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friday october sixteenth, 2015
Get to know your Liberal candidate THE xaverian Oct 16 2015 Vol 124: Issue 4
OUR STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Julia O’Hanley xw.eic@stfx.ca MANAGING EDITOR Ryan Finn xw.managing@stfx.ca ART IST IC COORDINATOR Devon Chisholm xw.artistic@stfx.ca COPY EDITOR Molly Schreiber xw.copy@stfx.ca NEWS EDITOR Izaak MacMullin xw.news@stfx.ca OPINIONS EDITOR Emily Keenan xw.opinion@stfx.ca FEATURES EDITOR Paige Chisholm xw.feature@stfx.ca ARTS&CULTURE EDITOR Rachel Revoy xw.culture@stfx.ca DIST RACT IONS EDITOR Ty Kingston xw.distractions@stfx.ca SPORTS&HEALT H EDITOR Shelbi Kilcollins xw.sports@stfx.ca SENIOR REPORT ER Lauren Agnew xw.reporter1@stfx.ca SENIOR REPORT ER Rachel LeBlanc xw.reporter2@stfx.ca STAFF WRIT ER Sebastian Jurga xw.writer2@stfx.ca COLUMNIST Lindsay Johnstone xw.columnist1@stfx.ca COLUMNIST Caitlin Vance xw.columnist2@stfx.ca DIST RIBUT IONS MANAGER Devon Chisholm xw.distributions@stfx.ca xw.eic@stfx.ca for general inquiries xw.managing@stfx.ca for advertising xw.distribution for subscriptions The Xaverian Weekly is the official student newspaper of St Francis Xavier University. The Xaverian Weekly is published on Thursdays by the Xaverian Weekly Publications Board and is editorially autonomous. The Xaverian Weekly is a proud member of the Canadian University Press, North America’s largest cooperative of student newspapers. FREE Media is the Xaverian Weekly’s national advertising agency. submissions
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An interview with Sean Fraser JULIA O’HANLEY Editor-In-Chief
going to help Toronto and Calgary and Vancouver.
Xaverian: Why did you decide to run in Central Nova? SF: I grew up here this is my home and people and place shaped me as a person and helped me figure what I believed is right in this world. Because of the foundation I have built here, I was able to pursue some very interesting and exciting opportunities around the world and across the country. I’m very proud of my accomplishments to date, but I wouldn’t have gone very far without the help of the people in this region. When I see an opportunity to help the people in places that helped me along the way, I feel like there’s a debt I owe and the honorary to start repaying it is something that motivates me. I see tremendous opportunity right here in our backyard and I think with the right decisions and the right conversations we can do a lot of good in this part of the world.
XW: How does your party plan to pay for the policies that it has put forward? SF: The Liberal Party’s fully costed platform was just released a few days ago. It provides a detailed analysis of where the money’s going to come from. Of course the most obvious place the money is coming from to cover these investments is from the fact that a) we are going to ask the wealthiest Canadians to pay a little more and b) in the short term, in order to grow the economy, were willing to run a modest deficit for three years. It’s a simple plan, and what I like about it is that it’s honest as well. We are not promising you the world for free, to all things there is a cost and for the first time in a generation, I feel as though our government will treat Canadians like adults and being honest about the fact that, although we are making an investment, there is a cost but we can afford it.
