NO SURPRISES FROM CANDIDATES

There were no surprises in the federal all-candidates meeting last
Thursday evening. Liberal candidate Sheila Orr began the opening
statements and set the tone for the others singing the praises of
her party's leader Paul Martin. Conservative MP Gary Lunn hyped
Stephen Harper, NDP candidate Jennifer Burgis promoted Jack Layton
as leader, however Green Party candidate Andrew Lewis spoke of a
crisis in leadership, without mentioning Green Party leader Jim
Harris by name as an alternative.

Written questions from the audience of about 200 were directed to
individual candidates and were asked by moderator, A Channel
anchor/reporter Stephen Andrew.

The first of approximately 25 questions was posed to incumbent MP Lunn.

"Are you for privatized health care in any form?"

"The most important thing is health care when Canadians need it.
Right across Canada there's private health care where some people
who can afford to go in and pay for it. I'm not opposed - we
shouldn't just put on our blinders and say no to it. We should at
least be prepared to explore that and see if we can get
greater value for Canadians and their money," said Lunn.

Burgis answered the question next: "No I am not for private health
care in any form. The more we see an erosion of our health care, we
have no longer a handle on what we can deliver equitably with costs
to the people who most deserve it. I think the best examples of
public clinics which are now attached to acute care hospitals in
Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, Alberta are fine examples of how we
can alleviate wait lists using the public health care system."

Lewis was next to answer: "We already have a mix of public, private
health care system, our doctors are private providers. We also have
many health care services which are provided privately such as labs
and other sundry services. I am against a two-tier system in which
we have two-tiers of health care providers where the rich can buy
and the rest of us have to wait in line."

Orr was the final candidate to answer the question: "We have huge
pressure on our health care system. I believe we need to find ways
to use our health care system to support everybody. Today the Prime
Minister announced a new wait list strategy and it goes like this,
if you can get the service, if it's a hip replacement and
that service can be given to you in Alberta and not here, we will
fly you to Alberta. A lot of people go down to the States and get
their surgery done and pay for it themselves, why should you have to
do that? You paid into the system, you deserve to go anywhere to get
that done."

The next question asked candidates: aEWhat is your long-term vision
for Canada and what would you hope to achieve in the next four years
to make progress towards that vision?'

"My long-term vision of Canada is a country that regains its
position in the world, regains the respect that Canada has
internationally. A Canada that preserves the very special things
that make us Canadian aE" preserves medicare, preserves public
pension plans, makes sure that our young people have the training
and education that they need," answered Burgis.

Lewis answered next: "My vision for Canada is to be able to leave it
in a way that is more diverse, more just for my children and
grandchildren. I hope that my children will be able to see whales
and I hope they'll be able to climb trees and I hope they'll be able
to drink clean water and breathe clean air. One of the things I
would push for as Green Party MP is to amend the charter of rights
and freedoms to guarantee clean air, clean water and clean soil for
our future."

Orr was next to the microphone: "To make sure the economy continues
growing. To make sure our children are taken care of, and by that I
mean we need lots of money for early childhood programs so that
those little guys who are just being born will get a start
that's going to meet their needs. I believe in peace, I believe in
tolerance. I will always fight against war. I do believe that the
health care system is the number one priority right now."

Lunn was next to answer: "Ultimately I think we have to ensure that
young people can realize their dreams and aspirations. I think we're
missing those opportunities every single day. If we create a strong
economy and protect our environment so these people can flourish,
our economies will grow and we will have the resources we need so we
can improve our health care but at the end of the day, four years
from now we want to be able to look back and say our economy's
stronger, we've done more to protect our environment our society's
stronger and that people are generally doing better than they were
when we started office."

Questions were then posed to individual candidates. None were
directed at Lewis, so moderator Andrew posed some based on Lewis'
opening remarks.

A question posed to Lunn asked, "Mr. Harper promises to rescind both
same-sex marriage and safe injection site legislation would you
please explain the reason behind these decisions."

"Stephen Harper made a commitment to Canadians last spring that
there would be a free-vote on same-sex marriage and when Stephen
Harper gives you his word, you can take it to the bank. He's not
going to go against his word just because it might be the
popular thing to do. This issue is not front and centre on
our radar screen. He said we'll have a free-vote aE" if it fails,
that's the end of it; if it passes, you know we'll look at civil
unions, we'll protect those who have already been married, we will
not use the not-withstanding clause," said Lunn.

Andrew then posed a question to Lewis: "In your opening statement
you mentioned electoral reform, do you really believe this is the
number one issue in this campaign?"

"Yes I do. An election should not be happening now. We're 16 months
into a term and the two parties ganged up on the Liberals. I don't
wish to defend the Liberals here aE" they played the game as well by
coming up with all sorts of goodies before the election. We need
parties to be able to work together and this is not happening with
the culture in parliament at the moment and I think we have a
parliamentary stalemate. We'll be at this again in 2007 if we're
going to have a minority government because the Bloc holds the
country to ransom. The unity of the country is at risk and we need
to change the parliamentary system to move ahead," Lewis answered.

