8 Election 2015

Election Coverage: CBC Debate

Grant Bachand
Contributor

Almost all the candidates were in attendance at the CBC
hosted all-candiates debate for the riding of Cariboo-Prince
George. Sheldon Clare (Independent), Trent Derrick (NDP),
Richard Jaques (Green) and Adam de Kroon (Christian
Heritage Party) were in attendance as Todd Doherty
(Conservative) and Gordon Campbell (Independant) could not
attend the debate. Doherty has taken a lot of heat from the
other candidates about the amount of debates he has missed.
Jaques has said, “if you running for office the least you could
do is show up for a debate.” The sentiment was echoed by the
crowd who has become frustrated by the Conservative Party
and their lack of appearances at debates around the riding.

Clare began the night speaking about his platform, and
about the main pillar of his platform which is that he is not
affiliated with any party, and he is not subject to a party line.

Derrick followed it up with a scripted response, staring
at an NDP script and making little eye contact with the
crowd; Derrick talked about how he would represent the
people. He drove home the idea about this election being
an opportunity for change from the Conservative Party.

Calogheros went on to speak about her experience in
running the Exploration Place, and how she has taken
that institution from a deficit to a surplus. She said that
the experience she gained from the museum makes her
qualified to take the needs of the riding to Ottawa.

Jaques followed up with his past experiences with the
RCMP, and how his wife brought him to the Cariboo and
he has never left. He talked about how veterans and C-51
are things he is passionate about talking on an wanting to
see change. Next, de Kroon talked about his life in Quesnel,

and that he wanted to see a shift from exporting goods to
other countries to increase manufacturing in Canada.

The first issue of the night was the Mount Polley Mine tailings
pond disaster near Likely, BC where tonnes of contaminated
water spilled into the local water supply. The question posed
to the candidate was, what role do you believe the federal
government has, to prevent disasters like this from not
happening again? Clare started the discussion off with by
saying that a polluter needs to pay and tax breaks should

be given to companies with good environmental records.
Derrick spoke about how the disaster did not get a lot of
attention from the Harper government and investments in
research, and environmental protection that has been cut
under the Harper government would be restored by the NDP.

Calogheros talked about Canada is a resource economy, and
we need the resource sector, but we need to have a shift
towards a triple bottom line. Also refunding science, and
allowing scientists to go out and make public domain their
research will help prevent problems like this in the future.

Jaques had travelled out to the Likely Community and spoke
with the first nations groups and spoke about how those
groups are still dealing with the impacts of this disaster.
Dealing with this disaster is a provincial matter, and certain
heavy metals are not included in their jurisdiction and this
creates problem when dealing with these spills. If we want

to have better success in the future that will need to change.
Kroon also spoke about a polluter pay system similar to Clare.

The next question was about the federal roles in dealing
with the impacts of the mountain pine beetle. Derrick
started off the debate by talking about the failures of the

Harper government. Then he went on to talk about the
problem with the exports of raw logs and how he wanted

to see that come to end. Calogheros spoke about the need
of diversification the forestry sector and that a move
towards different energy products. She said that the federal
government could support innovation to help the bring
about a shift in the resource sector towards new products.
Clare spoke about restoring funding to the national archives
and also being a voice for the region in Ottawa in order to
get the best result for the region but did not provide a lot
of info on exactly what his plan is. Jaques talked about the
need to dangerousness of the dead beetle kill wood, and
the need to continue to process this wood but with high
levels of safety standards because the wood still needs

to be processed or it will cause a problem later on.

The next subject was the relationship between federal
government and First Nations groups. The question was
around how would the federal government deal with the
recent Tshilqot’in decision and the Truth and Reconciliation
report in terms of the moving forward with the relationship
with first nations. Calogheros spoke about the Liberal Party’s
platform of building trust with First Nations groups across
the country and the Liberal party wants to implement many
of the recommendations out of the truth and reconciliation
report in order to start the process with First Nations. Clare
sees the need to build a bridge between First Nations groups,
and non First Nations groups in order to deal with the
Tshilqot’in decision, or else there will be problems. He sees
consultation and accommodation is key to the future success
between First Nations groups and federal government. Jaques
talked about how the Supreme Court’s decision was that
First Nations groups need to give their consent on projects,