Over 200 Powell Riverites attended an all-candidates meeting on Tuesday, April 26, the same night as game seven in the playoff battle between the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks.
Six of the nine candidates running in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country attended the event, hosted by the Powell River Chamber of Commerce and moderated by Dan Devita. Hopefuls had an opportunity for opening remarks, then answered questions from some of the approximately 230 people in the audience.
Conservative incumbent John Weston defended his government’s record after an audience member asked candidates what their view of contempt of parliament was. He said when the issue moved to the parliamentary affairs committee, where opposition parties have a majority, the result was a foregone conclusion. “We heard months before that each of the opposition parties were determined to bring down the government and this was a convenient way to do so, only days before there would have been a vote on the budget,” he said. “Contempt of parliament? I’d say it was contempt to not turn up for 70 per cent of the votes.” Weston was referring to Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff’s attendance record for votes, which was actually 59 per cent.
New Democrat Terry Platt said when Conservative candidates are asked this question, they say it’s not their fault and the opposition parties forced an unnecessary election. “This unnecessary election is their punishment from the people of Canada,” she said. “Like little kids who say ‘it’s not my fault, I didn’t do it,’ so stand the Conservatives and what they’re saying.”
Liberal Party candidate Dan Veniez said five years of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has had a corrosive impact on the country’s democratic institutions. “The reason why I’m running for the first time is because we have to take our democracy back,” he said. “The more we accept the status quo and check out because we’re cynical, the more it will continue.”
Veniez, who is suing Weston for defamation over false claims about his involvement in efforts to rescue the failed Skeena Cellulose pulp mill in Prince Rupert, addressed the issue after an audience member asked a question about pensions. A YouTube video alleges that Veniez unjustly enriched himself from pension funds at the expense of former employees of the company. Weston’s campaign has distributed links to the video, as well as other information related to the bankruptcy.
Veniez outlined the history of Skeena Cellulose, which he and his partner bought from the BC government. They spent two years trying to rebuild the business, but eventually failed, Veniez said. “Through the entire period of time, it was a court-supervised process,” he said. “The law would not allow...I wouldn’t be sitting here, I’d be in jail if any pension funds were touched, in any way, shape or form. The notion that they were is an absolute fabrication and it’s completely false.”
Weston tried to deflect the question away from Skeena Cellulose and said in 2009 his government supported a bill that improved protection for unfunded pensioners, employees who rank below creditors in a bankruptcy. “That’s something that I’m proud of,” he said. “The question relates I think to Nortel and other companies where pensioners have been shut out of the situation. That’s indeed a sad story.”
Platt said part of the NDP platform is a plan to ensure that employees of a company that is going bankrupt would be first in line to get paid. “That would be their pensions, the years of service they put in, so they wouldn’t be left with empty bank accounts and empty wallets,” she said.
Green Party candidate Brennan Wauters said pensions are a legal issue and are non-negotiable. “The pension reform that we’ve put together also includes laws that state pensions can not be given up in any way and the administration of those pensions must stay in Canada, not shuffled off outside of Canada or to third parties,” he said.
Wauters explained that his party’s platform was based on smart economy, true democracy and strong communities. “All those three pillars function together, but the essence of why we’re here is because we’re looking at everything through the lens of environmentalism,” he said.
Doug Hartt, Canadian Action Party, and Roger Lagassé, Progressive Canadian Party, used the event to drive home their individual messages. Hartt is concerned about super tankers coming out of Vancouver harbour which carry 17 million gallons of oil a week from the tar sands to international markets. He said his party wants to keep “our air, our sand, our land and our water clean and we will not tolerate or accept anything that threatens it through greed and profit...A spill from one of the super tankers would destroy life as we know it.”
Lagassé spent his time at the microphone delivering an anti-war message, driving home his platform to bring Canadian troops home, where they would be available to assist in emergencies. His party also supports a high-speed national commuter train system and no tuition fee for post-secondary students.
Candidates answered a range of questions, including allowing generic drugs to be sent to developing countries, unpaid caregivers, income trusts, the plight of the Lost Canadians, the war in Afghanistan, and greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Tunya Audain, Libertarian Party, Carol-Lee Chapman, Marxist-Leninist Party, and Allan Holt, Western Block Party, did not attend the meeting.
Video of the meeting is available by clicking on the links to the Canada Votes 2011 forum.
