MP for Bow River, Martin Shields, has been appointed Deputy Shadow Minister for Indigenous Services.
On November 9, Opposition leader Erin O’Toole announced his Shadow Cabinet, as well as Deputy Shadow Ministers on November 10. Shields will be working as Shadow Minister for Indigenous Relations Jamie Schmale. This was one of the first moves since the Conservatives won 119 seats in the 44th parliament.
“Number one, being elected is a great honour, but number two, working on a specific file, I think at this particular time brings tremendous issues, challenges, and opportunities,’’ Shields tells the Mail. “As we realize in this particular riding Siksika Nation is the most familiar to us in the sense of a land-based nation, and there is a tremendous number of people from Siksika in surrounding communities. It is at a really interesting time in the sense this particular riding, and in this position, we’ll be talking about Indigenous issues with legislation or proposed legislation nationwide.”
He looks forward to the position.
“I’m not Metis, I’m not Indigenous, but I have grown up in southern Alberta where Indigenous people have always been part of the community in my lifetime so I have some historical knowledge of Indigenous history in this part of the world, and as part of this riding I have worked with the Siksika Nation on legislation we have had or issues they have been working on,” he said.
Shields said reconciliation will be the primary focus of his work.
“Truth and reconciliation is a piece of legislation that Prime Minister Harper was involved with getting written, and I think there are a lot of pieces we talk about with truth and reconciliation. There was a piece of legislation in the past having to do with language that came through the Heritage Committee. It was about the Indigenous languages and the challenges of not losing those languages, and I was a huge proponent of that legislation.”
He is honoured to have been appointed.
“It’s humbling. I am not worried about titles or that kind of thing, but it is something because now you really have to be responsible for a particular topic. You need to do more research, you need to be knowledgeable, and you need to be listening to people about a whole variety of influences on this particular file,” he said. “There is a lot that comes with being given a file than just a title, and that’s a challenge and is what keeps us going.”

The premiere of Ghostbusters: Afterlife in Drumheller on Friday, November 19, was well received by a sold-out crowd. For one Drumheller youngster, he didn’t have to see it; he lived it.
Callum Mah, 13, son of Ed Mah and Brandi Schneider, had the opportunity during the summer of 2019 to work closely with the productions as he was cast as a photo double for one of the main actors. Calum spent from July to October working closely with Logan Kim, the actor who played Podcast.
Ed explains Callum and a girl named Sydney Scholfield from Linden showed up to an open casting for the Netflix feature Lost In Space. They had not heard anything for about a year until they received a call out of the blue. Even then, it was fairly secretive.
“They said if he was indeed interested, it would be a fairly substantial role, and that is about all they would tell us,” said Ed. “They said he would be a photo double for one of the main actors, and if interested, he would have to come in for an audition.”
He auditioned in front of writer and director Jason Reitman and Kim, and he and Sydney got the part.
From there, he spent much of the summer and in to fall on set. This took him all over Alberta, including Fort MacLeod, Turner Valley, Crossfield, and Calgary. Interestingly enough, the one location he did not work at was Drumheller.
“And we were a block away from where we lived,” said Callum.
While he was classified as an ‘extra,’ because of the role he played in the production, he had his own dressing room and had to go through make-up each day he worked.
“Because I was a photo extra, I got to interact with the actors quite a bit,” said Calum, adding he was most excited to meet Bill Murray.
As a youngster, he was accompanied by either mom or dad while on set, and as the shooting progressed into the school year, a tutor was brought in for the youth to keep their studies up.
While he did not attend the premiere in Drumheller, he attended Calgary the next day with his partner photo extra and even received some gifts from the director and the production.
As for the finished product, Callum says, “Oh it was so good!”