Just a day after Canada signed on to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the international trade deal was an opening salvo in the Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam all-candidates debate.
The deal between 12 nations will reduce tariffs on several Canadian exports and bring in more imports from other countries, and while some say it will lower prices for consumers, critics say the deal will hurt this country's dairy farmers and the automotive industry.
Green Party candidate Brad Nickason railed against the "secretive" trade deal and questioned its benefits for Canada, given the large bail-out that will go to dairy farmers, and also for families, who will no longer be able to trust in long-held milk quality standards.
But Conservative Douglas Horne said Canada's economy is built on trade and "jobs are created by our ability to access global markets," noting many organizations had applauded the TPP's signing.
Sara Norman of the NDP fired back, saying the Harper government had effectively admitted the deal was, in fact, damaging to the economy by promising a $5-billion compensation fund for the dairy and auto sectors.
"The NDP is not against trade deals," Norman added, but said the party had taken a stand against the TPP because it hurt two important sectors.
"Are they admitting to it or are they just trying to buy votes?" quipped the Liberals' Ron McKinnon, who noted his party is in favour of free trade but not enough information is known about the TPP to come down on either side of the debate.
Horne said his party's record "stands for itself," a comment that earned a few groans, to which Norman asked whether he was including the country's two recessions in seven years in that record.
"What's at issue is this trade deal helps very large businesses at the expense of the rest of the people, who have no idea how it will affect them," said Nickason. "Small businesses are left in the dark… How can we run our businesses that way?"
CENSUS
Horne was blasted again for his response to a question on the long-form census, saying the information collected in the National Household Survey (NHS) is "more than adequate" and Canada's chief statistician had deemed the short-form census sufficient for decision-making purposes.
But McKinnon pointed out that Munir Sheikh, head of Statistics Canada, resigned in 2010 in protest over Harper's plan to scrap the long-form census because the voluntary NHS would produce ineffective data.
"It's fundamental: You have to have good information to make good decisions," McKinnon added, emphasizing the Liberals would re-instate the mandatory long-form census. "The [NHS] is statistically invalid because it's self-selected. Statistically it's crap. And it costs more money to collect that data."
Norman criticized the Harper government for "limiting information to the n-th degree" by scrapping the long-form census, "letting go of climate scientists and muzzling the ones that remain."
"What's the penalty for not filling it out?" asked Libertarian Lewis Dahlby of the mandatory census.
"Ignorance," McKinnon replied.
The candidates were asked for their stance on a number of other issues, including:
LEGALIZING MARIJUANA
• Horne: "The difficulty with marijuana is it has nothing to do with marijuana itself" — it is a currency in the trade for crack, heroin, hashish and other drugs. "It makes it unsafe for many of us." Does not favour decriminalizing or legalizing possession of marijuana.
• McKinnon: "Decriminalization is not enough; you can't get the same level of control as with legalization… which removes the criminal element from the equation." Favours legalization, regulation and taxation.
• Norman: "Legalization will take a while but decriminalizing we can do right away." Would consider legalization later.
• Nickason: "There are far greater things in this country to worry about." Would legalize marijuana and regulate production and distribution.
BILL C-51
• Norman: "It's dangerous because anyone who writes an editorial in the paper could be jailed or penalized." Would repeal the legislation.
• Horne: "It's a balancing act between what's appropriate and what's not appropriate." Would keep the bill.
• Nickason: "We would work with the NDP to repeal Bill C-51."
• McKinnon: "We would repeal the unconstitutional aspects and also keep the things we need to keep."
SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS
• Horne: "I agree there is a huge crisis on our hands." Government has provided food aid to 5.7 million refugees in Iraq and Syria.
• Norman: "We are not living up to our UN obligations." NDP would meet obligations to bring 46,000 refugees to Canada.
• McKinnon: "We are not living up to our obligations and it's absolutely imperative that we do so." Liberals have committed to bring 25,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq, with $200 million in funding over two years to aid resettlement.
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