A day before Maxime Bernier placed second in a Manitoba by-election, a door opened for the PPC’s “western lieutenant,” Kelly Lorencz. .On June 18, Prime Minister Trudeau set the Calgary Heritage by-election date for July 24. Lorencz didn’t wait for the formal announcement, and has already campaigned for more than two weeks in the riding..Lorencz is not new to the campaign trail. He placed fifth with 1.97% of the vote in Calgary Nose Hill, as Michelle Garner Rempel took the seat. He placed third with 12% in Red Deer—Mountain View in 2021 behind Conservative winner Earl Dreeshen. Lorencz was one of three PPC candidates in the Alberta federal Senate elections in 2021, placing eighth with 5.11% of the vote..The 53-year-old Lorencz said he usually finds common ground with voters at the doors, though he also hears his party is splitting the vote..“For the last three years, Canadians have been kept in a constant state of fear, and that ‘Don't split the vote,’ or, ‘We’ve just got to get rid of Trudeau,’” Lorencz said..“You're not splitting anything. It's a matter of are you going to have a voice in Ottawa or not?”.Lorencz said a lot of the platform planks his Conservative opponent prompts in campaign literature are issues the PPC championed since its inception. Although some conservative voters wish the PPC would fold up and support the Poilievre Conservatives, Lorencz said his party stands alone on some important issues..“People need to vote their values… Immigration numbers are skyrocketing, and Pierre is in support of that. He's in support of bringing in more immigrants, and his shadow minister for immigration actually says that we're not bringing these people in fast enough,” Lorencz said..“In so many ways, they're very much Liberal-lite. And I believe that Pierre is using that populist message to his advantage right now to keep conservatives in support of him. But I don't think he can keep that up to an election.”.Conservative Bob Benzen won Calgary Heritage in 2021 with 57.6% support. PPC candidate Bailey Bedard placed fourth with 5.1% of the vote, a percentage Lorencz hopes to increase..“We need to get that PPC message out in the community; we need to have people have that open and honest discussion. This agenda that's coming into Canada here, we need to take a stand and say, ‘We're done.’ And you're noticing that now, especially in Calgary, with the protests against this gender ideology. And this is something Pierre and the Conservatives just will not touch,” he said..“If you're 18, and this is how you feel, or whatever, then that's your right, that's your choice. I don't care… Leave the kids alone, we don't need to be educating them about this in school. It's confusing enough being a kid; it's a challenge growing up in the world today… We've moved away from the fact that there's male and female.”.Lorencz said he's “of the same mind” as Bernier on abortion and would bring in a bill to ban it in the final trimester of pregnancy..“We're the only western country that doesn't have anything on the books to protect an unborn child,” he said..Lorencz, a skydiver, hunter, and sports shooter, traveled the world with the Canadian airborne regiment and the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry before spending the last 13 years as a federal corrections officer. He said his career helped shape his perspective..“If we want to address the issues of crime, if we want to address the issues of mental health and addiction, if we want to address the issues related to this gender ideology, then we need to get back to family and community,” he said..“The PPC is Canada's insurance policy. I voted Conservative my whole life. I'm going to support the Conservatives when it supports Canadians. That's the bottom line. But I'm also going to hold the Conservatives accountable when they move away from conservative values.”
