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).

Michael Byers, (NDP Candidate – Vancouver Center), very passionately told an audience today the tar sands should be shut down. It is not the official position of the NDP, who want a moratorium on the pace of the tar sands development, pending studies on the environment.

However, there are many voices in this country, sending distress signals using the internet, that want the tar sands development to stop, yes stop, now, because it has become “the dirtiest oil on the planet”.

If one pauses before thinking the thought “that no matter what the cost, the world needs oil and Canada needs to be richer in the world”, then maybe it is possible to think about the kind of planet this will be if we ruin it for our children and theirs.

Surely if humans survived on this planet in previous centuries and millenia without such a huge dependence on oil, we can figure out a way to do it again before it is too late…

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.

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.

Elgin-Middlesex-London is a good riding to live in if your politics lean to the right. The twelve-year old riding has seen four elections since its creation and although the Liberals managed two wins in 1997 and 2000, conservatives and right-of-centre parties have always done well here.

The riding is represented by Conservative, Joe Preston, who swept to power in the wake of the sponsorship scandal in the June 2004 election, garnering 20,333 votes and defeating the incumbent Liberal, Gar Knutson. In the January 2006 election he held his seat and defeated the Liberal candidate and former mayor of Thames Centre, Crispin Colvin, by almost 10,000 votes.

The New Democrats have never elected an MP here and have usually trailed behind in third or fourth place. The Canadian Alliance in 2000 and, back when the riding was part of Middlesex-Lambton in 1993, the Christian Heritage party, surpassed the NDP in the number of votes. Not the most promising of prospects for NDP candidate Ryan Dolby.

Dolby’s strategy will likely concentrate on the loss of manufacturing jobs in the riding, an area of expertise for him being a Union Benefits Representative with CAW Local 2168 and a local trustee and chairman of the Union in Politics committee. He is hoping his success in union politics will have prepared him enough for his first foray onto the national scene. Whether or not this will be a winning strategy remains to be seen. The London Free Press has mentioned that Dolby is a “particularly strong candidate” because he is “attuned to the layoffs that have hit the auto sector and left thousands out of work in the London area.” Dolby, is a native of Chatham, Ont. and moved to St. Thomas in 1994 when he landed a job on the assembly line at Lear Corporation. He now lives in Shedden with his wife Laura and their three children.

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?

An old issue that seems to come up every election in Outaouais is the repartition of federal government jobs between Ottawa and Gatineau. In 1984, the government adopted a policy stating that 25% of federal jobs should be located in Gatineau and 75% should be in Ottawa. To the best of my knowledge, that target has never been met. The current ratio is 21-79.

Every election, at any level, politicians start talking about how they will fix the problem and how their opponents have been sitting on their hands for decades. No one seems to stop and actually ask why that policy is such a good thing in the first place.

I personally find this debate somewhat annoying: as a tax payer, I expect my government to try to deliver the best services and the lowest possible cost. When it comes to selecting a location for new offices, I would hope that the driving factor in the decision would be “value for money” … not an arbitrary quest for regional justice.

As a Libertarian, I’m especially annoyed when I see a Conservative calling for more federal jobs on the Quebec side (Paul Fréchette, CPC, Hull-Aylmer) :

 Parmi ses priorités, il y a l’attribution de 25 % des emplois fédéraux de la capitale en Outaouais. « Nous autres ce que les libéraux ont promis pendant 30 ans, puis qu’ils n’ont jamais fait, nous autres, on va le réaliser. C’est en voie de réalisation actuellement », dit-il.

It’s also funny when I see the Bloc running on that issue … because if they had their way, the ratio would probably be closer to 0-100. The Liberals don’t really have a lot of credibility on the issue either, considering that Pontiac, Hull-Aylmer and Gatineau had been Liberal for more than a decade before the 2004 election.

The strange thing is that most voters don’t seem to care that much about this. I know a lot of Ottawa residents who work in Gatineau and Gatineau residents who work in Ottawa. The Ottawa-Gatineau population is fairly mobile. I don’t think the average voter cares that much on which side of the Ottawa river he earns a living … as long as the pay check ends up at the right address.