Every few years, Canadians are privileged to be able to make their mark in politics. I’m not talking about making your mark as a politician, although there are plenty of candidates who sign up for that as well. I mean actually making a mark, making an X on a ballot box that impacts the leadership in our corner of the world.
I remember the first time I was aware of an election taking place. I was young, and hadn’t learned voting etiquette yet. A neighbour got out of her car and told me she had just voted. I asked who she had voted for, and she bent down and politely told me that wasn’t a pertinent question. “The important thing is to know who you would vote for, and why. You don’t need to tell the neighbours, you just need to tell the government on voting day,” she told me.
Our team of writers has reached out to local candidates in order to share their platforms and political positions with you in the profiles below.
The Carleton Place and District Chamber of Commerce and the Lanark Federation of Agriculture will be hosting an All-Candidates Event for the riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston. This event will be held on Tuesday September 7, and moderated by Andrea McCoy Naperstkow. If you would like more information about this event or are interested in submitting a question, please contact Jackie Kavanagh at 613-257-1976 or jackie@cpchamber.com or Nancy Fleming (LFA) at 613-285-7575 or nancy.warren@sympatico.ca.
Conservative Party: Scott Reid
Currently retired or working? Currently employed as the federal MP, continually since 2000
Top 3 issues facing the LFK Riding
1. The issue of inadequate broadband in rural and small-town areas has been a source of frustration throughout the entire two decades that I have been an MP. Inadequate cell-phone service, and numerous “black holes” where service does not reach, is a related issue.
2. Housing prices / housing shortage. Canada as a whole is experiencing soaring housing prices. But in our area, the rise has been even greater than the national average.
3. The recovery of local industries from the pandemic. A rural and small-town region near a large city, like Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, inevitably develops an economy based on aspects of tourism, including campgrounds and trailer parks, facilities for cottagers, and services that cater to day-time and weekend visitors, including theatre festivals, farmers markets, art shows & art tours, music festivals, sugar bushes, etc.
Your and your party’s solution/approach to those issues:
For better bandwidth in rural areas; the problem is partly due to Canada’s vast geography, but has been made substantially worse by our poorly-designed auction process. I therefore suggest the following changes: Speed up the spectrum auction process to get more spectrum into use. Apply a “use it or lose it” provision to any auction, to ensure that spectrum which has been purchased by a bidder is actually developed, rather than being held in reserve in order to freeze out competitors. We should stop treating the auction of spectrum as a source of revenue to the general treasury. Instead, auction revenues should be dedicated to our digital infrastructure plan.
For rural cell service: We can improve service standards for rural cell service by changing the way in which the right to provide service is auctioned off by the federal government. Currently, the coverage areas that are auctioned off are too large, with significant rural hinterlands being included in blocks of territory with an urban hub. The service provider who gains the right to service this block then will typically maximize the revenues from this area by focusing solely on service-provision to the most densely populated areas. If the federal government were to auction off blocks of rural territory separately, these particular auctions would generate much less revenue from the service providers who are bidding to provide these services. But that lower price would translate into more potential profit for the providers from providing adequate service.
On Housing prices and shortages, no success will be possible if we don’t start by recognizing that the problem is not too much demand. The problem is too little supply. It may be the case that in a city like Vancouver, there is a great deal of offshore demand, which is driving up prices. But measures designed to inhibit foreign investment in residential real estate, designed to cool off the Vancouver or Toronto markets, aren’t going to work in rural Ontario, where it is raising demands from city-dwellers who are now able to telecommute that is driving demand (and thus prices).
Since this new population cannot be stopped from buying in rural and small-town areas (and since trying to stop them from doing so seems undesirable anyway), the solution has to be to make it easier to build new homes at a reasonable price. This increase in supply is the only way of keeping prices reasonable for long-term and lifetime local residents who are often far less wealthy than the new arrivals in our communities. This means that municipalities have to adopt zoning and land-use policies that do not serve the de facto purpose of driving up development costs and therefore house prices. Laws that prevent people from building tiny homes or that make it impossible to live in a trailer, harm only those who are not wealthy enough for a larger, bricks-and-mortar house.
Of course, these are actions that municipalities must take; the federal government has no role in these policies. But we can influence things in the right direction by modifying how we collect the Capital Gains Tax. A design error in this tax has led to a decline in the construction of residential rental properties, since the capital gains on the sale of such properties are taxed (whereas the capital gains on a person’s own primary residence are not taxed). The logical thing to do is to defer such taxes on the sale of a rental property, as long as the proceeds are reinvested in more rental housing. This sensible policy forms an important part of the Conservative platform in the present election.
