New Democratic Party for the Battlefords-Lloydminster-Meadow Lake riding for the upcoming federal election.
A chartered professional accountant by trade, the candidate is now retired and lives in North Battleford.
Over the years, he has been employed as the Controller for L&M Wood Products in Glaslyn and later as the Financial Administrator for Bralin Technology Solutions in North Battleford.
Petryk noted he decided to run for election now because it seemed like the right time.
"This is something that always interested me," he said.
Petryk added that he participates in the NDP's local Electoral District Association Executives, both provincial and federal.
One issue he would like to see addressed if he is elected is improving healthcare.
"Funding healthcare is very important," Petryk told SaskToday. "That's largely a provincial issue, but also federally there was money supplied to provinces for healthcare which has been cut back."
He supports the expansion of universal healthcare to include pharmacare, dental care, and mental health services.
Another issue Petryk is concerned about is creating more affordable housing.
"Even in the Battlefords, Meadow Lake area, affordable housing is something that we should concentrate on," he said. "The problem is, when you talk about the housing market, a lot of people think about Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, which are the big crisis areas. But they forget about these smaller centres like ours, like North Battleford, Meadow Lake and Lloydminster. We have inflation in the housing here as well."
To deal with the U.S. tariffs, Petryk would like to see Canada diversify to sell its products more to other markets.
"When we had the American market, I mean, they're right next door, so it's an easier way to kind of increase production in this country," he said. "But now that there has been a disrupt, a disrupt that we have to do what we should have done before, and that is to diversify and sell to other customers,... to other customers around the world."
Petryk added that creating more markets, and signing trade agreements with other markets takes time.
"It takes a while to get new markets and to develop them," he said.
The other three confirmed candidates in the April 28 election for the Battlefords-Lloydminster-Meadow Lake riding are Rosemarie Falk for the Conservative Party of Canada, Larry Ingram for the Liberal Party of Canada, and Darrell Patan with the Canadian Future Party
