About 50 people braved winter weather to attend Tuesday evening’s meet-and-greet of provincial candidates, and a panel discussion of relevant issues, at Grace United Church in Barrie.
And while the Green Party, Liberals and New Democrats were represented, there was no sign of the Progressive Conservatives leading into the Feb. 27 Ontario election.
Margaret Prophet, executive director and co-founder of the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition, said the PCs are setting a bad example.
“The issue with them not showing up to debate, and them being the party in government, is that it sets this precedent for them that they don’t have any incentive to show up to these types of things,” she said. “They want to have transparency and accountability on their terms, but these are the type of places where citizens really get to ask their types of questions.
“So the problem is if they don’t come, and they still maintain power, then there’s no incentive for them to do it (attend debates) and then future governments — it’s not going to be a Conservative government forever — will also see that there’s a precedent set that, well, last time the governing party didn’t show up to these debates so we don’t have to, because they were still able to maintain or regain control (of government)," Prophet added.
The incumbent PC candidates are Doug Downey in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-
After the meet-and-greet, the evening featured more than two hours of panel discussion, plus a few questions from the audience.
The panel consisted of Prophet, Anisa Carrascal, a nurse in the mental health and addictions field for more than a dozen years, Rev. Susan Eagle from Grace United Church, and Jacob Kearey-Moreland, a local farmer and PhD student at Lakehead University in Orillia.
Topics on their agenda included an affordable, connected, healthy and livable Ontario, how to motivate people to get involved in the issues, and voting.
The panel was asked, for example, about proportional representation in government, instead of the first-past-the-post system.
“We’d have more people voting if they thought their vote counted,” Eagle said.
“You have to vote, show up to vote. That’s number one,” Carrascal said. “It’s the way we protest, the number-one resistance.”
“You need to vote differently,” Prophet said. “You need to talk to people about voting differently.”
But Kearey-Moreland introduced some skepticism into the conversation.
“We’re sitting in here, talking about the issues, and in two weeks (PC Leader) Doug Ford is going to have a majority government,” he said. “It’s a systematic attack on our democracy. We need to get a say. We have to do something different, because this doesn’t work.”
Health care was also a concern for panel members, especially a two-tiered system.
“The minute you introduce money into health care, the trust is gone,” Carrascal said. “There should never be a transition between the doctor and the patient.”
And Eagle said affordable housing is a misnomer.
“It’s not affordable housing — it’s market housing, which is not affordable,” she said.
Eagle also spoke to the $733 Ontario Works recipients receive monthly.
“That is what the folks on our streets are living on today,” she said. “If we took Ontario Works and doubled it, it still wouldn’t pay for a place to live in this community.”
Kearey-Moreland said Ontarians have to think differently if they want to be better connected.
“We have a fixation on individualism. We compete with each other in a free market,” he said. “That is in conflict with the community.”
Allan Kuhn, Green candidate in Simcoe-Grey, called it “a blistering night for democracy” — referring to the conversation and the continuing snowfall and wind outside.
“I have never been more motivated to be at Queens Park,” said Rose Zacharias, Liberal candidate in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-
In Barrie-Springwater-Oro-
Barrie-Innisfil’s candidates are the NDP’s Andrew Harrigan, Dane Lee of the Liberals, Stephen Ciesielski of the Green Party, Sam Mangiapane of the New Blues, Anna Yuryeva of the Ontario Moderate Party and Khanjin.
In Simcoe-Grey, the candidates are Ted Crysler of the Liberals, David Ghobrial of the New Blues, Kuhn, Benten Tinkler of the NDP and incumbent Saunderson.
Simcoe North’s candidates are Liberal Walter Alvarez-Bardales, the New Blue’s Dave Brunelle, Chris Carr of the Greens, Libertarian William Joslin, the NDP’s Jordi Malcolm and Dunlop.