On post-COVID recovery we need to give clear signals on the post-pandemic reopening. The on / off / on again nature of Ontario’s lockdowns were a disaster for businesses; this unpredictability needs to end. Additionally, the Conservative platform contains several measures which would help many of these businesses. Here they are, taken verbatim from the party’s policy platform:
Canada Job Surge Plan: paying up to 50% of the salary of new hires for six months following the end of CEWS.
Canada Investment Accelerator: getting companies spending money and creating jobs by providing a 5% investment tax credit for any capital investment made in 2022 and 2023, with the first $25,000 to be refundable for small business.
Rebuild Main Street Tax Credit: providing a 25% tax credit on amounts of up to $100,000 that Canadians personally invest in a small business over the next two years, to get money flowing into main street businesses and create jobs.
Main Street Business Loan: providing loans of up to $200,000 to help small and medium businesses in hospitality, retail, and tourism get back on their feet, with up to 25% forgiven.
You can contact Scott at ReElectScottReid2021@gmail.com or by calling 1-800-504-2431
Green Party: Calvin Neufeld
Currently retired or working?: Has worked, without pay, for the past 10 years as founder of the grassroots national organization Evolve Our Prison Farms, and as a speaker to school and community groups.
Professional experience :
- Social justice advocate and researcher, environmental consultant
Volunteer service:
- Founder of Evolve our Prison Farms, campaigning for sustainable and therapeutic agricultural programming in Canadian prisons
- Played piano at elementary schools and local retirement home
- Volunteered at local thrift shop
- Volunteered as a gardener
Top three issues facing the county:
1. Healthy planet
2. Healthy people
3. Healthy government
Your and your party’s solution/approach to those issues:
1. Healthy planet: The damage that has been done is undeniable and the rate of acceleration demands immediate, uncompromising action at the local, national, and global scale. All subsidies to earth-gutting industries must end and be diverted into a bold transition to a sustainable green economy. We must invest in clean renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, jobs of the future and earth-preserving solutions. Government needs to invest in making healthy choices easy for consumers. We can increase the affordability and accessibility of public transportation, electric vehicles, and renewable heating and cooling technologies. We must also create a roadmap to shift Canada to a predominantly plant-based food system, including phasing out all factory farms, to prevent future pandemics and drastically reduce our ecological footprint.
2. Healthy people: Society is fractured by deepening division, inequity, insecurity and trauma. The pandemic has inflicted terrible physical and psychological damage. We need to prioritize mental health support for parents, youth, teachers, health care workers and first responders. Our Indigenous relations need healing through Truth and Reconciliation, and we need to expose and dismantle systemic racism. Long-term care homes need rescue from neglect and profit-driven enterprise. The housing crisis must be treated as an emergency, as must the opioid crisis, and we must also uphold the human rights of incarcerated persons as we weave a social safety net that leaves no one behind.
3. Healthy government: Corporate influence over government has eroded public trust and created conflicts of interest that impede healthy decision-making, undermining the goals of healthy people and healthy planet. We need increased transparency and accountability in government spending. Just as we once needed a separation of church and state, we need a separation of industry and state, not a government that buys pipelines and airlines and blurs the lines between politicians and lobbyists. Governance reform is also needed to transition away from partisan politics and bring a more balanced, cooperative and constructive approach to tackling the challenges ahead.
Closing thoughts:
I don’t support this election. We are still in the midst of a pandemic and this is risking people’s health. It could potentially threaten more school closures. This has put the country into chaos.
Liberal Party: Michelle Foxton
Currently retired or working?: Have worked more than 20 years as a general practice lawyer in the Kingston area
Volunteer service:
- Served as a member of South Frontenac Township Council
- Served as Chair of the local Employment Insurance Board of Referees
- President of the Fort Henry Guard Foundation Inc. since 2016
Top three issues facing the county:
1. Climate change
2. Broadband access
3. The need for an affordable and sustainable economic recovery
Your and your party’s solution/approach to those issues:
1. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report indicates that climate change is an existential threat. A Liberal government will encourage renewable energy, including electrification. Funding is needed to improve local infrastructure, such as culverts, which are destroyed as flooding becomes more frequent. Also, the Liberal government is committed to a 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2035, down to net zero by 2050.
2. The pandemic has shown how significant a problem the lack of adequate broadband access in rural areas really is. Inadequate broadband access impedes online learning and leads to the isolation of seniors. Accessibility, reliability and speed all need to be addressed, and this requires a strong local voice in Ottawa.
