Verona all-candidates debate more civil than leaders’ English language debate

Jeff Green | Oct 17, 2019

Anyone expecting fireworks like the leaders debate Oct. 7 at the Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston riding candidates debate sponsored by the Retired Teachers of Ontario and The Frontenac News last Wednesday in Verona would have been greatly disappointed.

In fact, incumbent Conservative MP Scott Reid even remarked: “this has been much more civil than the one that the leaders had Monday night.”

That garnered Reid the biggest applause of the night, other than moderator Bill Hutchins’ quip “it’s clear they don’t watch the news” after several professed to not being all that informed on the Hong Kong situation.

But Reid’s comment also prompted Green Party Candidate Stephen Kotze to quip “don’t vote for the leader, vote for one of us.”

As these debates go, this one was quite civil, with a predominantly senior audience.

And, as might be expected, seniors issues dominated the public question period.

When asked what their party would do to address the needs of seniors, the candidates all seemed to have anticipated the question.

“We would introduce private health care,” said People’s Party of Canada candidate Matthew Barton. “That would allow doctors to make more money and so make it more attractive for doctors to come here.”

“Our government introduced a Minister for Seniors,” said Liberal candidate Kayley Kennedy. “We’ve restored the OAS to 65, will increase the CPP survivor benefit and top off the OAS by 10 per cent at age 75.”

“We support the development of an official seniors strategy,” said Kotze. “We have a high percentage of seniors in this riding (and) we’d change the bankruptcy and solvency act to put pension plans on the top of the list of who gets paid first.”

“The most obvious concern here is that most seniors are on a fixed income with no way to top it up,” said Scott Reid. “There may be some solutions through the Tax Act.”

“When you’re on a fixed income, you’re not making enough to take tax out,” said Satinka Schilling, NDP candidate. “We’re also looking at a national seniors strategy including pharmacare, subsidized and co-housing.”

The Carbon Tax came in for some scrutiny as well when the candidates were asked: “The Carbon Tax is a punishment, why would money from energy taxed not be dedicated to fund research?”

“We’re doing a lot of other measures, like planting 2 billion trees,” said Kennedy.

“There is the affordability issue,” said Kotze. “We do need to see more incentives like increasing the availability of current tech and not punishing those who don’t have much choice (when it comes to home heating).”

“We hear a lot of rhetoric from the Prime Minister such as ‘it shouldn’t be profitable to pollute,’” said Reid. “But that doesn’t change your habits. The Carbon Tax is a bad idea (what we should have instead) is a 20 per cent Green Home Credit tax.”

“We would create a Canadian Climate Bank where money goes in only for green tech,” said Schilling.

“The climate’s changing, it’s always changed, it will always change,” said Barton. “We don’t need a Carbon Tax.”

Perhaps the most interesting responses came from a question on the perceived dangers of the proposed new 5G network for internet and cell phones.

“I’ve heard similar concerns,” said Reid. “And that it can work like calcium channel blockers.”

“I’ve heard about it but it’s already being rolled out,” said Schilling. “I would bring it to the government.”

“I didn’t know the internet was carcinogenic,” said Barton. “It sounds like a serious problem (but) we do need better testing.”

“We should be sure we’re not sacrificing health for convenience,” said Kennedy.

“One of the weaknesses of Health Canada is its ability to protect us from harmful technology,” said Kotze. “I would advocate a stronger mandate for Health Canada.”