Federal politicians will get back to work tomorrow, as parliament resumes in Ottawa for the first time since the October election; and we'll get our first look at Justin Trudeau's minority government.

MP Blake Richards and his conservatives are back in opposition, with a caucus of one hundred and twenty-one seats, that's up from the previous ninety-five.

Richards says he believes they have a strong caucus that will hold the Liberal government accountable. He says "Having added the members that we've added to our caucus that's obviously going to give us greater numbers. I had the chance to go across the country and work with a number of these candidates and mentor them as we went through the election and I can tell you we're bringing in some strong new people."

Richards says for Canada to be as strong as it can be, Alberta needs to be as strong as it can be, and that's the message he'll be focusing on in meetings with Parliament.

"The number one job hands down without question has to be to find a way to unify this country again, and that is going to have to start with an understanding that our oil and gas products are critical to this country's success. Until that happens this country is going to have some hard times ahead."

Richards says that a divided country isn't the answer and if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is willing to take the necessary measures to unify the country he would have the full support of the Conservative party.

"This is a divided country, there's absolutely no question about that. We've seen the resurgence of the Bloc Quebecois, but more importantly, we've got a lot of frustration and a lot of anger that we're hearing here in Alberta, and understandably so. As Albertans, we just want to contribute. We want to put people back to work and we want to use the full economic power of our province.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently named his new cabinet; which lacks representation in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Richards says in his opinion it doesn't matter who is serving on Trudeau's cabinet. He says "Trudeau has a few people around him, Gerald Butts and a couple of others, that are his close friends that pretty much run the government. I don't get the sense that he listens to his cabinet ministers, or MPs, or anyone else." 

Richards says the Conservatives want to make things work, he says the interest of Albertans will be strongly represented in parliament and that the conservatives are ready to go. 

"We want to try to see the country unified," says Richards. "We've put together a series of ideas on some of the things that could be done in the Throne Speech to make that happen."

Richards has recently been named to the Official Opposition's shadow cabinet by Conservative leader Andrew Scheer.

The Banff-Airdrie MP will serve as the shadow cabinet minister for Tourism and Western Diversification, and says

"These new roles will give me another opportunity to fight for fairness for Alberta and to hold this Liberal government to account. It’s time for the Liberals to start hearing and listening to Alberta’s concerns. They can start by listening to the MPs who Albertans duly elected. As your representative and shadow cabinet minister, I will do just that."