BC Election 2020 New Westminster All Candidates Meeting - podcast

All  Candidates Meeting 

On October 16th,  Jeremy Perry of New Roots, in association with New Westminster Community Television, put on a Zoom-powered All-Candidates Meeting for the upcoming provincial election, October 24th. The five candidates for the mainland riding - Jennifer Whiteside of the BC NDP; Lorraine Brett of the BC Liberals, Benny Ogden of the BC Conservatives, Cyrus Sy of the BC Greens and Don Wilson, Party Leader for the BC Libertarians – were each given a short opportunity to introduce themselves, followed by break-out rooms where each candidate answered questions put forth by participants.In the break-out rooms, the following were the principal contents of the moderated conversations:

Jennifer Whiteside: Ms. Whiteside said that she has been active in progressive movements throughout her life, including working to further students', womens', and health care issues, the latter being an area in which she currently works helping unions. She says that she has seen how underfunding of the healthcare and education systems by the BC Liberals negatively impacted the people of the province. She believes Covid-16 provides a chance to rebuild a green and just society. She answered questions on ICBC, which she sees as a 'dumpster fire' left by the Liberals who raided 1.2 billion from the organization, and which the NDP is working hard to stabilize. With respect to putting forth legislation that disallows landlords from having a “no pet” policy, she said that as a pet lover she is open to discussion with local citizens. On concerns about current school plans, she said that she understands the deep anxiety of parents and teachers, and believes the pandemic requires a 'nimble and flexible' approach.

Lorraine Brett: Lorraine made it clear that her main motivation to join the BC Liberals, whose party leader, Dr. Wilkenson, is an MD, is to solve the problems that have plagued her as Mom of an adult son who is heroin addicted, homeless with mental health issues. The Liberal party leader is in alignment with her concerns that people in this situation need to get prescriptions for heroine and that there needs to be a pathway that doesn't involved long lines for treatment and housing for these people so that they can find recovery and stability. She was unimpressed with the funding allotted by the BC NDP in dealing with mental health and addictions. She seemed uninformed about other aspects of the BC Liberal platform.

Cyrus Sy: As representative of the BC Green Party, Sy said that one his main concerns was the future of young people in this province. He said the Greens would make post-secondary and housing post-graduation more accessible and affordable through rent subsidies. These subsidies would apply to all low-income citizens. Finding ways to get young people more involved in the democratic process, including lowering the voting age to 16, were also on the agenda. He was asked about ensuring electrical vehicle charging stations were more available in multi-unit buildings and he thought that their should be a requirement for all new buildings to have them. He underlined his party's emphasis on encouraging public transit and increasing cycling infrastructure. As for small business, he said that support in the form of immediate subsidies for small business during the pandemic was necessary.

Don Wilson: As a Libertarian, his views were largely for the government to be “hands off” when it comes to interventions to help people. In the breakout session, he made it clear that he doesn't condone heroine prescriptions for people who are addicted; he is against increases in social assistance because it just fosters indigence; pipelines are needed, but indigenous people, those who have private property rights, should be able to weigh in. As for work in the area of anti-oppression or anti-racism, he says that we are one of the least racist countries and the rule of law can apply to all people. As for concerns about increasingly high deductibles for strata insurance, he said that he would hesitate to interfere.

Benny Ogden: The BC Conservative candidate's main gambit was that he would be “open and accessible”. As per expected, his view was that all taxes should be kept to a minimum and that he was not in favour of a wealth tax. He said his party was pro-business and the economy and that the party had plans for re-opening the economy. He said that he was for freezing property taxes. The party had no plans to get rid of the provincial sales tax, he said.

Written by: Susan Millar