Cathay Wagantall started 2015 as the Conservative nominee for Yorkton-Melville and ended it as the Member of Parliament.
“I certainly was hopeful of that and worked hard to that end, she said. “Obviously the riding has been a strong Conservative riding, but the campaign and the election showed that nothing can be taken for granted and I think I mentioned that on the night of [October 19] that you have to earn the support and trust of the people in your riding and that’s job one.
Within days, she was off to Ottawa. Although a little overwhelming at first, she said you don’t really have time to dwell on it.
“There’s that initial ‘oh my goodness,’ and then there’s the opportunity to get up to Ottawa right away and the orientation process just really solidifies everything for you very quickly, I had chosen to keep Garry [Breitkreuz’s] executive staff there and the staff here, so I had 20 years of experience going with me through that process.
“Initially, it was a mixture of thrilled and feeling like you’re drinking from a firehose, no question. There’s a lot to learn, but the environment is amazing, really good support all the way around, right from my own Conservative caucus to my staff and the people on the Hill that serve you there are remarkable.”
All in all, she said she is really enjoying it, particularly getting to do her maiden speech in the House of Commons on the Monday following the December 4 Throne Speech, in which she talked about seniors issues and veterans as she had been name the deputy critic for veterans affairs.
“It felt really good, I really appreciated the opportunity to do that and the feedback was good.”
Wagantall was back in the riding for the Holiday recess and had the following message for the season:
“Christmas and New Year’s is a key time in peoples’ lives,” she said. “It’s a time that you really focus on family and friends and building memories and if it is a spiritual experience for you because it is the birth of Christ there’s the religious side of it, the faith side of it too, so wherever people are at with those dynamics, I just want to encourage them to have a wonderful time with family and friends and focus on what’s most important and going into the new year we always have hopes for better things so I do wish peace and safety and health and joy on people as we go into 2016.
And speaking of the new year, she had some thoughts on that too.
“I’m beginning to realize, as a new member myself, that you have huge responsibilities in Ottawa, but your constituency is key, so to be able to balance those two, I’m really hoping to, now that the office is there, to get set to do some of those round tables that I’ve talked about,” she said.
“I’m in opposition, so our priority first of all is to hold the government accountable and work with them as much as we possibly can. Part of the challenge is that all the promises that were made need to be kept and at the same time need to be costed. It’s becoming clearer that a lot of things haven’t been costed out and then there’s all those things that you’re not expecting, like the cost of bringing the refugees over, all that type of thing is significant and they’re already well beyond the deficit that they had hoped to have right now without a lot of things fleshed out yet.”
