Not in the News Candidates Debate

The Council of Canadians is hosting a public All Candidates Debate:
Why: An opportunity to learn about election issues that Canadians care about that are not necessarily making news headlines.
When: Wed. October 7 from 7:00-8:30 pm.
Where: Meeting Room 3 John M. Cuelenaere Public Library
How: Participants rank issues, candidates speak to an issue for 3 minutes, then a 10 minute discussion cycling through as many issues as time allows.
Who: Prince Albert Chapter of the Council of Canadians
 

THE ISSUES
Climate Action: Canada has pledged to stop using fossil fuels by the end of the century while the science demands we transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050. What is your party’s plan to transition to renewables? Does your party agree that the transition to renewables must happen by 2050?

Electoral Reform: Fair Vote Canada reports that in the seven federal elections between 1980 and 2004, just over 49% of the votes were wasted. On average in federal elections, more than 6.3 million Canadians cast wasted votes that elected no one. How would your party reform our winner-take-all first-past-the-post voting system that does not treat all voters equally and traditionally produces phony majorities?

Food Security: Food Secure Canada is calling for a national food policy “where no one goes hungry and all Canadians have access to healthy, just, and sustainable food.” This is expanded to zero hunger in Canada, affordable food in northern and remote communities, support for new farmers, and a universal healthy school food program. What is your party’s food policy?

Healthcare: Inflationary drug costs are a major contributor to the increasing cost of healthcare. Studies show that the pharmaceutical companies inflate the costs of research and overstate the benefits of innovation to justify their profits. Does your party support a publicly-funded universal drug plan that would give Canadians bargaining power with drug companies? Would it reform tax law so that the industry portion of investment in research partnerships with universities is no longer tax deductible? Also, would it insist that discoveries made by such partnerships be jointly owned?

 Peace: Activist Noam Chomsky says a solution to terrorism is to stop committing crimes in other countries. He also says before violent interventions in another country two minimum conditions are necessary—first, that non-violent interventions have been exhausted andsecond, that the people support the intervention. What is your party’spolicy regarding violent interventions? What is your party’s policy regarding the sale of arms to unstable countries, like Saudi Arabia which has knownhuman rights concerns?

Poverty: An experiment with Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) in Daphne, Manitoba showed strong positive results and GAI is supported by a variety of municipal and provincial officials as a cost effective way of alleviating poverty and producing health, educational, and financial benefits. Where does your party stand on GAI and how does your party plan to eradicate poverty?

Trade Agreement: Free trade agreements with investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) are being used by Canadian companies against other countries and against Canada to force governments to reverse decisions made in the public interest. For example, Lone Pine Resources are suing Canada for Quebec’s moratorium on fracking. Would your party follow Australia’s lead and refuse to include ISDS in trade agreements because they infringe on a government’s right to make decisions?