Another question was posed to all candidates: "I propose there
should be no more corporate tax cuts until Canada meets its Kyoto
and international aid commitments."

"We need to stop subsidizing a lot of our industries in this
country. We need to use our tax system and our subsidy system to
meet the values and needs of Canadians," said Lewis.

"I really believe the Liberals need to do better and will do better
on the Kyoto accord. Making headway is not easy and society is hard
to change. To go after corporations, let's be honest, it's
businesses that generate wealth and generate jobs. I know that a lot
of people who think aEwell they're rich and they shouldn't get
richer,' but hey folks, that's life, that's Canada," said Orr.

"We're in favour of cutting taxes not only for individuals, but for
small businesses. Fifty per cent of the GDP [Gross Domestic Product]
in this country comes from small businesses with a handful of
employees. I think there's a lot of things we can do to reduce
greenhouse gases, we need to find tax incentives for people to buy
more fuel-efficient cars. Whatever policies we implement, we want to
make sure we're getting results," said Lunn.

"Yes, let's stop corporate tax cuts, we don't need them. We have $50
to 60 billion in surplus in this country that's not being applied
the way Canadians would like it to be applied - Kyoto and our
foreign affairs commitments should be met aE" they are decreasing by
the day," answered Burgis.

Another question was asked of Lunn: "When the US invaded Iraq in
2003 you and your party were then critical of our government's
decision not to take part in the aEcoalition of the willing' when
asked about this now you and Stephen Harper say only that you
will not send troops. My question is, do you now morally support
the US invasion and occupation of Iraq?"

"No - we have never supported sending troops to Iraq - The Americans
are one of our traditional allies and always have been. This war -
and the one in Afghanistan have not been easy ones. Quite frankly we
never had the troops to send - yes, we thought we should have been
there. Morally supportive of our friends when they are put in harm's
way, we have never committed to sending troops to Iraq and we're
probably on the record saying we would not commit our men and women
in uniform to Iraq," said Lunn.

All candidates were asked, "What is your and your party's position
on the legalization of marijuana?"

"I'm opposed," answered Lunn. "I think it's the wrong message to
send to our young people - Marijuana, what does it lead to? Young
people are trying marijuana, then do they go on to cocaine or try
crystal meth. I think it's the wrong message to send to our
young people, legalizing marijuana."

Andrew asked a follow-up question of Lunn. "Do I understand from
your answer that you're saying that marijuana is an entry level
drug. That it leads to greater addictions?" he asked.

"Yes it does. It has the potential to do that. That's what the
experts have told me, police have also raised that [concern]. It's a
growing problem in our schools, children are starting to use [drugs]
at a much younger age. I think we should be looking at programs to
get kids active in other things and steer them away from drugs."

Andrew posed the same question to Jennifer Burgis.

"I think it is time to decriminalize the use of marijuana. What
really is a larger concern to us is the kind of billion dollar
economy and trade that is underlying the trade in marijuana. If we
can't get a handle on where those dollars are and what kind of
criminal trade they're driving - We need to define better what is
happening in the drug community. To instantly link marijuana to
crime in the drug trade is a pretty wide consideration," Burgis answered.

"Are you then suggesting that the government should be in some way
collecting revenue from marijuana usage?" Andrew asked Burgis.

"The government is trying to grow marijuana in a mineshaft in
Manitoba and isn't doing as good a job as they do in British
Columbia. So I think there is a definite need to consider marijuana
for medical usage and to allow our young people and even some of our
older people to travel back and forth in North America without
getting penalties for what they may have done around a small piece
of marijuana - I do condone the government selling marijuana for
medical purposes," she answered.

"We know prohibition has never worked," said Lewis. "The party
position is that we should legalize the use of marijuana. It should
be a controlled substance like tobacco and alcohol and it should be
made available through liquor stores, perhaps. And the result is we
will be able to reduce gun crime, we will be able to reduce gang
violence, we would be able to reduce the drug trade, we would be
able to get rid of grow-ops and we would use the profits for
education and public health initiatives."

"Are you saying that marijuana usage and growth is directly related
to the gun crimes in this province?" Andrew asked.

"Absolutely, yes," Lewis answered.

"I think that it's being used for medicinal purposes anyway. It is
being grown for that aE" legally for medicinal use," said Orr. "This
is always a tough question for me because I'm used to being with
kids on crystal meth aE" people try to link these drugs together
and really you shouldn't. The legalization of marijuana would take a
bunch of soft drugs and put it off the market and it would take some
of the crime off the market. Now crime is actually on the hard drugs
it's not on the marijuana. I'm going to be honest with you, I find
that a very tough question to answer. Personally, I actually think
it should be legalized. I don't have a problem with that."

"I'm going to ask you the toughest one of the night," Andrew said to
Orr. "Have you ever used marijuana?"

"I was a hippie, and you know what, I never used it aE" I drank gin!"