As the New Democratic Candidate in Scarborough—Agincourt, I’ve just finished seven debates and many more interviews.

After speaking with thousands of residents, I keep hearing three topics come up as the top concerns here:

Repealing regressive immigration reform (Bill C-50)

Scarborough—Agincourt has one of the largest immigrant populations in all of Canada. Residents have been bringing up Bill C-50 at every debate I’ve attended. It was a very regressive piece of immigration legislation brought in by the Conservatives that the Liberals let pass. The NDP was the only federal party that stood up and united against it. Constituents here are very upset with this bill because it gives arbitrary powers to the immigration minister to pick and choose who goes up and off the waiting list based on his or her own biases, often favouring temporary workers over family-class and economic class immigrants. This has been detrimental to family reunification and is treating new Canadians like second-class citizens. The New Democrats not only opposed this bill and want to repeal it, we have a plan to make family reunification easier, recognize foreign credentials, and provide training and bridging programs for those who need to upgrade or need new credentials altogether. Not only have the New Democrats consistently stood up in Parliament for this kind of immigration fairness, we’re the only party that has allocated funds to these priorities to make sure the services and new programs we are promising will actually be delivered.

Ending the war in Afghanistan

People confirm what Liberal incumbent Jim Karygiannis said in his own survey back in February:

“Seventy-four percent believe we should not extent [sic] the Canadian combat mission beyond 2009”

And yet Mr. Karygiannis voted to extend the war.

A vast majority of residents here are against this war. The recent news of a British brigadier-general saying the war cannot be won only confirmed what residents have been saying here for years. The news today of the overspending on a mission that will now cost up to $18.1 billion ($1500 per Canadian household) now adds another dimension on top of the moral and practical reasons why this mission needs to end.

People see the war as inflaming terrorism in Afghanistan, as confirmed by the Toronto Star’s Thomas Walkom: “In three southern provinces, including Kandahar, terrorist attacks have increased more than 10-fold since 2002. In Kabul and surrounding areas, they have more than tripled” (August 18, 2008). In a riding concerned with safety, residents can’t see why Liberals and Conservatives are continuing a mission that is making Afghanistan less safe.

Poverty is also an issue: “A recent UN report says general indicators such as human development and poverty have worsened [in Afghanistan] since 2004″ (Rick Salutin, Globe and Mail, February 22, 2008). In a riding with 9.2% unemployment (even higher youth unemployment) and more than its fair share of poverty, families can’t understand why they’re being asked to pay $1500 each for a mission that’s increasing poverty overseas and adding to their own economic insecurity at home.

Finding an alternative in the New Democrats

For every vote Jim Karygiannis received last election, another voter stayed home and didn’t cast their ballot. Many people are turning away from Mr. Karygiannis because they believed in the Liberal brand; either Trudeau’s “just society” or Pearson’s commitment to peacekeeping. By abandoning the former with passing Bill C-50 and abandoning the latter with extending the war, people are looking for alternatives. There is a massive anti-Karygiannis constituency that is waiting to hear more about the alternatives so they know what they’re voting for.

With his visibility in the riding (signs and literature), many people were considering Dr. Benson Lau (Conservative) as that alternative. With his medical credentials, many assumed he’d stand up for health care. But after people realized that Stephen Harper’s last job with the National Citizens Coalition included the goal of dismantling universal health care, they began to ask how a doctor can stand up for health care with Harper as his boss. They also don’t understand how Dr. Lau, having immigrated to Canada, could support a party that introduced Bill C-50.

When residents realize the predecessor of the New Democrats (Cooperative Commonwealth Federation) was the party that brought universal health care to Canada on 17 consecutive balanced budgets and that the NDP was the only federal party to stand united against Bill C-50, many anti-Karygiannis voters who were thinking of voting Conservative are changing their intentions and trusting the New Democrats to deliver social justice, peace, and economic security. At a recent debate, one resident (Sharon Adams) echoed what many others have been telling me when she said, “I came to the debate tonight thinking I would vote Conservative to try and get rid of our incumbent, but that would be a wasted vote.” She was later quoted in the Scarborough Mirror which reported: The evening confirmed her leanings toward casting a vote for Dougherty, who Adams noted “was able to hold his own and seemed to know his facts” (October 8, 2008).

