Cobourg News Blog

About 70 people came to the all-candidates debate at the Cobourg Lions Community Centre last night.  Hosted by Retired Teachers Ontario, all five candidates responded to 16 questions as well as giving opening and closing statements.  Moderated by York Bell-Smith with time limits enforced, it was orderly and informative since the questions covered a good range of concerns.  If you haven’t already heard, the Candidates are: Liberal Kim Rudd – incumbent M.P.; Conservative  Philip Lawrence; Green Party Jeff Wheeldon; NDP Mallory MacDonald and People’s Party of Canada (PPC) Frank Vaughan.  See the links below for more on these candidates.  After the opening statements, each candidate was asked to respond to three questions posed by the Retired Teachers; these focused on seniors, their retirement income and Pharmacare. They then responded to questions from the audience.

Opening statements mostly covered who the Candidates were with some talking about their policies but more interesting was their responses to the questions.

Questions

Below is a summary with abbreviations of questions and responses.  The first three questions were from the Retired Teachers and the rest from the audience.  The sequence is in the order of answers.

1.  What would you do to implement a National Seniors’ Strategy?
   1. NDP:  It’s already NDP Policy and is very important
   2. PPC:  Health care is not a Federal responsibility – their role is to get out of the way.
   3. Green:  This is already a Green Party Policy – we need to reduce partisanship
   4. Conservative: Costs for seniors would be reduced
   5. Liberal: Seniors’ issues often come up in Kim’s finance committee; the Liberal Government has a seniors’ caucus
2. What would you do to make Retirement Income more secure?
   1. Liberal: The CPP has been boosted
   2. Conservative: There’s no substitute for a defined benefit plan and we will not support Bill C-27
   3. Green:  The Green Party would change the bankruptcy act to put pensioners at the top of the list
   4. Mallory: The NDP would end Pension theft (e.g. the OAS) and strengthen pensions
   5. PPC: Governments should not spend more than they take in.
3. What steps will you take to implement Universal Pharmacare?
   1. PPC: The first step is to balance the budget; then empower Provinces to do whatever suits
   2. NDP: Would implement and pay for it by taxing the top 1% incomes (20,000 people) which would bring in $5B.
   3. Green: The Green Party supports this since it’s cheaper because you can negotiate prices.  Extra funds would be raised by closing tax loopholes.
   4. Conservative:  Instead of a tax and spend approach, Conservatives would focus on those in need.
   5. Liberal:  Andrew Scheer said that 95% already have drug coverage but he’s wrong.  Kim believes a plan is needed.
4. Moderator York Bell-Smith asked the Conservative Candidate:  Will the pensionable age be left at 65 or changed to 67?  Philip responded that he would campaign strongly to keep it at 65.  Frank Vaughan commented that he wants the CPP transferable to children.
5. The first question from the audience asked about affordable housing.
   1. Conservative: We need more full time employment as well as an increase in supply and density
   2. Liberal: We don’t want 30 story apartment buildings; the Liberals are already doing work on this issue
   3. Green:  The stress test is already helping, it protects us from overspending. But we need to address the inflated market
   4. NDP: The NDP supports the idea of Co-op housing, not for profit housing, and CMHC backed co-mortgages
   5. PPC: High immigration creates a huge demand – especially in Toronto and Vancouver.  Also taxes are too high leaving less money for housing.
6. Why not ban Handguns?
   1. Liberal: A handguns ban will be decided by municipalities – not all want it
   2. Conservative: Agrees with Liberals
   3. Green: Agrees with Liberals
   4. NDP: A full ban can be over-reaching and may not achieve intent
   5. PPC: Laws only work for people who abide by laws.
7. Why not change voting system like Trudeau promised?  And “make every vote count”.
   1. PPC: We need an elected Senate and the Governor General could also be elected.
   2. NDP: Disappointed – in favour of proportional representation
   3. Green: Disappointed – in favour of proportional representation
   4. Conservative: Open to listening to ideas; wants to work with people; first past the post does not have to be adversarial; would support Justin if he had the best idea.
   5. Liberal: NDP and Conservatives wanted a referendum so imposing a different method would look like the Liberals pushed it through.
8. There should be an Environmental target of a 1.5deg temperature rise
   1. Liberal: Legislated targets are needed
   2. Conservative: We have the best plan; we would work with the biggest emitters
   3. Green: We already have the technology and the means but not the political will. 1.5deg needs a 60% reduction in emissions but the current target is only 30%.
   4. NDP: Would commit to 1.5deg and already has a very robust climate plan
   5. PPC: CO2 is not the overall problem; we cannot control temperature
9. Big banks make billions in profit yet small business cannot get loans.
   1. PPC: The People’s Party target is zero percent inflation
   2. NDP: supports small business
   3. Green: There is a Green Party Policy “Think small first” – that  is, they favour small business
   4. Conservative: Small business is the heart of the economy; there is no easy answer but more bank competition would help.
   5. Liberal:  Taxes for small businesses have already been lowered
10. What is the top problem that we need to invest in and how long would it take to see results?
    1. Liberal: Climate Change
    2. Conservative: Life is not affordable for many; 48% are within $200 of insolvency at the end of the month; life is too expensive.
    3. Green: Climate Change
    4. NDP: People issues, we can’t just do one.  Fixing these would automatically help climate change.
    5. PPC: Climate change is not causing high insurance claims – e.g. with Lake Ontario flooding
11. Retirees pay too much tax.  What is your plan to reduce tax?
    1. PPC: First balance the books and simplify the tax code.  Less Government would require less tax.
    2. NDP: Taxes pay for services which we need; eliminate loopholes used by rich people.
    3. Green: Eliminate loopholes used by rich people
    4. Conservative: Scrap Carbon tax and GST on heating; give the seniors a bigger tax credit
    5. Liberal:  The Conservative plan is good for high paid people; Liberals have already reduced taxes, especially for seniors.
12. What would you do about the Opioid crisis?
    1. Liberal: Health care is Provincial issue; there are already policies in place to address this
    2. Conservative: We “need all hands on deck” – it is not just a Provincial issue; will work with every level of Government
    3. Green: This should be a non-partisan issue. We should decriminalize usage (although not trafficking).  Bring it into the open and treat it as a health issue.
    4. NDP: Agree with Greens
    5. PPC: These are coming in across borders; we should also be concerned about amphetamines.  Against enabling drug use.
13. What can be done about Plastic waste? (asked by 16 year old)
    1. PPC: Too much plastic is used in packaging; suggested individuals act to choose products with less or no packaging, e.g. at Farmers’ markets.
    2. NDP: Wants a green industry with e.g. compostable packaging
    3. Green: Regulations are needed to ensure recycling actually happens
    4. Conservative: Need to work with industry to eliminate unnecessary packaging
    5. Liberal:  Company with abandoned trash in Philippines was a fake company – we need to work with legitimate companies.
14. The man asking the question was “sick and tired of sniping” and wants politicians to work together and learn to compromise so they can work in a minority Government.
    1. Liberal: Extreme partisanship is bad
    2. Conservative: Will work for constituents and work across aisle
    3. Green: Partisanship prevents things getting done – Climate crisis needs all parties.
    4. NDP: Would work with other parties – in time, parties have changed and all have some good ideas.
    5. PPC:  Government in Canada did not originally work with one party dominating.  PPC believes in each MP acting as an individual.
15. The Liberals reduced the maximum TFSA annual contribution from $10K to $5k –what is your policy on this?
    1. Liberal: Fewer than 25% of Canadians used them – it was simply reduced to what it was before.  A larger amount is now permitted to be taken from an RSP for a house.
    2. Conservative: TFSA’s are not just used for houses
    3. Green: Tax System is complex – Greens would set up a commission to review and simplify taxes.
    4. NDP: House prices have to be tackled
    5. PPC: We have no policy on TFSAs
16. What’s your policy on free tuition for Colleges and Universities.
    1. PPC: Students knowingly take on loans – it’s not a taxpayer responsibility
    2. NDP: Policy is to eliminate interest on student debt and transition to free
    3. Green: You need a higher education to get a job.  Greens would forgive student debt and make tertiary tuition free.
    4. Conservative: Solution is to improve the economy and get more jobs for graduates
    5. Liberal:  Increase grants and improve payment terms.  Kim criticized Doug Ford’s actions on this issue.

