While many North Shore voters have their choices locked in for the fast-approaching federal election, others are still undecided.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Seniors’ Activity Centre in West Van was absolutely packed for an all-candidates meeting with party nominees for the West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country and North Vancouver–Capilano ridings.
Some attendees showed up to the meeting wearing their chosen party’s colours, in a show of support for their candidate. But most wore no evidence of political affiliation, and clapped regularly, regardless of who was responding to a question.
There were some issues that drew more emotional responses than others, however, such as how Canadian leadership handles the trade war, promises of electoral reform and defunding the CBC.
Guests may have also noticed hired security guards wearing armoured vests at the meeting. They were hired by the activity centre board, after a conflict happened at the last all-candidates meeting last year during the provincial election, said district spokesperson Carrie Gadsby.
But Tuesday’s event went off without any notable hitches.
Candidates were first each given five minutes to introduce themselves personally, then another five minutes to explain their political platform and why they’re running.
In attendance from West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country was Patrick Weiler (Liberal), Keith Roy (Conservative), Jäger Rosenberg (NDP), Lauren Greenlaw (Green Party), Peyman Askari (People’s Party) and Gordon Jeffrey (Rhinoceros Party).
From North Vancouver–Capilano, there was Johnathan Wilkinson (Liberal), Stephen Curran (Conservative), Tammy Bentz (NDP), Andrew Robinson (Green Party) and Eshan Arjmand (People’s Party).
How would parties lead the country?
Incumbents Weiler and Wilkinson presented the Liberal Party, and current Prime Minister Mark Carney, as best-positioned to lead the country in this time of economic uncertainty.
“We will never go back to the same place that we were before,” Wilkinson said. “And so we need to think about, how do we actually best build an economy and a country that can be more resilient moving forward.”
One of Carney’s primary commitments to that end is to eliminate inter-provincial trade barriers to strengthen trade within Canada, Wilkinson said.
But instead of the Liberals being best poised to continue leading the nation, Conservative candidates at the meeting said Canada has weakened since Justin Trudeau was first elected in 2015.
“I think we are worse off than we were 10 years ago,” Roy said.
“We know that young people are finding it increasingly difficult to imagine sharing in the Canadian dream of owning a home and building their future here in Canada. Increasingly, they’re looking outside our borders for pursuing their future,” he said. “Seniors are also suffering the brunt of the cost of living and affordability crisis, which I believe is largely fuelled by a lot of government overspending.”
The NDP hopefuls focused on social programs and the need to put people first, while emphasizing the initiatives their party has put across the line in Ottawa by putting pressure on the Liberals and Conservatives.
“For us, the big thing is affordability. We have got to address it immediately, not in 10 years, not in 20 years,” Bentz said. We’ve got to start building some affordable homes … and we also need to cap rents. We need to stop grocery stores from gouging us.
“We also want to make sure that every single person has access to a family doctor, so we have to add more health coverage, not take it away,” she added.
Meanwhile, the People’s Party candidates also spoke to conservative values, but with a more radical approach than the Conservative Party. Askari advocated for withdrawing from all global conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, to focus all resources within Canada. Arjmand spoke out against so-called woke culture.
Rhinoceros’s Jeffrey relied on satire to express his distaste for how politicians have made life generally worse for citizens, with most of his barbs aimed at the in-power Liberals.
Do Canadians still care about electoral reform?
During the following open question-and-answer period, audience members waited for a chance to use a microphone and put queries directly to candidates.
Despite the advice of experts in recent years that Canada needs to diversify trade more away from the U.S., one attendee asked why the Liberals haven’t acted.
Disagreeing, Wilkinson said his party has been diversifying trade.
“Within the last few years, we’ve actually signed agreements between 10 to 15 new countries around the world, in many areas that are strategic moving forward, like critical minerals,” he said. “We’ve actually signed agreements with Europe, with a range of other countries, South Korea, for the purpose of joint investing and ultimately exporting those products. The same thing is true in a whole range of other areas.”
Another audience member said he was undecided about his choice and is tired of voting strategically. He asked what each party would do to enact electoral reform.
Robinson said the Greens fully support proportional representation.
“Diversity of voices, I think, is absolutely essential in a democracy to be able to hold people to account, to be able to collaborate, to be able to find opportunities, to find common ground,” he said.
Bentz said the NDP holding other parties to account is the closest Canadians are going to get to electoral reform right now.
“We have a minority government where they have to collaborate with us, so we have to hold them there and make sure that they do what they said they were going to do,” she said.
Curran said that one of the first priorities in electoral reform is cracking down on foreign interference in elections.
“The lack of urgency and the lack of action by this government is really tragic,” he said.
Wilkinson responded by stating that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre supported recommendations by a federal commission set up to tackle foreign meddling.
Wilkinson said the issue of electoral reform was important in 2015, when Justin Trudeau declared that he would be the last prime minister elected under the first-past-the-post system.
But political parties across Canada have failed to agree on what an alternative would be.
“It can’t be done by one party,” he said “It is the fundamental tenet of the democratic process. One party makes the change. You end up thinking that they’ve chosen a system only because this favours their party.”
“The problem with our system is it forces people to make choices that they wouldn’t otherwise make,” Wilkinson said, adding there are many options for other systems, but an alternative hasn’t yet been agreed on by Canadians.
One audience members asked the Conservative candidates if they believe the CBC – which has been disparaged by Poilievre on multiple occasions – should be defunded.
Curran said the CBC has performed a function in the past, of creating a cultural identity in this country, supporting heritage, supporting sport and supporting French language in Quebec.
“Where our concern lies is the apparent tying of government to the transmission of information – information that we all digest,” he said. “If I was in government right now, the linkage between government spending and our national broadcaster should be under a great deal of scrutiny.”
But it’s not a current priority for the Conservatives, Curran said.
“There’s no timeline for dealing with the CBC. We have more important issues to deal with, especially in the current economic context,” he said.
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