ECONOMY ENVIRONMENT XW: What is the Liberal Party’s plan for taxation? What will you do with existing federal taxes and/or do you have any new taxes and fees that you will implement? SF: The Liberal plan on taxes and fees is very clear. What we’re asking is for the wealthiest Canadians to pay a little bit more, so we can give a tax cut to everyday people in the middle class and make life a little bit easier for the vast majority of Canadians. It’s exciting. The entire theme I see behind the Liberal platform is about helping our communities and helping people who could use a hand, and just asking the people who have done very well for themselves to contribute a little bit more. XW: Is balancing the budget a priority for your party? SF: Balancing the budget, it is a priority for the Liberal Party, but the short term nature of the need to balance the budget we see coming from both the NDP and Conservatives is the wrong approach. They are discussing it as though it is the be all and end all which may be a popular thing to say in Ottawa, but it doesn’t help our communities or our people in Central Nova. The obvious plan given the circumstances we are in across the country and in our region is to invest in our communities and put people back to work and that is the Liberal Party’s plan. When I see that interest rates are at a historic low and I see that our communities have aging or not existent infrastructure it seems readily apparent that we can invest in the infrastructure needs of our communities. That’s going to help create jobs not just for carpenters and welders that are helping build and repair things, but for local accountants who take on a project for local shops and restaurants. The policy of investing in infrastructure at this time in our history makes complete sense and will help grow our economy and its going to help small towns and communities every bit as much as its
XW: What is the general plan your party has for the environment if elected? Why do you think it is the best plan for Canada’s environment? SF: Before I get into what plans my party has, I’d just like to communicate how important the environment is to me and has been for my entire life. I have had the question come to me a number of time when I first got involved in politics and it was when I was seven years old. I was Vice President of the environment club at SH MacDonald Elementary School in Grade 2. I do say this as a bit of a joke of course, but the fact is I have been a part of a green generation from the time I was a kid. I grew up playing in the outdoors, I enjoy breathing clean air and drinking clean water. These are fundamental aspects of life as a human being. I’ve maintained my interested in helping our environment and currently serve as a research fellow with the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, so I do remain connected to protecting the environment as a cause personally. I am very pleased with the Liberal Party of Canada’s platform on the environment. I am happy to be a part of the Liberal Party because of it. There’s a strong global and local focus to the Liberal Party’s platform when it comes to the environment. We are going to be phasing out fossil fuel subsidies to meet our G20 commitment. We are going to be attending the Paris Conference on Climate Change and Justin Trudeau has committed to meeting with the premiers instead of ignoring them within the first 90 days of forming government. This kind of cooperation internationally and with the premiers is going to help us set reasonable emission targets so we can help fight climate change here in Canada and Nova Scotia. Locally, there’s also a focus on the environment when it comes to things like protecting our lakes and waterways. The appreciation that the Liberal Party has demonstrated for the
environment is fantastic, and it makes me very proud to be a part of it. REFUGEES AND IMMIGRATION XW: What is your party’s plan for immigration, specifically refugees? SF: My Liberal Party has the most progressive plan to help refugees coming out of the Syrian crisis of any of the three major parties. We are going to immediately accept twentyfive thousand refugees with the proper vetting process, but we are also going to help efforts on the ground by providing $100 million to the UN high commission for refugees. It’s a very difficult and unimaginable situation that these people have gone through, and there seems to be an attitude in certain parts of our country and with one party in particular, that these people are somehow less deserving of being treated like human beings because they come from another place. It’s shocking the approach that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have taken toward the Syrian refugee crisis, and they’ve doubled down on then need to go to war which will only help create more refugees. We need to be working toward a solution. I believe it was the immigration minister said something to the effect of, “there is no refugee solution to the refugee problem,” and he could not be more wrong. For so long, Canada has been isolated from the need to accept refugees because of our geography: it’s difficult to get to North America. European countries have done a more often than not, a lot more than North America. What we need to do is be on the ground helping process people, to ensure that there is a minimal safety risk, and then welcome them with open arms to Canada and to Nova Scotia. MILITARY AND VETERANS XW: What do you think should be the priority of Canada’s military and why? SF: I think we’ve got a tremendous opportunity to make a difference in the world from a diplomatic and peacekeeping role. Until Stephen Harper became prime minister, each leader of our country ensured that Canada was the number one provider of peacekeepers around the world. I’m not sure precisely where we fall on the list now, but there are so many countries that are outdoing us when we have a proud tradition of helping solve problems, helping solve armed conflicts through peaceful means. I feel as though our role in the Middle East has become muddled. I’m pleased to see that Justin Trudeau is committed to ending the combat mission in Iraq, but without compromising the humanitarian role that our country is able to play to help vulnerable people around the world. XW: What is your party’s stance on their role in veteran’s affairs after someone has completed their time in the military? SF: The treatment of veterans by Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party is unacceptable. The Liberal Party has
