Here are the candidates:
Andrew Borkowski Christian Heritage Party of Canada
Jilian Saweczko Conservative Party of Canada
Rob Rishchynski Green Party of Canada
Gerard Kennedy Liberal Party of Canada
Terry Parker Marijuana Party
Peggy Nash New Democratic Party of Canada (presently holds the seat)
What we saw:
Some highlights included –
The Christian Heritage Party of Canada candidate was funny and served as comic relief. He got booed heavily when he said that he does not believe that global warming is real and that it has served to make Al Gore rich.
The Green Party candidate was very succinct and he also knew the party policies. Very relatable and discussed not being part of partisan politics, referring to Nash and Kennedy. Green Party discussed tax strategies including not taxing income up to $25,000.
Marijuana party candidate was a joke and funny.
A major theme of the night became the issue of how to help the environment and the economy – mainly taxing at the source, cap and trade or carbon tax.
NDP surprisingly were really strong on the issues of arctic sovereignty and stopping foreign takeovers. She spoke strongly on opposing the war in Afghanistan and how her party voted against the Afghanistan war extension twice.
Kennedy had to defend supporting the current government’s mandates in parliament and he discussed how him and his party plan on reversing the items they voted for if elected to a new government. He played the victim card and said that they had to juggle between bringing down the government and forcing an election or trying to work with what they had.
The Conservative candidate kept referring to the new child benefit and the GST cut as a way of decreasing poverty in cities. She also briefly discussed the Conservative green plan as a set of fines for large companies that have large carbon emissions.
When asked, the NDP candidate discussed the possibility of a coalition with any other party and the Liberal candidate shot the idea down.
Abstraction reaction observations:
Jilian Saweczko
– not a clear communicator but at least she showed up. Long winded and read from a script. Has a son in the service and did not say she wanted to pull the troops out of Afghanistan. Was pro-life but said that Harper would not open the issue. Hard to understand because of accent and lack of communication skills.
Peggy Nash
– clear, concise, affable, competent, engaging, a lot of applause, roars from the crowd, respectful to the other candidates, proficient, clearly stated her stance on every issue
Rob Rishchynski
– clear, concise, not as articulate but made key points
Gerard Kennedy
– smarmy, overly confident, not direct in his answers, blustery, came off very evangelical and grandiose, grabbed mic and walked about the stage as if in a church service, impatient with the organizers, visible flustered at times, was reprimanded by the moderator, rude
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