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion has excoriated Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his alleged laissez-faire attitude to the economy. This is a convenient charge to level against one’s opponent, given the current financial climate in the United States, where the subprime crisis has turned America’s economy on its head due to greed and weak regulation.

Since Mr. Dion does not like the laissez-faire approach, he should take a closer look at some of the laissez-faire that has been going on in his party and the major problems that have resulted from it. The Liberal-imposed multiculturalism in Canada is nothing if not laissez-faire, telling immigrants that they do not have to integrate into the host country’s society and can do whatever they used to do in the “old country”. As a result, Canadian cities are now dominated by ethnic ghettoes, with violent crime such as gang activity on the rise, and a growing number of “Canadians” who will never speak either of the two official languages.

What the Liberals have not realized is that their laissez-faire way of dealing with immigration – and crime! – has hurt the very people that the policy was meant to help. People leave their home to look for a better life and more opportunities – for themselves and their children. So many Jamaican immigrants in Toronto regularly complain about the rampant gang crime in the city, which claims the lives of too many of their children almost on a daily basis. They left Kingston and came to Canada, they say, because they wanted to spare their children the violence and crime back home, but now they are faced with the exact same problems in Toronto.
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This morning I had the opportunity to talk for a few minutes to the Conservative candidate in the riding of St-Laurent-Cartierville.  Dennis Galiatsatos, told me that he has been going door to door in the riding and the issue which seems to be the most important is “taxes”.  

Let’s face it, we all hate “taxes”.  I said to the candidate,  “But taxes go hand-in-hand with services and people are also complaining about service cuts.”

The candidate replied to me, that he is totally aware of how voters seem to want their bread buttered on both sides….

I am asking, now, how it is we can have the kind of population who do not understand the relationship between taxes and services.   Afterall,  personal  income tax has come down since 2004 and Canada’s budgetary surplus.  But everyone complains about underfunding in so many areas!  Although complaints are especially about our most expensive program, Healthcare, (which the average US citizen has to pay a minimun of $500 per month for from their own take home pay), complaints about so many other issues which are often governed by provinces, cities and municipalities are also made.    Oh yes, and gasoline taxes!  Whose responsibility is that?

I look at the very privatized and unregulated US economy now and think, “Here is one of the most powerful countries in the world.  And now, with a laissez-faire approach to their economy, is now finding themselves facing bankruptcy. 

To close,  I would rather pay my share of taxes and have services I need in a somewhat regulated economy.  I also want to see monitoring of some of the most important resources we have to keep us afloat as an independant, parliamentary democracy.  That is also why I support and will continue to support the New Democratic Party.

First off, I apologise for being out of action on the blogs for the last week or so. I had occasion to be thankful that we have a good, publically funded health system – we spent 3 nights in Emergency with my son, who ended up admitted for a couple of days.

We still haven’t got any flyers from any candidates, so I went out to pick up literature from the offices today, and speak to the candidates or their campaigners where possible.

I am going to start today with some background on the candidate I am going to be voting for, Peter Ferreira. I spoke with Mr. Ferreira for a short while today, and asked him what he was seeing as the major issues in Davenport. The answer: South of Bloor, the environment and cuts to arts and cultural programs. North of Bloor: Immigration and Employment. At the end of a long discussion about the state of immigration, and how it affects Davenport particularly, we ended up talking about what Davenport really needs.  Where do we, in Davenport, need money spent?

