Doug Burchill is giving the constituents of Grande Prairie-Mackenzie a different conservative option as the candidate for the People’s Party of Canada.

Despite going up against long-time Conservative incumbent Chris Warkentin, Burchill said he liked his chances this upcoming election.

“We’re going to win. There is no question about that,” Burchill said.

“I’ve gone to 10,000 homes already and the response is phenomenal. It is an absolutely phenomenal response. We’ve got good donations coming in, lots of volunteers, we’re pretty happy.”

Born and raised in Alberta, Burchill was a professional engineer for two decades and has lived across Canada. He later returned to Alberta where he has spent the last 10 years in the engineering consulting industry and established successful small-to-medium size businesses.

Burchill became motivated to entered politics due to seeing Canada “going downhill.” Although having few kind words for the Liberal Party, he also voiced disapproval of the Tories.

“It seems like the Conservative Party is pandering to the east for the vote-rich areas so they’re not focused on us,” Burchill said.

“I’ve got neighbours who’ve been out of work for three years living on a farm and they can barely survive. It’s disgusting what’s going on here.”

Disillusioned with mainstream parties, Burnchill was drawn to the People’s Party of Canada because of its leader Maxime Bernier and his policies.

Bernier had been a contender during the 2017 leadership race for the Conservative Party of Canada. After losing to Andrew Scheer, he left the Conservatives to start the People’s Party.

In July, Bernier held a rally in Grande Prairie where he promoted Burchill as a candidate.

Burchill specifically admired his party’s fiscal conservative stance and how candidates could represent the people rather than the party.

“It’s not a whipped caucus so I can vote the people’s conscious,” Burchill said.

He noted the People’s Party wanted to reduce the total amount of equalization payments, which is designed to address fiscal disparities among provinces.

“We want to minimize equalization across the country and we want to get provinces off that have been on equalization for decades, like Quebec and New Brunswick, and be fair to everybody,” Burchill said.

“If a province needs help, let’s give them the help but let’s not let them live off the equalization system. They have to develop their own resources and be reasonable. Alberta’s been treated unreasonably for decades and decades.”

Another notable policy of the People’s Party is phasing out the supply management system for dairy, poultry and egg. Burchill stated abolishing the system would cause prices to drop for these products as more imports come in.

“It’s just not fair to the rest of the country,” Burchill said regarding supply management.

“It’s kind of a locked-in system. You have quotas and of course they can’t compete internationally so if you abolish this cartel, it opens it up for our farmers.”

The People’s Party is also calling for replacing the Firearms Act, withdrawing from the Paris Accord, getting rid of interprovincial trade barriers and promoting freedom of expression.

The budding party, however, has already faced its share of criticism. In August, billboards began appearing across the country bearing the image of Bernier and urging Canadians to “say no to mass immigration.” Pattison Outdoor Advertising, which owned the billboards, then promised the ads would come down in response to the outcry.

Although clarifying that a third-party advertising group had been responsible for the billboards, Burchill stated he agreed with the message.

“We got to cut down on mass immigration,” Burchill said.

“We have to bring in a controlled number of people into this country. We’re suggesting 150,000 maximum (per year).”

For those who accuse the People’s Party of “splitting the vote,” Burchill had this to say: “So what?”

“Do you want version two of Justin Trudeau or do you want to vote your values? It’s as simple as that,” Burchill added. “We want to vote for something instead of against something all the time, which we’ve had to endure over the decades.”

“We got to do something different in this country.”

Both Burchill and Warkentin are confirmed candidates in the Grande Prairie-Mackenzie riding as of Wednesday. In addition, Ken Munro with the Liberal Party, Erin Alyward with the NDP and Shelley Termuende with the Green Party have announced their candidacies.

The close of nominations for candidates is Sept. 30, while the 2019 federal election is scheduled for Oct. 21.

—With files from The Canadian Press