Thomas Sierzycki is used to defying people’s expectations of what a young person can do.
In 2006, at the age of 18, he was elected to town council in his home community of La Ronge. Three years later, when he was 21, he became mayor, a position he still holds.
Now Sierzycki has even loftier political ambitions as the Saskatchewan Party MLA candidate for the Cumberland constituency.
“Politics and driving for change takes energy,” says Sierzycki, 27, a married father of one, “and I think that’s one of the benefits of being a younger person with a young family.”
Since being named the Sask Party candidate in October 2014, Sierzycki has paid several visits to Creighton and Denare Beach in an effort to build bridges with potential voters.
He has heard a number of concerns along the way, from challenges residents face in finding a physician, to the need for a long-term care facility, increased cellular coverage and improved Internet access.
If elected, Sierzycki pledges to make a seniors’ home for the Creighton area a priority. He says he has already met with local seniors on the matter and provided relevant information to various provincial ministries.
Mamawetan Churchill River Health Region has frustrated many local seniors by proposing a 70-bed long-term care facility for La Ronge but nothing, to date, for Creighton.
“To say that people are to move to La Ronge, that perhaps isn’t a realistic approach,” says Sierzycki.
He sees room for more cross-border cooperation on issues such as seniors’ care and a long-sought group home for residents with cognitive disabilities.
In Creighton and Denare Beach, some seniors are upset that they lose certain benefits when a spouse must move across the border to Flin Flon to access long-term care while the other remains in Saskatchewan.
“That’s simply government working with government,” Sierzycki says of the solution, “and I think that’s where a lot of things also need to improve.”
Another long-standing concern among Creighton area voters is the lack of cellular coverage along the Hanson Lake Road between Creighton and Smeaton.
Sierzycki says he has already brought up the issue to the minister responsible for SaskTel.
“It is a safety issue,” Sierzycki says. “As a former paramedic, I’ve [responded to] motor vehicle accidents on that road, and it’s taken individuals much time to get help. Those are things that – I can’t promise that I’ll be bringing in cellphone service, but I do know that a voice in government has, potentially, the ability to advocate for those important things.”
Sierzycki says it is important for an MLA to develop relationships with people who understand their individual communities and then give voice to those issues in the legislature.
While its opponents portray it as a party of cuts, the Saskatchewan Party, Sierzycki says, has actually made record investments in northern Saskatchewan.
“I think the track record speaks for itself,” he says. “There’s always more work to be done and more investments to happen, but there has been significant investments in northern Saskat-chewan never seen before.”
By way of example, Sierzycki says municipal revenue sharing has increased by 107 per cent, in some cases, since the previous NDP government.
He says northern highways and health care have also seen “bumps,” again adding that there is more work to do.
“To simply say that’s it’s the party of cuts, that’s incorrect,” says Sierzycki.
Education is another crucial issue for Sierzycki, who calls it “the key to the future, especially in the northern part of the province.”
He will take an unpaid leave of absence from his position of La Ronge mayor on March 4. That same day, he will also take a leave from his job as coordinator with Community Vitality, an industry-funded organization that studies the impact of the uranium industry on northern Saskatchewan communities.
Sierzycki will then focus more attention on his campaign to unseat the NDP in Cumberland for the first time since 1952. So what makes him think he can break through the orange wall?
“The question is, why not try something else?” he says.
Saskatchewan voters head to the polls on April 4. Polls suggest the Saskatchewan Party will easily win a third straight majority government.
