As part of our coverage of the federal election, Investment Executive is profiling candidates who are working or who have worked in the financial services industry.

Here we look at Liberal candidate Ron Symic:

Ron Symic, the Liberal candidate for Edmonton-Sherwood Park, was motivated to make his first run for public office by a deep sense of optimism.

A Liberal supporter for many years, Symic has helped the party in a number of provincial and federal campaigns. “More recently, during the past 18 months, I just had enough of the negativism in Canadian politics from the other side of the House,” he says.

“It’s unfortunate that no one has ever taken the time to really talk about the positive things the Liberal party has done in this country. They’ve had eight consecutive plus-side budgets … and we have an economy going for us that is at the top of the G-8. We have a vibrant economy and everything that goes with that.” But winning the seat is a challenge. He’s up against Conservative Ken Epp, who has been the riding’s choice since being first elected in 1993 as the Reform Party candidate.

Symic says the country is in good fiscal shape, and believes the most important economic issue facing Canadians is a desire to pay less in taxes. That issue has been addressed by the Liberal platform that contains a promise of tax reduction, says Symic, an insurance broker with Morgex Insurance Group in Edmonton, part of the St. John’s-based Johnson Insurance Group, which is owned by Royal Sun-Alliance

Symic regards education as the key to financial wellbeing for all. “If we can spend more money on training programs and more in retraining and postsecondary education, we’re going to be able to put people in a good position [to be] financially rewarded.”

He favours a national securities regulator, as a way of ensuring consistent enforcement of regulations across the country, while reducing “red tape.” However, he is not averse to retaining the provincial regulators, operating under a centralized umbrella organization, a situation he describes as “a head-office and branch-office concept.”

Symic is also upbeat about the banking industry. The bank merger issue is off the table at the moment, he says, because banks are doing so well they don’t need to merge. Instead, new banks are entering the arena. He points to the Alberta Motor Association’s recent bank charter, among other small, emerging banks.

“People [in the financial services industry] want long-term assurances and guarantees so they can … provide good services and good economic returns for investors,” he says. “But I think we have the type of country that has been on solid ground for so long that that’s going to come. I just think it’s the beginning right now. We’re going to see boom times ahead of us.”