committed to reopening Veterans’ Affairs offices which, veterans by in large have requested time and time again. There’s been a very positive development with the Liberal Party’s platform announcement in how it’s going to help veterans. One example, our young veterans have received some attention: if there is a soldier who is injured during service, and they are required to change their career given the injury that they suffered, the government, in my opinion has a moral obligation to help transition that person into a new career. What the Liberal Party is committed to doing it helping fund that person’s education for four years of post-secondary school to allow them to make the transition into a role where they can continue to be a functioning member of our society. When our soldiers go overseas, with healthy bodies and healthy minds, they and their families don’t often bargain for the scenario where they come back with physical disabilities or post-traumatic stress disorder. If we can afford to send our citizens to war, we can afford to take care of them when they come home. And it is as simple as that. HEALTH AND SOCIAL POLICY XW: What does the Liberal Party have to offer in terms of family policy? SF: Canadian families form an essential part of our country and of our party’s platform. The obvious policy that’s gotten a lot of attention is the Canada Childcare Benefit. At present, the Conservative Party provides a cheque to all families including millionaires in Canada, and taxes people, even the vulnerable Canadians and their families on the back end. What the Liberal Party is committed to doing is stop giving child care cheques to millionaires and putting money in the pockets of the people and families who need it the most without taxing them on the back end. This is going to have the effect of lifting three hundred and fifteen thousand Canadian children out of poverty and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the approach that our party has taken. On families generally, the Liberal Party has made it a focus to help the middle class and those working hard to join it. We are focused on giving a 7% tax cut to people in the middle class to make life just a little bit easier. We’re focused on helping people in vulnerable situations like those who have lost their job by reducing the wait time for the EI program; by telling them they don’t heart move to a new community to find work. Instead what we are going to do is invest in people so they can become a stronger person and a stronger professional who will rejoin the workforce and contribute to their local economy. This is one of the areas that I think differentiates the Liberal Party from both the NDP and Conservatives. The NDP and Conservative parties are both very happy to give tax breaks to wealthy Canadian and Canadian millionaires.
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Get to know your Green candidate An interview with David Hachey JULIA O’HANLEY Editor-In-Chief Xaverian: Why did you decide to run in Central Nova? DH: I guess the short answer is that I wasn’t very happy with the direction that Canada was heading. I have lived abroad for a fair bit of my adult life: I studied economics at Harvard, I worked on Wall Street for 10 years, I lived in India for a couple of years, I travelled extensively. I was always very proud of being Canadian; I kind of walked around with my chest pumped out a little bit. I felt as though I had the admiration of people around the world just for the fact that I came from such a great country. I had always intended to move back to Canada, and you know even before that started to notice that some of the things that I had always believed about Canada were not as true as they used to be. And then in 2008 I moved back, and over the past five or six years, I’ve really been unhappy with the direction our country has been taking. So I guess my primary motivation I guess has been a sense of unhappiness, or the word I have used before is ‘disgust,’ which I guess could be a strong word. I felt as though there was an obvious, better way and we were not heading in that direction. It was a desire to be a part of some positive change that I felt was needed. ECONOMY XW: What is the Green Party’s plan for taxation? What will you do with existing federal taxes and/or do you have any new taxes and fees that you will implement? DH: The Green Party doesn’t plan any major personal tax changes. I guess that’s not a correct blanket statement but, for instance income splitting is one of the elements of the personal taxation regime that the Green Party would like to modify. Income splitting for seniors is something the Green Party views as a positive thing, so we would leave that in, but the income tax splitting for the non-senior element of the population, has largely been a way for those who are already doing well to avoid taxes. We could save about a billion dollars by not allowing income splitting for the average Canadian who is taking advantage of it. That would be one thing that would change. Most of the Green Party’s efforts to raise revenue would focus on the corporate tax rate which, in Canada is the lowest or second lowest in the G7. It is quite low by standards of all OECD countries. It has been lowered a lot in the last 12-15 years: the federal corporate tax rate in the early part of the century was 28%. Even in 2008 it was 19% and now it stands at 15% which was a strategy to try and create economic growth by creating reinvestment that was supposed to create jobs, but I don’t think the evidence supports that. Most of the money that has been saved at the corporate level through the lower tax rate has gone simply into corporate bank accounts and
