A second person has announced he will seek the nomination to be the Conservative Party of Canada’s candidate in the next election for the Abbotsford-South Langley riding.
Steve Schafer, vice-president of the Langley-Aldergrove Constituency Association, has put his name forward following the announcement earlier this week that Mike Murray will seek the nomination for the new riding.
Current Abbotsford MP Ed Fast announced March 14 that he is retiring from federal politics as of the next election, slated for October 2025. Murray is Fast’s executive assistant.
Schafer announced his intentions on Monday (March 18). A business consultant by trade and backrooms political strategist, he has been actively involved in politics at the municipal, provincial and federal levels for decades.
Schafer was previously involved in B.C. in Andrew Scheer’s leadership campaign, and most recently for Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
He said he met with Fast during the federal Conservative Party’s leadership contest.
“Ed reached out early in 2022 to have a coffee and discuss joining the Jean Charest campaign. He was very respectful and knew that I had been with Pierre’s team for several years already at that point,” Schafer said.
“We’ve had in-depth conversations about issues, leaders, and Conservative philosophy over the years, and I’ve always appreciated Ed’s insights. He’s served Abbotsford with aplomb over the past 18 years and I wish him all the best in his future endeavours. I can’t say retirement, because I don’t think that’s in his DNA.”
RELATED: Abbotsford MP Ed Fast to retire from federal politics
Schafer, a Langley resident of 26 years, has more than 15 years’ experience on the Langley-Aldergrove board, including a 2019 nomination contest against current MP Tako van Popta.
He said he has “an unbroken allegiance to Conservative values” that stretches back to his volunteerism for former MPs Preston Manning and Stephen Harper in the former riding of Calgary Southwest, from which he hails.
Schafer said he saw the “destructive effects” of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau in the late 1970s and early ’80s in Calgary.
“His fiscal policies of price and wage controls and the National Energy Program, to name just a couple, had devastating effects on Canada’s economy. His son is continuing in his father’s footsteps by deficit spending as fast as he can print new money,” he said.
“I appreciate Pierre’s Chicago School approach to fiscal policy. He understands that this is the biggest driver of the rampant inflation we’ve seen over the past few years.
“Life is getting completely unaffordable for far too many Canadians, and I can’t look my children in the eyes at night without knowing I’m doing everything I can to stop the direction our country has been going under Trudeau’s captaincy.”
Schafer said his background makes him an ideal candidate for the riding.
“I’m an odd mix of undergrad microbiology and master’s in business. Royal Conservatory of Canada piano player but hold a commercial truck driver’s licence; actively involved for years in our Mennonite church in Langley, but also vice-president of our local gun club.”
He said his experience as a child on the farm during the summers has helped him understand the concerns in the southern portions of Langley and Abbotsford, while his business and political background allows him “to provide reasonable solutions to their plights – many of them existential at this point.”
Schafer said his priorities include balancing budgets, paying off debt and ending the carbon tax and lowering others.
He said his priorities also include “proactively defending the Charter rights and freedoms of all Canadians,” which he believes came under attack during the COVID-19 pandemic and could be threatened again by the Liberal government’s pending legislation, Bill C-63 (the Online Harms Act).
Schafer is also the current executive director of the Canadian Foundation for Better Government and lives in Langley with his wife and two children.
More information is available on his website (steveschafer.ca) and Facebook page (facebook.com/akasteveschafer).