The list from the NDP:

Seniors services
Health Care
Transit
Infrastructure
Respect / Dignity for Seniors
A fair deal for “irregular” immigrants
Sorting out the immigration backlog
Crime, particularly drug related in some parts of the riding

The last item is apparent from the location of Mr. Ferreira’s (and 2 other candidates’) offices, all located in empty storefronts in the Bloor/Lansdowne area, which is in obvious need of some renewal. This was really brought home when Jack Layton made a flying visit to the office last week at the same time as the police were called to handle a man showing a handgun on Bloor St. near the office. It’s not that Mr. Layton was a target, but rather a statement about some urgent needs in Davenport.

Davenport also needs support for our newest Canadians, and those who wish to be reunited with the rest of their families in their new country.  We may not be the richest part of the province, but we are strong and hardworking.

What the campaign feels this election is about was stated best by a volunteer in the office, who said “We need to do a better job taking care of our neighbours”. As a concrete show of support for their real neighbours on Bloor, the campaign is collecting personal care products and socks for Savards Women’s Shelter. Savards houses women with mental health issues.  This is a part of being a neighbour.

As I rode away, I saw two women greet each other on the street with a hug, and overheard the conversation:
“Hey! How are you ?!”
“Hey, I’m not a whore anymore!!”
“Awesome!!”
This conversation is also a part of being a neighbour in a community that can celebrate renewal and support each other.  The NDP in Davenport would like to see this happen.

Lawrence Martin asked querulously in the Globe & Mail yesterday why immigration isn’t an issue in the current election campaign. He spent a good deal of time citing the former executive director of the Canadian Immigration Service, one James Bissett, who is predicting the usual doom and gloom that the rabid right associates with non-white “ethnic” immigration.

Martin gives Bissett a pass on a possible charge of racism because his son married a Black woman, and his daughter married a Cuban. But that’s needlessly defensive, and immediately arouses suspicions even among those like myself who think that a good racism-free socio-economic debate on immigration is there to be had. Those marital choices were rather obviously not up to Bissett; and we have no information, of course, on the state of Bissett family relations today.

But in any case, here is Bissett himself:

“Either our political leaders do not know that Canada is facing an immigration crisis or they care more about gaining a few more so-called “ethnic voters” than they do about telling the truth about immigration.”

He is, to be sure, somewhat more guarded than this fellow. Or this one. But somehow the message is always the same, however encoded it might be. Immigration is being encouraged for crassly political reasons: to secure the existing [clears throat] “ethnic” vote and import some more Xs for political parties at election time. This is the end of Canada as we know it: nothing less than a crisis is looming.

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Just out in time for this election and available FREE online, The Harper Record, edited by my trusted friend Teresa Healy.

Here’s the summary from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives:

This book is one in a series of CCPA publications that have examined the records of Canadian federal governments during the duration of their tenure. As with earlier CCPA reports on the activities of previous governments while in office, this book gives a detailed account of the laws, policies, regulations, and initiatives of the Conservative minority government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper during its 32-month term from January 2006 to September 2008.

The 47 writers, researchers and analysts who have co-written this book probe into every aspect of the Harper minority government’s administration. From the economy to the environment, from social programs to foreign policy, from health care to tax cuts, from the Afghanistan mission to the tar sands, from free trade to deep integration, and to many other areas of this government’s record, the authors have dug out the facts and analyzed them.

The Harper Record was necessarily researched and written long before an election was called, but its publication does coincide with an election campaign and thus may help citizens to make informed choices about the future of their country. Regardless of the election outcome, its contents will continue to be relevant between elections. In detailing what a minority Conservative government really did, or failed to do, it may serve as a guide and model for future elections.

For now. And that’s great, I feel for them and I don’t think he should be deported.

But I would really appreciate it if the government would stop trying to send my talented and hardworking friends from Rwanda and Iraq back where they came from as well.

 Earlier today, another blogger commented that none of the leaders will address immigration out of fear of public backlash.

Yeah… it’s time everyone got over that fear. This immigration system is something we need to deal with now.

I have to say, I was quite impressed by the pundit opinions in today’s Globe and Mail.