has not been reinvested into the country. So I think we should look at that as a failed strategy and perhaps even raising the corporate tax rate may encourage corporate investment instead of the extraction of all this money out of Canada’s economics system. There’s currently an estimated $600 billion dollars sitting in corporate bank accounts. Raising the corporate tax rate from 15-19% can generate almost $7 billion a year in revenue. There are so many obvious investments that Canada could be making right now in its people and its infrastructure and its institutions that would benefit Canadians, and pave the way for much higher economic growth and greater prosperity, and those investments aren’t being made. So the Green Party would look to raise the corporate tax rate back to 19% while also, in agreement with the other parties lowering the small business tax rate from 11% to 9%. XW: Is balancing the budget a priority for your party, and how does your party plan to pay for the policies that you have put forward? DH: The Green Party in our platform for this election has released a fully costed budget that has been audited and it does balance. We are raising money through corporate tax rate, other places: it is quite easy to find a billion dollars here and there. For instance, the Canadian government directly subsidizes fossil fuel companies to the tune of about $1.3 billion a year. Things that are bad for Canada, bad for our environment, bad for our people, shouldn’t be subsidized. They should be taxed. And then things that are good for the country should be subsidized. So for instance, not to say that lowering the corporate tax rate is bad for the country, but returning the corporate tax rate to 19% generates $7 billion dollars. Subsidizing post-secondary education and skills training for Canada’s youth, making all universities tuition-free by 2020 and forgiving all student loan debt over $10 thousand – we’d have to phase it in over four years because it’s obviously expensive to retire all existing debt. And then in 2020, all student loan debt over $10 thousand is theoretically gone, so at that point we can fully implement free tuition. That costs about $5 billion a year. That sort of thing is a gigantic investment, not in size but in impact. It is a great investment in the future of our country. It creates young people that are not burdened by student loan debt and they have the freedom to either continue their education, start businesses, volunteer, travel – build a better future instead of having to go to work immediately under the crushing burden of student loan debt. Our youth would be able to afford homes quicker, they would be able to start families when they’d like instead of when their bank account allows it. I think burdening our children with student loan debt is not the right sort of legacy we want to have our next generation face. Infrastructure is another element of our spending
plan, which again happens within the context of our balanced budget. It is an issue. Statistics show that Canada has a $350 billion infrastructure deficit. We see it every day and it is the sort of thing that can nurture small business and help them thrive; attract international investment and international jobs to come from abroad. These are the sort of low hanging fruit that make good sense from an investment standpoint. The money is there to enact policies that make sense and that subsidize the right things and tax the right things. ENVIRONMENT XW: What is the general plan your party has for the environment if elected? Why do you think it is the best plan for Canada’s environment? DH: My background is in economics, specifically environmental economics, and I firmly believe that the Green Party has the best plan for carbon, for instance. Our plan, we refer to it as a fee and dividend model. At the source of production, carbon emitting fossil fuels would have a fee associated with them. For instance at the well head, or the point of importation, there would be a fee that would be collected by the government that would be put in a fund. This is an entirely revenue neutral plan, so it would not be going toward funding any of our other plans. The entirety of the fee that is collected would be returned to Canadians on a per capita basis. So the net effect would be: filling up your car would be more expensive, filling up your oil heating tank would be more expensive, to the extent that fossil fuels are the inputs in food and consumer goods, those would be incrementally more expensive. But the thing about making carbon more expensive is that it is a very efficient tax because it creates the right incentives: it encourages people to drive more fuel efficient cars, or drive less; it encourages people to insulate their homes, or consume less. The fact that it’s returned, every dollar that is collected is returned to Canadians on a per capita basis, makes it an incredibly progressive tax. People who have below average income and consumption would actually get a cheque for more than they spent on their fee that they spent every time they fill up their car. And of course people who take efforts to reduce their consumption, regardless of their income, will see the benefit. It’s our more affluent members of society that tend to be responsible for the greatest greenhouse impact. They would be net losers under this situation, but they would still get a cheque. There is no income test as to who gets the cheque, it’s just by virtue of their increased consumption, their cheque would not cover what they spent. It’s a very progressive tax, it’s a very fair tax, it’s easy to implement. The amount of the tax, I use the word tax but you know we’re calling it a fee because people don’t like the word tax. So the amount of the fee, although it is a tax in an economic sense, could be varied over
