Guelph candidates question Liberal MP on party’s track record
Council chambers were filled Wednesday night for a political discussion — however, it wasn’t the usual city hall debate.
Council chambers were filled Wednesday night for a political discussion — however, it wasn’t the usual city hall debate.
The candidates of the five major parties were all on hand for a debate co-hosted by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce and the Guelph and District Association of Realtors.
Unlike the federal leaders debate on Monday, filled with potential prime ministers yelling over one another, the Guelph event was cordial and polite.
That did not mean there wasn’t any drama, however, with independent candidate Kornelis Klevering escorted out by police before the debate began. There to watch the debate, Klevering was handing out pamphlets for an upcoming all-candidates debate when the officers asked him to leave.
Other people who wanted to watch the debate, but arrived after the 6 p.m. start time, were also not allowed inside the event.
While the debate itself saw the candidates pitch what their respective party would do at the helm of the federal government, the four candidates looking to unseat Lloyd Longfield took the opportunity to go after what the Liberal government has or has not done since being elected in 2015.
When asked how to best reduce interprovincial trade barriers, Conservative candidate Ashish Sachan said “a simple answer to that, maybe you change the prime minister.”
“The former Liberal environment minister David Anderson said the Trans-Mountain Pipeline was a bad idea,” Green candidate Steve Dyck said of comments made earlier this year by the former British Columbia MP, who served as minister under both Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin.
“Why? Because he understands that no Asian country wants the hassle or the cost of Alberta bitumen.”
“The carbon tax is ineffectual. It doesn’t actually reduce emissions,” PPC candidate Mark Paralovos said.
“It hurts farmers, it hurts the poorest Canadians, it hurts all consumers.”
NDP candidate Aisha Jahangir pointed to comments party leader Jagmeet Singh made last week in Grassy Narrows, when he committed to an NDP government spending $1.8 billion on providing clean drinking water to Indigenous communities.
“But let’s not forget Grassy Narrows and water are not the only injustices suffered by Indigenous people,” she said.
“There’s housing, education, medical facilities, environmental protections, the wage gap, the list goes on. These are things that the Liberals and Conservatives have shown willingness to fight Indigenous people on in court.”
For his part, Longfield made frequent use of his rebuttal card — candidates were required to put a red card down when they wished to rebut another candidate’s response — and worked to defend what his party has done over the past four years.
“They keep talking about our government, so I have to keep clarifying,” he said, ahead of rebutting a comment made by Paralovos.
Longfield took some shots of his own, criticizing what he said was inaction by the Conservative government under Stephen Harper on issues the Liberals are now being taken the task on, and on the provincial government under Doug Ford and what he called their unwillingness to co-operate with their federal counterparts.
The Liberal MP also questioned the Green Party’s proposal to establish an all-party cabinet to address climate change, and whether the Conservatives and PPC would be invited.
Within minutes, Longfield’s campaign sent out an email to the media on the issue, questioning whether “climate deniers get to make decisions about Canada’s response to climate change.”