Closing remarks

• Frank Vaughan: The Peoples Party of Canada is new and growing fast but policies need to be explained.
• Mallory MacDonald: We need Government Services and to help people in need – “NDP is people first”.
• Jeff Wheeldon: Greens believe in a bigger vision – without vision we will perish.  We need to be proactive; we can do this but need cooperation.
• Phillip Lawrence: We need a thriving private sector – promises can be financed by cutting $1.5B of foreign aid and $1.5B of corporate welfare.
• Kim Rudd:  The Senate is now non-partisan but Scheer will go back to the old way of selecting Senators.

Moderator York Bell-Smith commended all candidates for their passion.

Note that the above summaries are just that, summaries. To get the full idea of what Candidates say, it’s best to see them live. Go to the Federal Election page in the Links below to see a list of remaining All-Candidates meetings.

Below are some photos from the event

All Candidates - October 2nd

Kim Rudd

Philip Lawrence

Jeff Wheeldon

Mallory MacDonald

Frank Vaughan

All candidates meeting - lineup to ask questions

All Candidates - 16 year old asking question

Links

• Federal Election Page
• Justin Trudeau’s Quick Visit to Cobourg
• Trudeau Visits Cobourg – Kim Rudd nomination
• Andrew Scheer Campaigns in Cobourg
• Green Party Launches Election Campaign
• People’s Party Names Federal Election Candidate
• Mallory MacDonald Bio

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