time. So for instance we could we could phase it in somewhat slowly to allow people to adjust, and then if we are not meeting our emissions target as a result, it could be increased. But as the fee gets increased, the cheque back gets increased. It’s a very scalable model, it’s easy to implement, doesn’t have a large overhead, it would be applied across the country. It avoids a lot of the problems that allowing the individual provinces to have their own regimes, which is inefficient because you would have so many different, separate regimes that have costs to setting them up, cost to administering them, and then you run into the problem of, well Alberta has so much to lose. They might have a relatively weak climate change model, and that would really undermine the whole system for instance. A national plan makes a lot of sense to me from an efficiency standpoint. The NDP, they are arguing for a cap and trade model which theoretically can be a very economically efficient model, but the worry is it has been proven very time consuming to implement. A lot of the benefits, the income from the carbon credits that might be sold and traded do not end up in the hands of people, they end up being traded in the backrooms of Bay Street and put a large number of bankers and traders in BMWs. That’s my thoughts on carbon. REFUGEES AND IMMIGRATION XW: What is your party’s plan for immigration, specifically refugees? DH: Elizabeth May has gone on record as saying that we should bring in 40 000 Syrian refugees and get them over here using military transport. Since that time I has heard General Rick Hillier say that Canada can bring in 50 000 Syrian refugees. The UN is overwhelmed with the paperwork for these refugees, and I believe that we should get them here as quickly as possible. We can vet them in Canada: if any of them don’t pass our security tests, we can send them back. I don’t think there is any reason to delay any further. This is a horrible crisis going on and I would support bring over 50 000. I mean, General Hillier is the expert and if he thinks they can be brought over safely and not pose a security threat, I wouldn’t argue with him. As far as the cost of bringing refugees over, it’s been shown that in the first generation of a refugee’s life they actually pay for the cost of bringing them over. The contribution that they make to Canada and our economy balances out what it cost to bring them over. By the second generation of refugees, they become such enormous positive contributors to Canada that it is not expensive. We can afford it, we should bring them over. It’s good for Canada and it’s the right thing to do. This area of Nova Scotia, Central Nova, we would love to have more refugees. I think we need people, I think there is room for them, there is a great place for them here. But the problem until now has been immigrants and refugees come over
in small numbers and they lack community. Even Halifax has a hard time keeping immigrants because the immigrant communities are small and they need friends. They need people who they share a culture with, so they’ll stay for a couple of years and move to Toronto to be a part of the larger immigrant community. I think in Central Nova we should bring in a critical mass of them so they’ll be happy and stay, because we’d like them to stay MILITARY AND VETERANS XW: What do you think should be the priority of Canada’s military and why? DH: I believe that we need more funding for the military, but that we should reorient to a peace keeping role. That historically has been Canada’s strength, it’s what’s earned us respect around the world, and the interventionist, offensive action that we have tended to be increasingly involved in, I’m not sure that that’s proven to be a good model for Canada or the world. So I believe in operating within the confines of our international commitments, and within the confines of international organizations we’ve joined and agreed to support. Overall I think that we’ve been active increasingly in the wrong way and that Canada’s traditional role as a peace keeper is something we should return to and do a better job at. XW: What is your party’s stance on their role in veteran’s affairs after someone has completed their time in the military? DH: We would re-open Veteran Affairs offices, reversing the $200million cuts to Veteran Affairs HEALTH AND SOCIAL POLICY XW: What does the Green Party have to offer in terms of family policy? DH: The Green Party is angling to help families with childcare. Our model is to fund and support workplace based childcare so that families can stay together during the day, so that mothers and fathers can be nearby to keep families together. Studies show that having families be near each other during the day is a major positive thing. So providing incentives for companies to open workplace based childcare would be an example of one of the things that the Green Party is angling for in terms of families. XW: Could you explain what, if anything the Green Party would do with C51 if elected on October 19th? DH: The Green Party would immediately push for the total repeal of Bill C51. It’s been a flawed piece of legislation from the beginning. We’ve had testimony from, for instance Joe Fogerty who is a British MI6 agent, so basically an operational spy, has testified that Bill C51 does not make it safer. It creates silos between CSIS
