Meet the Candidate: Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa Maverick Party Candidate Lori Falloon-Austin

Lori Falloon-Austin might not have much of a background in politics but she’s enthusiastic to get started. Her journey to becoming a candidate for the Maverick Party started like many political careers do: she was dissatisfied with the current state of things and wanted her voice to be heard.

Falloon-Austin got her feet wet years ago working for former MP Inky Mark, and was struck at the time by the ways in which people reached out to their MPs. Fast forward a few years and, even as a lifelong blue voter, she felt the modern PC Party was no longer for her. She considered running as an Independent but further research brought her to the Mavericks.

The Maverick Party, says Falloon-Austin, has two tracks. Track A are those members who want to give the West a voice, acting as a nation within a nation, modelled somewhat after the Bloc Québécois. Track B includes those members who are for separation from the rest of Canada. For the time being, Falloon-Austin says she is firmly in Track A.

While the Maverick Party has other candidates from Saskatchewan westward, Falloon-Austin is the only one in Manitoba. “I am the first [Maverick Party candidate in Manitoba],” she says. “I look at it as breaking ground. This party is going to be around for quite some time. We’re not a flash in the pan.”

One of the biggest appeals of the party for Falloon-Austin is the ability to speak her own mind and not be pressured to vote along party lines. Outside of their mutual desire to bring forward a voice for the West, Maverick Party candidates represent a multitude of different issues.

Born and raised in Foxwarren on the western edge of the constituency, Falloon-Austin comes from several generations of farmers, a tradition that looks to be carried on into the next generation as well. This makes it one of the primary areas she believes she can speak to.

Agriculture, she says, really is a generational activity now because it’s such a big, big investment to get started. While she understands the need for and appeal of big, industrial operations, her family has so far always stuck with the modest family farm. She belives the loss of elevators was the downfall of many rural communities, because it led to further loss of small business and shrinking populations. It’s a trend she’d like to see reversed.

Falloon-Austin admits she doesn’t currently have a working relationship with the many First Nations communities in the constituency and doesn’t feel comfortable forcing the issue, recognising there is a history of hard feelings there. However she is open to acts of Reconciliation, and offers admiration for the younger generation who are so open to diversity.

Ultimately, Falloon-Austin says she is proud to give the people of her constituency a choice outside of the big three.

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