A Navy veteran from Tumbler Ridge is hoping to become the next MP for Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies.
Barry Blackman put his name forward to run for the Progressive Canadian Party, one of six registered candidates for the riding.
Blackman said he is a veteran, and part of the reason why he is running is because of what he sees as the government's poor treatment of veterans.
"The current government's incompetent; I can't say it any easier," Blackman said in an interview with the Alaska Highway News. "We need a real conservative voice up here."
To Blackman, the Conservative Party of Canada isn't truly conservative.
"They're more libertarian, they are a corporatist party," he said. "They're not true conservatives."
Blackman's party, the Progressive Canadians, is a fringe centre-right party made up of former members of the Progressive Conservatives, who were dissatisfied when their party merged with the Canadian Alliance in 2003 to form the modern Conservative Party.
To Blackman, this party is the true successor to the Progressive Conservatives and the party of Canada's first Prime Minister, John A. MacDonald.
Blackman has never held public office.
However, he believes his military background has prepared him for the role.
"The number one thing that the military teaches you is you lead by example. They've got training for everything," he said. "I was trained (by the military) in Ottawa, so I'm familiar with Ottawa as well."
Blackman served on the HMCS Huron in the Gulf in the '90s. When he arrived, the Gulf War against Iraq was officially over.
Nevertheless, Blackman still saw combat. The Navy was involved cleaning up unexploded bombs on the Highway of Hell. This was a six-lane highway between Kuwait and Iraq used by Iraqi forces, and was heavily bombed during the war.
Blackman said oil wells were still burning when he and other service men got there, and they still came under fire from other combatants.
Blackman's biggest priority as a candidate is employment. He wants to encourage growth by providing short-term stimulus funding for infrastructure programs to help employ people.
Blackman has already seen what high unemployment can do to a community, and his hometown of Tumbler Ridge is facing high unemployment numbers after recent coal mine closures.
Despite his goals to reduce unemployment, Blackman will face difficulties in his campaign. He has announced his candidacy later than many of the other candidates, and the Progressive Canadian Party is largely unknown.
In the 2011 election, the party only ran nine candidates throughout Canada, none of whom won their ridings.
The slate of Progressive Canadian party candidates for this year is still not known. Calls to the Progressive Canadian Party head office asking for more information were not returned as of press time.
Still, Blackman believes he has a "good chance" of winning the election, as voters may not like some of the other, more mainstream parties.
"People want change, but they don't want the alternatives," he said.
