He filed his paperwork just in time and now Samuel Lockhart is in the race to be the Cowichan Valley riding’s next MLA.
Conservative by nature, Lockhart saw the opportunity to run when no B.C. Conservative candidate was listed in the riding.
“I was driving around in Victoria and around here and noticed there were no signs for the Conservative Party and so I gave them a quick call and said nobody was running.”
That night be made his application and paid his fees. The following day he collected 100 signatures and a candidate was born.
While he does support the B.C. Conservative Party’s platform, he opted to campaign as an independent instead.
“If there was a conservative candidate I would have just voted for them,” he explained. “But I consulted with some former MPs and other people and they suggested that instead of running as a conservative candidate, that I run as an independent,” he added. “Just gives me more flexibility of really standing for what I think the people want and being able to listen to people and not having to follow any party rules.”
Lockhart said what he wants doesn’t particularly matter.
“Of course I have my own ideas but at the end of the day my job is to be listening to all of the people in the Valley and coming up with solutions for everyone instead of what my thoughts are. But, I would say that if anything, I would be very conservative-sided. They have a wonderful platform right now that I really supported. I want to see the economy growing, I want to see the environment protected and we have a lot of big issues like medical problems here in the Valley and affordable housing. Those are major things that need to get addressed immediately.”
Born in Switzerland, Lockhart has called the Cowichan Valley home for most of his life.
The former Frances Kelsey student owns and operates the online store lockharttactical.com
Expect to see him at upcoming all-candidates meetings.