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friday october sixteenth, 2015
Get to know your NDP candidate An interview with Ross Landry JULIA O’HANLEY Editor-in-Chief Xaverian: Why did you decide to run in Central Nova? RL: Well there’s a number of issues that are important to me, there’s the poor economic performance of the last ten years of the federal government. Mr. Harper has the worst economic record of any prime minister since the Second World War and he has consistently ran deficits. So with that alone, we have to go in a new direction. In addition he put all his eggs in one basket, in the oil industry and that has adversely affected the Atlantic region. There’s also the issue, the matter of missing and murdered indigenous women and the violence against women. The other parties are silent on that and I felt that the NDP platform in that is a strong voice for change in correcting some areas that I think are deficient in that overall system. C51 is a bill that deals with the anti-terrorism law and that is probably one of the worst pieces of legislation that has gone forward. It needs to change – it’s a dangerous bill. Bill C51 is sweeping and is dangerously vague and is practically ineffective. We need to protect citizens and take terrorism seriously, but that piece of legislation is far from that, and our civil rights are important. ECONOMY XW: What is the NDP’s plan for taxation? What will you do with existing federal taxes and/or do you have any new taxes and fees that you will implement? RL: Under an NDP government we are looking to have a balanced budget. We want to protect our jobs, we’ve got to diversify our economy. So when we look at taxation, it’s important that we reduce the cost, for example to students, to low income people, to seniors that are on fixed incomes, and balance the taxation system so that for example, corporations that are not paying their fair share but are highly profitable, making large amounts of money and getting tax incentives, [the NDP’s plan] is to make a small increase and move that from 15-17%. You take that money and you reinvest it into infrastructure development, transfer payments on healthcare, education, and stimulating the overall economy. XW: Is balancing the budget a priority for your party? RL: We certainly need a balanced budget. For example for the past ten years the Conservatives have not balanced the budget. Mr. Trudeau is saying that we’re going to run a deficit for the next three or four years. At what point do we start saying it’s time to pay the bills? It’s not going to affect me so much because I’m a little older, but for you for example as a young person, it would have a very adverse effect. We’re going to need to pay for things in the future. If you’re debt-ridden, and we know the impact of that on students right now where it’s very expensive to go to university
and to manage the cost of that, we need to find ways to shift that taxation so more benefits go into young people to first get access to a quality educational training, and to reduce the cost of that on them so that when they come out they are able to afford to spend money, to invest in, if they want to get a family they can get a start on that and that will stimulate our economy very much as well. But we want to create about fifty-four thousand infrastructure jobs in our overall plan to readjust the taxation. The small business tax, we definitely want to drop that from 11-9%. We need to diversify our economy. What I mean by diversify, is we have to get away from the fossil fuel mindset, be innovative and creative. For example in a creative economy it opens up a whole bunch of doors and it would help the rural community because can live in the rural communities with the technology we have and be able to thrive in those areas. XW: How does your party plan to pay for the policies that you have put forward? RL: I think fossil fuel subsidies, that’s one of them. Things like the income splitting, the tax free savings, but remember the income splitting stays for seniors. Also adding that small tax, going from 15-17% on corporations and lowering the tax for small to medium sized business will stimulate the economy there. The additional tax that we get from the corporations – they’re making a profit, and remember corporations that make profits don’t pay taxes. It’s only the corporations that are making the profits and the redistribution of wealth will help the economy overall. As I understand there’s something like billions of dollars sitting in offshore accounts and in corporation accounts that was supposed to be designated with the idea of going back into the economy, but they’re holding on to that money. We need that money in here to stimulate the economy and to make things grow. ENVIRONMENT XW: What is the general plan your party has for the environment if elected? Why do you think it is the best plan for Canada’s environment? RL: Well first off, I don’t think the Conservatives have a plan of anything. I think it’s very safe to say that. When you look at the Liberal agenda when they were in power, they signed on the Kyoto Accord but they did not do anything to meet those conditions. It is one thing to say you’re going to do something, I guess the best way to assess a politician is by what they do and not by what they say. Climate change is very important overall. We’ve got to meet our obligations of building a clean economy. Eliminate those subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, invest in transit: it helps cities reduce their overall emissions and plus move people, large amounts of people with a reduced amount of cost and that also increases the efficiencies overall. Invest in transit to