3. COVID-19 has caused problems such as shortages in the labour market to come to light sooner than they would have otherwise. We have a huge shortage in certain areas such as PSWs and in the service sector. The country needs a plan to retool, retrain and incentivize jobs in those areas. An affordable system of child care will enable more women to enter the workforce. The Liberals will also introduce the Homebuyers Bill of Rights and a home savings plan, since lack of affordable housing is a serious issue in parts of Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston. Increasing student loan forgiveness is also part of the Liberal platform.
Closing thoughts:
“The measure of a society is how we treat our less fortunate.” We need to continue investing in our future.
New Democratic Party: Steve Garrison
Currently retired or working? Currently employed as an elementary school teacher with 24 years experience
Volunteer service: Former 2-term Kingston City Councilor
Top 3 issues facing the LFK Riding
1. Affordable Housing; Steve notes the lack of affordable housing is a critical issue as more people are feeling the increasing gap between income and mortgage or rent payments. He knows of many renters paying more than the average mortgage payment on a purchased residence.
2. Quality secure employment; Steve sees living-wage employment being very precarious for the average worker. Many are forced to take 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet.
3. Lack of pharmacare and dental-care services; Steve believes public health is incomplete without covering these 2 crucial areas of healthcare. Patients who can’t afford their meds and basic dental-care are bound to have poorer health outcomes.
Your and your party’s solution/approach to those issues:
1. His party would plan for building over 500,000 units of affordable housing, give immediate relief for renters who need it, and stop big-money investors from driving up housing costs.
2. Steve and the NDP plan to bring a fairer deal to workers with paid sick leave, living wages, stronger bargaining rights and more.
3. The NDP promises to work with provinces to introduce a universal pharma-care program and to expand covered services over the next 10 years to include improved access to dental-care, vision-care, and mental health services.
You can contact Steve for more information at lanarkfrontenackingston.ndp.ca or through facebook.com/SteveGNDP or by calling 613-546-2450.
Peoples Party of Canada: Florian Bors
Currently retired or working? Employed as an IT professional for a software company headquartered in Markham. He lives in Frankford.
Volunteer service: Florian has given over 1000 volunteer hours with the St. John Ambulance Brigade in Toronto. He has since added thousands of more volunteer hours over the past 20 years volunteering with several Toronto church groups
Top 3 issues facing the riding
1. Lockdowns
2. Censorship
3. Vaccine Passports
The erosion of our freedoms and liberties over the past 18 months. Censorship: whether Medical (www.CanadianPhysicians.org) or via social media has been very concerning. The never-ending lockdowns, constant fear mongering, questionable health mandates, medical coercion, vaccine mandates, constant moving of the goalposts for re-opening, limiting of movement, the creation of a 2-tiered “papers please” society with Vaccine Passports. These things are not supposed to be staples of a free society. Yet here we are. Thousands are being threatened with losing their jobs or getting kicked out of their schools for exercising informed consent. People aren’t allowed to think for themselves or make decisions for themselves or even ask logical questions about what is going on without being criticized, ridiculed, and vilified. Adults are being treated like little children by the government and being told what is best for them. It is a very dangerous path our country is heading down and we need to stand up and do something about it.
You and your party’s solution/approach to those issues: What kind of country do they want to live in going forward? All other political parties (Liberals, NDP, CPC, Green, Bloc) will continue leading Canada down this same dark path in varying degrees. They will all continue with lockdowns further devastating small business and the mental well-being of the general population (especially children), they will continue with the fear mongering, the questionable health mandates, the medical censorship, and the discrimination of people based on their personal medical choices. This is not the country that I want to live in. We need change! The People’s Party of Canada (PPC) is the only federal party that will put an end to all this tyrannical nonsense. The PPC will end the devastating and ineffective lockdowns. We will focus on protecting the vulnerable, yet allowing people the freedom to choose what medical interventions are best for them. We will stop the censorship of medical professionals and allow healthy debate and discussions on what is the best way to deal with the COVID situation. We will put an end to the vaccine passports and any other forms of discrimination. The PPC is the only choice for those who value freedom. I will help the residents of LFK fight for that Freedom, so we can all return to the normal that we had before this whole COVID situation.
Closing thoughts: Florian was disappointed at how a lot of politicians handled the response to the Covid-19 situation. The constant lockdowns were especially devastating on children and small businesses. It did not seem that most politicians cared how negatively their decisions affected families. Florian is also concerned at the amount of censorship that is happening around covid-19. He believes that the silencing of doctors and other medical professionals that are voicing concerns about the lockdowns and/or other medical interventions needs to stop. Florian wants to be an honest politician that is for the people: a politician that actually cares about their constituents and makes decisions that are in their best interests and not for personal, financial, or political gain.
You can contact Florian Bors at FlorianBorsPPC@gmail.com or by calling 705-915-3618 ext 107
Article by Hometown News Staff
