Newmarket
October 09, 2008 11:40 PM
Questions about economy, environment dominate sessions
By: Teresa Latchford
With voters heading to the polls in less than a week, Newmarket-Aurora federal candidates went head to head three days in a row.
After Monday night’s showdown in Aurora and in advance of last night’s debate in Newmarket, the six politicians perched on wooden stools in Sacred Heart Catholic High School’s lecture hall and fielded questions from students.
Just as in Aurora, the Sacred Heart debate centred on the economy and environment.
Many times, the two were discussed in the same breath and, at times, things got heated.
Liberal candidate Tim Jones talked about his party’s Green Shift, which he said strives for an environmental solution that would boost the economy while thinking green.
“We want to bring back the Kyoto agreement,” he said. “The Conservatives are giving yesterday’s solutions for today.”
Conservative candidate Lois Brown reminded Mr. Jones the Liberal government was in power for 13 years and allowed emissions to rise by 33 per cent.
“In the face of climate change, we can’t go far enough with (the Green Shift),” Green Party candidate Glen Hubbers said. “We need to tax the things we want to decrease.”
It’s time to lower income taxes and increase tax for businesses that pollute the air, Mr. Hubbers said, pointing out the issue of the declining economy needs to be dealt with, but there is no reason we can’t have an economy that melds with the environmental initiatives.
“Do we really want the old economy back?” he asked. “We don’t have to have a fight between the environment and the economy that has been going on for years.”
The environmental initiatives proposed by the Green and Liberal parties will result in tax increases, Canadian Heritage Party candidate Ray Luff said.
Mrs. Brown went a step further, saying the Liberal plan includes taxing everything, which was met with anger by Mr. Jones, who said he resented the lie.
Taxes are not necessarily a negative thing if the money is going toward a good cause, NDP candidate Mike Seaward said.
“I don’t think anyone would say yes to lower taxes and less health care,” he said. “We want to leave a strong country for our children and, to do that, we need taxes.”
PC Party candidate Dorian Baxter’s solution was a consumer tax, a plan to tax only consumer goods rather than income.
The Newmarket-Aurora riding will face growth alongside the rest of York Region in the coming years and Mrs. Brown said her party has looked at fixing the fiscal imbalance from all levels of government and is prepared to assist with public transit to support the growth.
Mr. Jones countered with the Liberal plan to inject billions of dollars over a period of 10 years to help municipalities with infrastructure including water, sewer, electricity and transit.
That’s not enough, Mr. Hubbers said.
“We would like to see transit beyond Viva,” the Green candidate said. “We would like to see light rail transit and district energy systems.”
But more pressing than transit is how residents will feed themselves, he added, pointing out urban sprawl is taking over more and more farmland in the towns.
After the debate, Grade 12 students Matt Unsworth and Kelly Gagné felt NDP Mike Seaward stood out among candidates.
“It was interesting to watch because they all had their own views,” Miss Gagné said. “But I was surprised that there was a lot of personal attacks.”
The bantering between candidates regarding past political decisions made their debate points weak, Mr. Unsworth said.
“It seemed like they just wanted to bash each other rather than talk about the issues,” he added. “I expected it to be a little more professional.”