reduce emissions from the vehicles we have there now. Show up at the Paris climate meetings with targets and a plan in place to meet them. Implement a cap and trade system that puts a price on carbon. Now I know that the Liberals before had spoken about that, but they’re not doing that this time. If you don’t hold the polluters accountable, why would they change? We have to have a system that’s fair, that involves the provinces, that is not a blueprint one format fits all. You’ve got to look at the different regions, look at the different needs in the communities, but have a plan. Sit down and talk with people and work through that.We’ve also got to move off that fossil fuel. In Nova Scotia for example, we’ve so heavily based on carbon based fuel. Just imagine that we can eliminate and look to tidal, hydro, wind, solar, and other types of forms that are renewable, then we can afford to have electric cars. For example, the average person in Pictou County travels ten to twelve kilometres a day to work. Their car sits there all day, they drive it home. If we all had them [cars] working off of renewable energy, we could head back and forth with no pollution and be able to have them plugged in at work. We need a system that has a plan, that has a vision and in addition to that it would definitely increase our change economy and stimulate more growth. REFUGEES AND IMMIGRATION XW: What is your party’s plan for immigration, specifically refugees? RL: Well [with] refugees, all three parties are now taking a pretty good stand saying that we are going to move forward on taking in refugees, except for the Conservatives [who] have stretched theirs out a little longer. We know that there’s a real crisis right now, and that Canada is a loving, caring nation. When we see someone in need, we reach out. So it is very important that the young women and children and vulnerable people that we have noticed on TV and so on have a place that we can take them in and make them safe. We are going to take ten thousand people by the end of the year, and an average of nine thousand each year after that, for a total of about fifty thousand. We also want, for example in Antigonish we have the S.A.F.E. community that would bring in families and I think that’s a great program. We should be opening up to the private sector opportunities to bring people in and sponsor families and show that care. At the same time, we always have to be conscious about security and safety, and put measures in place to make sure that we’re ensuring overall safety. Bringing immigrants into the country through immigration, in Nova Scotia for example in particular in rural areas, we need people! We need people to do the jobs, to help with the population, to expand our schools so that we can keep them in rural areas and that will be vital in our regrowth. With more people coming in, hopefully there is more children born,
and the overall economy will be stimulated even better. MILITARY AND VETERANS XW: What do you think should be the priority of Canada’s military and why? RL: I believe that Canada’s role as an armed force should be peacekeeping. We should expand that more. The idea of us dropping bombs on a country and thinking that that’s going to add to the health and welfare of the area I disagree with. It creates people that are disenfranchised from their communities and from the land, it creates some of the situations we see now with the mass exodus of immigrants that are needing support. From a military perspective, we remove our soldiers from being involved in dropping bombs, and going into the United Nations platform so that if it’s a United Nations sanctioned event, then I feel that we should be there. However in turn we should be taking our soldiers back, building our armed forces up so that we deal with internal civility, protect our borders, protect our entry points, and that we develop an expertise both in peacekeeping and in rescue and survival and safety. For example, the unit that we have that puts in innovation to help restore water and that type. That’s a very vital part of life in the community. So our soldiers would be building hope and supporting the community. So I see that role as more important, in that we have to ensure that we finance them and that we build our reserve up, our military reserve, to help projects within communities. We’re dealing with our own people and infrastructure, and when there is emergency need they can take those skills into another country and apply them when needed. So on my military perspective, I want to strengthen it internally. I also believe that we should protect our seas, especially the north. Especially with the ship contract in Nova Scotia, that’s a good foundational piece in order to protect our water. So we’ve also got to make sure our equipment can meet the needs and expectations of our defence. XW: What is your party’s stance on their role in veteran’s affairs after someone has completed their time in the military? RL: The veteran is somebody that has been neglected in the last number of years under the Conservatives. They’ve clawed back benefits, they’ve shut community offices up. For example one veteran I was talking to last week in Halifax said he has to drive all the way from Sydney to get services and benefits and that’s not right. The Conservatives made big cuts to the staff, I think there are nine offices across the country. They’ve failed to deal with the mental health crisis in the armed forces. It’s something that’s really disturbing to me is that there’s been more people committed suicide than we’ve had killed in combat in Afghanistan. So that’s a troubling point. In addition, the Conservatives have spent $750
