ESTEVAN – Robert Kitchen is looking back fondly on nearly a decade as the MP for Souris-Moose Mountain.
Kitchen, who was a member of the Conservative Party’s caucus announced last July he would not seek another term in the role, and he said he won’t consider himself officially retired until election day on April 28.
“My phone and my computer still get questions and comments and emails, etc., from constituents who may not know that the election is on, or may not know I’m not running again. We’re still here to work for them as best we can,” said Kitchen in an interview with SaskToday.ca.
He has constituency offices in Estevan, Weyburn and Moosomin, along with the Ottawa office, and is busy helping his staff members with the transition and cleaning out his office.
“Once you’re out, everything is shredded and destroyed. And then the new person … all the furniture belongs to the government of Canada, so I’ve got to make sure that’s all here,” said Kitchen.
He wasn’t surprised the election was called on March 23. He expected Mark Carney would call one shortly after Carney was elected by the party’s members as their new leader and Canada’s prime minister, but he hoped the election would be called earlier than it was, because some of the MPs would have purchased tickets to be back in Ottawa for the first day in Parliament on March 24.
“Someone in B.C., in order to get to Ottawa, you’re looking at leaving early Sunday morning to get there at a decent time so that you’re ready for what would transpire, assuming that the house would go back on Monday (March 24),” said Kitchen.
During his time in Ottawa, Kitchen believes he lived up to what he said he would do in his first speech: he was there for his constituents, regardless of whether they supported him.
“The seat doesn’t belong to the MP; it belongs to the constituents. And it’s important that whoever that MP is recognizes that, and … live by that,” said Kitchen.
He thinks he was able to challenge the government to be responsive. If the Conservative Party was in power, he said a lot more would have happened. He would have liked to have a chance at being in government, but the Liberals won each election.
Kitchen is looking forward to spending time with his wife Donna. She stood by him throughout the past decade and has been through a lot over the last 9 1/2 years.
“It’s something she didn’t sign up for, so I’m going to spend time to be with her and then get to know my family again, my grandchildren, and then I’ll get out and about doing something,” said Kitchen.
He’s looking forward to attending events in the community as well.
Kitchen doesn’t expect he’ll return to practice as a chiropractor, which he did for many years in Estevan before his political career began. When he was the registrar for chiropractors in Saskatchewan, he had legislation introduced to ensure that someone who hadn’t practised for a certain length of time would have to go through training to re-enter the profession. He could take courses to meet the requirements, but he’s decided he won’t.
Health care is a rapidly-changing field, and Kitchen continues to believe the rules put in place are the right ones.
“There are other avenues where I think I might be of assistance,” said Kitchen.
He has not been contacted by the party about being involved with the campaign for the riding’s Conservative Party candidate Steven Bonk, and if he were to be contacted, his efforts would depend on what’s asked of him. Still, he hopes the Conservatives will be victorious locally and federally on election day.
He expects he’ll continue to watch what is happening in federal politics. Kitchen made a lot of friends on all sides of the House of Commons. Clerks, staff, pages, workers and security guards also became friends.
“Your friendships that you created, you don’t really want to lose them, ” said Kitchen.
Kitchen was first elected in 2015, and was re-elected in 2019 and 2021.
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