Audience members let loose on five of the six Simcoe-Grey federal election candidates on Tuesday night, during the last debate prior to Election Day on Oct. 21.
In attendance at the debate were Liberal candidate Lorne Kenney, Green Party candidate Sherri Jackson, NDP candidate Ilona Matthews, People’s Party candidate Richard Sommer and Conservative candidate Terry Dowdall. According to the event moderator, Shawn Davidson, the Veteran’s Coalition candidate, Tony D’Angelo, could not be invited to attend as he doesn’t have publicly available contact information.
The debate took place at Stayner Community Centre.
Candidates were each given time for a brief introduction, after which the floor was open to audience questions that could be posed to individual candidates or the group.
An audience member started by asking pointed questions of Dowdall.
“Why should I vote for you? We are in a human-caused climate emergency. You’re the only candidate here tonight who didn’t attend the Oct. 3 Climate Action Team debate about the environment. Your leader didn’t think it was important enough to attend a climate march. How can I possibly trust that you’re going to do the work that it takes to ensure a future for my grandchildren?” she asked.
Dowdall started by saying he does care about the future.
“I was at a United Way fundraiser that I attend every single year. We raised $55,000 for the local community,” said Dowdall. “I’ve knocked on 24,000 doors. My phone number is there. If people have a question, they can phone me.”
“There’s a lot of anxiety out there. Economy is number one at the doors. We realize there’s climate change, but we have to work with all our partners. It’s not just about a tax. I have a four-cylinder car. We’re not changing the numbers with a tax, we’re just hurting ourselves and we don’t have affordable housing,” he added. “You can’t suck and blow.”
Another audience member asked a question of Matthews about Quebec’s ban on religious symbolism and Jagmeet Singh being Sikh and wearing a turban.
“How would he deal with that, since it’s an overtly religious symbol?” asked the audience member.
“He has answered that question many times,” said Matthews. “All his life he’s been up against bullying and harassment because of the way he looks. He is totally against that bill. It is in provincial court, and he doesn’t want to interfere with that. But he vehemently is against that bill.”
Sommer said he, too, is against the bill.
“I think the issue is when garments like that conceal a person’s identity. That’s where I would draw the line,” he said. “But with (the turban), I see no issue with that. It’s part of the colourfulness of our country.”
Kenney took a hard stance on the issue.
“The Quebec law is terrible. I think it’s discriminatory and I think it violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” said Kenney. “It’s working its way through the courts and we’ll see where it ends up. I think we’re headed toward a real confrontation because it’s popular there, but it’s wrong.”
Dowdall and Jackson didn’t respond to the question.
An attendee asked candidates about issues more relevant to Simcoe-Grey residents.
“So far, it seems rural issues haven’t got much discussion during the campaign. What are you and your party planning to do for farmers?” he asked.
“Agriculture got screwed over by the new NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement),” said Matthews. “It hurt our supply management systems. We must protect that. Why are we importing beef when our beef farmers have had to cut their herds in half for lack of markets? Why are we importing apples during our high season when our own apples are rotting? We must sit down with our agricultural industry and come up with a system where are only exporting surplus and only importing commodities we are short of.”
“We need to assist local, small-scale agriculture by investing in family farms,” said Jackson. “I agree with Ilona, we do need to fix our supply/demand management system to prevent the importation of foods we can grow here in Canada.”
“It’s a really great night because I’m agreeing with the NDP here,” said Dowdall. “On the NAFTA deal, I think we could have done a lot better. I’m upset with China and how long it’s taken for our farmers... to get any action with our canola, meat and beef. Everything seems to take a long time and we don’t even have a minister to take care of that.”
Kenney, the Liberal candidate, took the defensive position on NAFTA.
“I want to suggest there aren’t two Canadians living or dead who could have done a better job in renegotiating NAFTA with that strange, orange fellow in the United States than Justin Trudeau and Chrysta Freeland,” said Kenney. “There are strides the Liberals have taken to make life better for farmers. Among them are establishing Farm and Food Development Canada. We’ve also established the amount of credit available to farmers and producers. We understand that farms are capital-intensive and they need that kind of help.”
The negativity of the current election cycle also inspired questions about the ability of parties to work together should a coalition government become a possibility.
“Yes, absolutely,” said Jackson. “The Green Party has every intention of working with other parties as a coalition.”
“Part of my job involves working together with other people, and that’s really the only way we can function,” said Sommer. “I find this panel experience with these people has been a great experience because, believe it or not, I listen to what the other candidates are saying and I think there have been a lot of great ideas and it excites me about Canadians and it excites me about Canada. There are certain sacred cows that probably each party would feel they couldn’t negotiate on, but ... there is a spirit of co-operation.”
“I almost want to give you a hug, Richard,” said Dowdall. “It is probably going to be a close election. I think we all kind of have the same goal. That’s really what this whole election seems to be about. We have open minds.”
“With the bashing... I don’t think any of us up here like it when the leaders do it back and forth, to be quite frank,” he added. “I have to commend Richard and this panel that they’ve all been good candidates and I think it’s because we all care about Simcoe-Grey.”
“Absolutely we have to learn to work with one another,” said Kenney. “How that plays out in the House of Commons, I don’t know. It’s certainly incumbent on all of us to listen.”
“The NDP will co-operate with all parties as long as the priority is the people,” said Matthews.
Questions were also asked about veterans services, the carbon tax, health care, the opioid crisis and taxes.
Election Day is Oct. 21. To find your nearest polling station, click here.
