Incumbent Banff-Airdrie MP Blake Richards has made it official that he's seeking a fifth term in the House of Commons.

Today, he filed papers with Elections Canada.

Richards says the election is unnecessary, and it comes at a time when COVID cases are once again on the rise.

"It definitely seems like a pretty selfish decision on the prime minister's part to call an election when he thought it was in his best interest," says Richards. "I think he's going to pay for it. I think a lot of Canadians are going to see him for who he truly is."

Despite that, he sees the opportunity for the Conservatives to introduce its 150-page recovery plan that focuses on putting Canadians back to work, helping small businesses, getting government spending under control, addressing the growing affordable housing issue, and toughening accountability laws for politicians.

"I think a mental health crisis is coming out of the situation we faced, as well. So, these will be some of the big issues, but certainly without question seeing our economic recovery and seeing people get back to work are absolutely number one."

Richards says with COVID, he won't be asking people to come to him. He and his team members have been knocking on doors for some time now, and Richards signs can be seen scattered across town on private and public property.

"I'm going to be coming to them and speaking to them directly. I'll also be attending as many of the events as possible. We'll be attending the Cochrane Fair, we'll be attending what's called airdrieFEST in Airdrie, and a number of community events like that."

Richards was first elected in what was then called the Wild Rose constituency in 2008 with 73 per cent of the vote. He has received over 70 per cent in all but the 2015 election when he dropped to 63 per cent.