Thomas Sierzycki comes across as a restrained, unassuming young man.
But beneath his soft-spoken, bespectacled exterior quietly churns the confidence of a genuine mover and shaker.
When he was just 18 years old, Sierzycki was elected to town council in his native La Ronge.
At 21 he moved up to the top position to become Canada’s youngest mayor.
Still just 26 and in his second term as mayor, Sierzycki now has his sights set on another ambitious goal: becoming MLA for the Cumberland constituency.
“Thanks a lot for coming out,” he told a handful of attendees at a forum at the Creighton Community Hall last month. “Small group, big group, it’s good to get momentum and we’ll build off that.”
As a candidate for the Saskatchewan Party, Sierzycki will need all of the momentum he can get.
After all, the last time the NDP or its predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth, failed to win Cumberland was 1948.
Even in 2011, when a massive Sask Party provincial win was a foregone conclusion, Cumberland voters gave New Democrat Doyle Vermette a strong mandate.
Stranglehold
Overcoming the NDP stranglehold, Sierzycki said, will require significant effort.
“We have to work hard in order to get the trust and respect of the constituents,” said Sierzycki, a former teacher who is now an industry-community liaison. “Each community is unique in the challenges they’re facing.”
Earlier in the day, Sierzycki had learned about some of the challenges facing Creighton and Denare Beach, key communities in the constituency he hopes to represent.
Based on those talks, he spoke of the need to improve Internet and cell service, to upgrade the Hanson Lake Road and to foster more economic development.
On the latter point, Sierzycki said it is important to work with the Manitoba government on areas of mutual concern.
As for nuclear waste storage, arguably the most controversial issue in Creighton right now, Sierzycki did not say whether he supports or opposes the concept.
“I definitely commend [Creighton] council for having an open perspective to get facts through the educational process,” he said. “However, I can’t stipulate on speculation or anything like that. The community has the right to at least look at their opportunities, and when the time does come for anything to really translate into something that will happen, we’ll have to look at it then.”
Advantages
In terms of his age, Sierzycki sees advantages to his youthfulness.
“I think an advantage is the energy and the eagerness to learn,” he said. “I think nobody going into an election for a job like this knows everything. Cumberland constituency is very diverse in the types of communities we have and the people within the communities themselves, from First Nations issues to educational issues to you name it.”
Sierzycki said he and his new bride envision their future in northern Saskatchewan and want to ensure “good things happen in the North.”
As Sierzycki took questions from the floor, seated beside him was another conservative politician who got an early start in the business, former Creighton MP and current Saskatchewan cabinet minister Jeremy Harrison.
“I would say Thomas is probably the best prepared 26-year-old to go into the legislature of anybody I know,” Harrison said. “Speaking from some level of experience, having been elected to parliament at 26, Thomas is very ready for this job – very ready for this job. Knowing the depth of knowledge and experience that he has in northern issues is really quite remarkable.”
Sierzycki said Harrison’s compliments made him blush, but the candidate himself acknowledged he faces a challenge in continuously learning about the needs of individual communities in the constituency.
“I can’t speak for Creighton or Denare Beach on what they think is important unless I go and talk to the people directly,” he added.
The next Saskatchewan election will be held Nov. 2, 2015 or April 4, 2016, depending on the timing of the next federal election.