Let’s start with Lysiane Gagnon. She writes that there is no reason to fear a Tory majority. In fact, she argues, giving the Tories a majority would ensure the party moves into the mainstream, thus silencing any radical voices. Similarly, she says, forming the Official Opposition would do wonders for the NDP:

If it ever became the Official Opposition, its more wacky militants would be pushed aside and the party would soften its positions. Because its electoral base would be larger, and because it could envision the possibility of forming a government in the next election, the NDP would be naturally inclined to abandon its radical positions for more middle-of-the-road – some would say more responsible – ones. The NDP would undoubtedly go on promoting a left-of-centre agenda – just like majority Conservatives would promote a right-of-centre one – but it would have stopped being a marginal party out of touch with ordinary Canadians.

In her column today Gagnon really nails it, because her arguments also illustrate why the Liberal Party led by Stéphane Dion is becoming more and more unelectable, given its continuous shift further and further to the far left.

In a way, Gordon Gibson picks up on that theme when he writes that Canadians don’t really care who is in power, as long as things get done. The country could run itself, Gibson says, even if Canadians decided to vote for no government at all on October 14. In other words, given them a left-of-centre or a right-of-centre government, but stay clear of the extremists (Dion, in the current election roster).

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The 2008 election campaign in Canada is like no other. The Conservatives are ahead of their long-time foes, the Liberals, and the social-democratic NDP actually stands a very good chance of forming the Official Opposition, pushing the Liberals into third place. Apart from that, some fundamental aspects are changing.

The battle ahead of October 14 is fierce, and no party is taking anything for granted. This is probably why the tone and language have steadily deteriorated in this campaign. The Conservatives went below the belt first by showing an animated version of Liberal leader Stéphane Dion getting pooped on by a puffin flying across the computer screen. This was followed by a Tory staffer who made insensitive and insulting comments about the father of a dead soldier killed in action in Afghanistan. Now, a cabinet minister, no less, has used the recent listeriosis outbreak in certain food items to wish death on a political opponent and making jokes about the people who have died from the disease in extremely poor taste. The opposition parties are calling for his head, even though he has apologized, yet no one is calling for a certain Liberal MP to resign over his outrageous comments, even though he has so far failed to apologize for any of his equally offensive outbursts.
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I like Dion’s promise of a $10,000 tax credit to help people retrofit their homes. Credits are the right way to go because people are responsible for the decision and paying for it. I hate this idea of providing $800 million for immigration. Why should we pay for immigrants to learn English or French? Let them learn or pay just like earlier immigrants to Canada did.

Not clear on Layton’s plan to introduce new laws requiring full disclosure on bank fess, cellphones, etc.. Seems like these exist. Make one change: no more small print, all terms and conditions must be written same size as application. Then let companies explain why a cellphone contract is 27 pages long. As for $8.2 billion for green job creation, this is just another big government spending boondoggle waiting to happen.

Why is Harper so negative? He should stick to policy not personalities, and put the backroom boys on a leash, or better still fire them. We don’t need this negative American style politics here. His idea about paying veteran’s allowance to veterans from foreign countries is bizarre. Let’s take care of our own and let others deal with theirs.

If Duceppe wants to open the constitution, then let him agree to put everything on the table ie. equalization, parliamentary reform to achieve rep by pop, internal free trade. etc.. He can’t make promises because he will never excercise power.

Is May’s green shift shiftier than Dion’s? Does anyone really believe (I mean really) that the carbon tax will be revenue neutral? I think BC residents can answer that. Maybe if I had specifics to work with instead of generalities I would understand this. Won’t high energy prices alone change behavior? Oh, and how quickly are we expected to replace our gas guzzling cars and airplanes, coal fired power plants, oil heated homes, etc.? Next year, 5 years, 10 years? Won’t this simply trigger an enormous economic dislocation for Canadians who are least able to adapt, those lower on the economic scale?