not accommodation or consultation but consent. He also
hammered home the need to work on dealing with the
problems around the missing and murdered woman on the
Highway of Tears. De Kroon talked about a canyon between
the Conservative government and First Nations and said
that needs to be fixed; he is also in favor for an enquiry on
the missing and murdered aboriginal woman across Canada.
Derrick had the last word talking about the 9 times First
Nations had to go to court with the government of Canada
during the Conservative government’s tenure and that it
needs to change. Derrick said that NDP leader Thomas
Mulcair would chair a committee of First Nations chiefs to
deal with the problems facing First Nation groups if elected.

Garth Frizzell, a local city councilor, then took the
microphone and asked the federal candidates their plan
was to help municipalities get infrastructure projects under
way. Jacques started off to talk about how the Green party
would take 2 points off the GST and send it to municipalities
to help with their projects, which will come to 6.4 billion
dollars. Derrick said that the NDP would take $.01 on the
already existing gas tax dollar, and have it sent to the
municipalities to help with infrastructure. Clare talked
about how he would work with anyone who would help

fix the roads in also rural areas not just municipalities. He
also talked about how he is an independent and how it will
allow him to make decisions independent of the parties. De
Kroon said that communication is key and that the local
people know better their needs than people and Ottawa.

He wants to see more funding toward infrastructure.

Calogheros finished it off by saying how she communicated
with different leaders before she decided to run to find
what was on their “wish list”. She said the current federal
government has been a barrier to municipal development
and that the Liberal government will not be and she will
work with civic leaders to help develop their projects.

The next topic was on housing and homelessness. Why has
nobody created a national plan to help address homelessness?
De Kroon started it off by saying he would raise the

poverty line on GST to help people who are poor to save
money. Calogheros talked about how the government has
downloaded lots of the responsibility for dealing with poverty
on charities. The revenue for these groups has been cut year
after year and this has come to a cost. She said that funding
these groups’ needs should be where the federal government
comes in to address this problem. Jaques talked about First
Nations housing and how it was under par and that in 2015

it is unacceptable. Jaques also talked about defining the
homeless and that homelessness for seniors is also an issue
and is sometimes missed, proposing to roll CPP and OAS back
to help seniors get more income. Derrick was next, spoke
about looking at the whole picture. The NDP have a plan to
build 10,000 homes for seniors if elected. They also want to
reinvest $36 billion in health care in order to help people
who have needs related to health care and mental health.
The immediate problems and long term needs are what the
NDP want to address. Clare was last and talked about that
education and how giving people opportunities in education
will help fight poverty and homelessness. He also talked

Election 2015 9

about seniors needing respect and they should not go to
“warehouses to die” he said to describe senior care homes.

They also talked about the long form census where all the
candidates agreed on this issue. The conservatives took
the long form census away and everyone at the debate
agreed this was wrong and that it needs to come back.
This will help research and government organization

do their job better by having more data to go on.

The canditates also went on to talk about housing for MP’s
and all candidates agreed also that living in the riding, instead
of how the former MP for their riding Dick Harris strategy
who lived in another area of the province and commuted a
lot, is the best way to represent the riding. There was some
criticism at this part and certainly people did get emotional
when discussing their families, but all in all they wanted

to be in their riding so that they could best represent their
constituents. By the end of the debate it was clear that all the
people who came up had different points of view, some toted
the party line while others came out swinging off script.

One thing is for sure after this debate, the opposition
clearly wants to debate the Conservatives in a
meaningful way and wants to see them stand up for
what they have done for their term in government.

Grant Bagha ea