The race to replace retiring Conservative MP Ed Komarnicki continues to build steam with a fifth contender announcing his plan to seek the Conservative Party ticket.
Weyburn's Randy Schiller has lived in various parts of the Souris-Moose Mountain riding for his entire life, except for five years where he lived in Kindersley. Born in Radville, he started his education in Grenfell, before graduating from high school in Yellow Grass. He then lived and worked in Weyburn, Estevan and Oxbow. His work has taken him to the Moosomin area as well, and he has been working in Weyburn for Cenovus Energy since 2006 as part of their enhanced oil recovery industry as a millwright.
He holds a red seal journeyman industrial mechanic trade and a boom truck A ticket.
At 51 years old, Schiller has been married for 27 years and his 17-year-old son is planning to attend university next year.
"People would be lying if they weren't nervous," Schiller said with a laugh about running for public office for the first time.
When deciding to seek the Conservative nomination, he said his wife had to be on board with the decision. At first she wasn't. He said after some discussion with others she came around and encouraged him to put his name forward.
"With the unexpected retirement announcement from Ed, and after seeing the first three candidates that declared, I thought that they were soft conservatives, and we can't afford to have a soft conservative representing us," said Schiller, who holds strong beliefs in core conservative principles. "We can't have liberals or even socialists running our country."
Schiller said he is seeking to work for the constituency to help ensure the financial security of all Canadians.
"I'm hoping to accomplish a stronger Canada that is financially and morally sound. Canadian values are rapidly eroding. We need to return to self-reliance and personal initiative. I want to decrease Canadians' dependency on government, and we must decrease our government's addiction to tax increases, which feeds that dependency.
"Our once strong conservative Canadian values are being degraded. We no longer have self-reliance in our personal initiatives. People want to rely on the government, and we need to break that reliance in government."
Schiller was the president of the Weyburn Big Muddy Sask. Party Constituency Association, having resigned just last week, and is the financial secretary and faithful captain with his local church group.
While with the Sask. Party Constituency Association, he worked on provincial campaigns for MLA Dustin Duncan and previously worked on campaigns in Estevan with Doreen Eagles when he was the vice-president of the Estevan Constituency Association.
He was involved with the Sask. Party executive council, now called the provincial directorate, which forms policies for the Sask. Party and brings them forward to the government.
"I've been involved behind the scenes there as well as a past-member of the provincial council. I resigned as president and I no longer have a seat on that," he said.
Schiller has also become a competitive powerlifter in the last two years. He has been weightlifting since he was 14, and after seeing the Canadian National competition in Moose Jaw several years ago, he decided it was something he could do.
"I saw some of the records that were made and I could have been very competitive at a younger age," he said, so he decided to start taking his lifting a little more seriously. "I enjoy it very much. I'm always striving to better my records. I don't compete against anybody else's records. Every time I lift I'm always trying to better myself."
And now he is seeking public office to try to better the country as the voice for Souris-Moose Mountain.
"We need a strong Conservative government," Schiller said. "I want a strong Canada. One of the burning issues for me is financial literacy. We've heard it before that government is not the solution but the problem. Canadians should be increasing their financial literacy. We've become a nation of consumers rather than of savers and producers.
"My feeling is that debt-enslavement is robbing you of independence. Saving will bring you freedom. So many Canadians treat money as an entitlement, but once Canadians become more financially literate we can hold our governments more accountable. Our government will spend less, taxes will be lowered."
Also seeking to run for the Souris-Moose Mountain seat under the Conservative banner is Dr. Robert Kitchen, Estevan, Phil Zajac, Estevan, Mike Strachan, Torquay, and Lyndon Dayman, Windhorst.
