We asked all the candidates the same 11 questions on a wide range of issues plus one specific to their party. Over the six weeks leading up to Election Day October 19, we present their answers unedited and in their entirety.
This week’s questions:
1. In your opinion, what is the most pressing issue facing the Yorkton-Melville riding, why, and what is your plan to make it a priority for the federal government?
2. The humanitarian crisis in the Middle East and Europe keeps getting worse due to the ongoing war in Syria and Iraq; what do you think Canada’s best response is to this international problem?
Cathay Wagantall - Conservative
1. The truth being known there are a number of different issues. It depends so much on where the constituents live and their age, the demographic, what they’re specifically dealing with, possibly with their business. A lot of what I’ve heard going door-to-door is, well, in the agricultural field of course, water stewardship is important, transportation of their grain, their products, is important to them, which is an issue across the country, actually, for a lot of our manufacturers and producers as well, that’s something that’s key. We’ve been working on railways to commit to certain expectations for them, so that’s being resolved and they seem to be quite happy with that. I suppose, as well, the seniors are always concerned about their Canada Pension and confidence that they’re being taken care of as best as we can and as I’ve talked with people, actually, a number of them are very pleased with what Gary’s [Breitkreuz, retiring MP] staff has done for them. In that regard, dealing with issues as they come up for them, getting an explanation and that type of thing. Business is very important, folks are concerned that the economy stays strong, so very concerned that things like the Canada Pension Plan, there was talk with the Liberals about possibly increasing the expectations on small businesses contributing to that and that’s something I’m hearing very negative things about. Of course, I’m a small businessperson myself, so just concerned that we keep our economy healthy and, of course, the Conservative base to that is if we have a healthy economy and business and industry and those things are doing well then we have the stability to be able to do the other things that a government needs to do in taking care of folks that have needs.
2. I think it’s a combination that we have been doing. I believe, I’m terrible with my numbers, but I think it’s 23,000 [Iraqians] and around 3,000 Syrians that we were looking at helping to move to Canada and we’ve pretty much reached 22,000 with the one and we’ve got a long ways to go yet with Syria. This just brings it home all the more how crucial and how terrible that whole circumstance is, so helping the refugees is, I mean, you can see what’s happened with Germany and the whole European Union and trying to grapple with the severity and how intense it is and the numbers coming into their countries and we want to continue to do what we’ve done. We have one of the best records, Canada, for bringing refugees into our country and as I heard on the radio today refugees and immigrants are the backbone of who we are and we will continue to try to do what we can. We have, for our population, one of the highest responses to responses to that need and then the balance, of course, is we have to be concerned about what is causing the circumstance and I heard on the radio again this morning that it’s becoming more and more harsh, and of course, I think ISIL knows if they continue to do this, they destroy the whole culture, they destroy the country and they can see how it’s impacting other countries who are trying to deal with it and the chaos that it’s causing. And then, of course, there’s the very real threat that they have announced very publicly towards Canada, towards the U.S. towards other countries, so we have to take an active role in helping to end this.
Doug Ottenbreit - NDP
1. I think the economy is. I think there is obviously a lack of employment opportunities here for our folks, for the youth. It’s not so much that there isn’t jobs, it’s just that they’re all part time jobs and people are having to work two and three part time jobs to try and survive. That seems to be Mr. Harper’s answer to economic difficulties is to create a bunch of part-time employment. That’s not going to be our focus as a government. We’re going to make sure that the jobs that are created are full-time jobs with good living wages and that’s one of the reasons we’ve said in this campaign that when we become government we’re going have a 15 dollar an hour federal minimum wage. We think that that’s an important first step. I think that I won’t have any difficulty expressing that view to the government because we’ve taken that position in the election. Thomas Mulcair has committed to a different style of government, a much more consultative type of government, a government that’s going to talk to the premiers and municipal officials so that when the government acts they’re not acting unilaterally or on their own.
2. I think it’s a two-part problem. The immediate problem is to deal with the refugees and like Tom, I don’t think this should be a political issue; it’s not an issue that we should play politics with. I’m proud of Canada’s international reputation, or at least what it was before Stephen Harper became prime minister. I think we should return to that. We should open our doors first to the 10,000 that the U.N. has asked us to welcome to this country and then look at what other further actions we can take. Canada has always served its best in the world when trying to bring peace to a region not inflict pain on a region and that’s what I think we should be doing.
Elaine Hughes - Green Party of Canada
1. There’s so many firsts from seniors to farmers to First Nations, so it’s difficult to choose, but I think I’ll drill in on the increasing age of out citizens. Of course it’s all over the country, but also in Yorkton-Melville and just yesterday [August 2] the Green Party released a seniors strategy which picks up on the impact of the benefit to seniors from security in their pensions to home care and long-term care and a place to go instead of the hospital after an illness there’s a place for them to go that is much cheaper for the system than staying in that hospital. There’s that and certainly my support for good home care programs and people’s family members who take care of their own in their own home, that is extremely important with resources for days off and all that sort of thing, it’s a grueling thing. If I have the opportunity I will certainly be very vocal as I’m a senior myself. I’m a hard worker so I will just work on the things on my list and that’s one of them.
2. Well it certainly isn’t the response we got from the Conservative MP this morning on CBC Radio, 10,000 people over the next four years or whatever his figures were, is a joke. You’re looking at hundreds of thousands of people who are suffering and dying here and we’re moving our little men on the chess board, we’ve got 5,000 over here, this year will be 2,000, it’s just a disgrace and I don’t know, I don’t understand. Well, I do understand because you follow the money. The help that Canada is giving the rest of the world is a disgrace and it’s an embarrassment in so many aspects, we’ve lost our standing as a country that other countries looked up to. For years and years we were near the top on humanity, we were near the top in foreign aid, we were near the top in living conditions, we were near the top in so many things and that has all crumbled.
Liberal
The Liberal Party has yet to nominate a candidate in the Yorkton-Melville riding. According to a spokesperson, the party is in the last stages of due diligence with a prospective nominee and an announcement is imminent. Yorkton This Week will endeavour to interview the candidate as soon as he or she is available.
