“How will you help us?” Cold Lake resident goes face to face with Justin Trudeau

Jessica Heron got the opportunity many Canadians would hope for during election season.

Two weeks ago, Heron was featured on CBC’s The National in a face-to-face meeting with incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where she quizzed the Liberal leader on the state of the economy and how he would protect Alberta’s oil and gas sector.

She got the opportunity after replying to Peter Mansbridge’s podcast about feeling like regardless of her vote, the Conservative Party would win her riding of Cold Lake-Fort McMurray and she wanted to understand the other parties’ platforms.

She was originally going to be paired with Andrew Scheer, but the producers then matched her with Trudeau.

“I had a ton of questions that I could have asked him but this one kind of seemed like a hot button issue for me because we’ve only gotten radio silence from the government pretty much in the last five years since the recession hit. So I wanted to bring it to the forefront and make him answer it or try to make him answer it anyways,” said Heron.

Heron’s husband works in the oilfield and she drives a school bus while taking criminal justice classes.

She asked about what can be done to stabilize Alberta.

Trudeau said they would build the Trans Mountain Pipeline while making investments in green energy.

Their segment was seven minutes long with a couple of followup questions by presenter Rosemary Barton.

Overall, her mind has not changed.

“He gave me the answer that I was expecting. In my intro video for that segment, I kind of said that I was looking for honest answers that Canadians need to make decisions because we’re not getting those. So I didn’t get that honest answer I was looking for. I pretty much just got the political spiel that everybody expects to come from his mouth nowadays,” said Heron.

“But I’m also battling between not only just the party leaders, but also our local MPs. Cold Lake is a conservative [place], Mr. David Yurdiga has been our MP for the last four years. Even if I was 100 per cent behind Andrew Scheer, I also would like to have some faith in my local MP as well.

“I’m kind of weighing those options back and forth while I’m trying to make this decision, which probably doesn’t make it any easier for me but right. I think knowledge is power, so that’s kind of what I’m basing my vote on.”