million to fight veterans in court and over $1.3 billion of the Veterans’ Affairs budget went unspent last year so they could say that they had a balanced budget. That really doesn’t sound like something that’s compassionate and caring for our soldiers. Military families still remember the Liberal cuts that were made back in the 90s. With today’s Liberals, you can’t trust that they won’t do the same thing. The NDP plan will reopen the veterans’ offices; we’ll expand health services for all veterans and their families; we’ll review, update, and improve a new veteran’s charter; we’ll fix and review the Veterans’ Appeal Board so that all veterans are treated with equality and respect and have access to the healthcare and vital supports that they actually need. We made an announcement in Dartmouth for a $454 million investment over four years for better treatment of post-traumatic stress and mental health issues for soldiers; to enhance long term care, expansion of the veterans’ independence program to allow them to be able to function on their own; ensure funding to support dignified funerals for veterans through the last post program. There is benefits to re-education and additional training. They served their life on the front lines and they put everything on the line, the ultimate part their life, so the least we can do is ensure they have a dignified quality of life when they return. HEALTH AND SOCIAL POLICY XW: What does the NDP have to offer in terms of family policy? RL: When you look at the $15/day childcare, as a young woman if you decide to have a family and you’re trying to pay off student loan and you’re trying to get started in the community, if you have to pay huge amounts of money to get childcare you may hold off, you may delay, or you may not be able to go out and work, you may have to stay at home or have to balance it. Or, the other partner may stay at home. So the $15/ day care is important. We need to reduce the cost of student loans for people that are trying to get an education or get training and come our burdened by that debt – that has to be reduced. We also have to look at people that are on minimum wage jobs that couple may be working to try and get a start. So you need to put programs in place to allow them to get training and develop opportunities for the future. The other important thing is to ensure that we have proper healthcare and supports. For example, children getting medical examinations early on so that if there are medical challenges or learning challenges they can be identified early by going to the doctor. Making sure that the funding for healthcare transfers enable young families to be able to access medical care and get those types of services. We also want to make sure that we diversify the economy, moving out of fossil fuels and moving into a creative economy
continued on pg 6
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Get to know your Conservative candidate An interview with Fred DeLorey JULIA O’HANLEY Editor-In-Chief XW: Why did you decide to run in Central Nova?
XW: Thanks. Finally, how does your party plan to pay for the policies that you have put forward?
FD: FD:
XW: Interesting, thanks for explaining! Next section is about Canada’s military What do you think should be the priority of Canada’s military and why?
XW: Great. Could you explain what, if anything the Conservative Party would do with C51 if elected on October 19th? FD:
FD:
XW: Very nice. Let’s talk about the economy. What is the Conservative Party’s plan for taxation? FD:
XW: Ok, great. What is the general plan your party has for the environment if elected? Why do you think it is the best plan for Canada’s environment?
XW: Fabulous. Now, what is your party’s stance on their role in veteran’s affairs after someone has completed their time in the military?
XW: Next question: what does the Conservative Party have planned for students and new graduates? FD:
FD: FD:
XW: I see. Now, is balancing the budget a priority for your party? FD:
XW: Awesome. Next question is about refugees and immigration. What is your party’s plan for immigration, specifically refugees?
XW: Thanks Fred for your carefully crafted answer. What does the Conservative Party have to offer in terms of family policy?
XW: Spectacular. Final question now: why, in summary do you think that StFX students should vote for the Conservative Party in this election?
FD:
FD:
FD:
from the editor: candidate interviews The Xaverian tried numerous times to meet with Mr. DeLorey, Conservative Party candidate before this issue went to print. We decided this summer to create this issue as a guide for student voters. We intended from the start to speak with all candidates at great length to allow them to interpret their platforms in their own words. In the interest of fairness, we hoped to hold the candidate interviews with all four candidates as close together as
possible to eliminate the possibility of any variables or so-called “wild card” issues occurring between candidate interviews. However, if necessary, we were willing to stretch the dates if that was the only way to fit into our interview into candidates’ busy schedules. The Green Party interview was scheduled for and took place on Sept 25. The New Democratic Party interview occurred the following day, Sept 26. Our sit-down with the Liberal candidate hap-
pened the day after, on Sept 27. The Conservative candidate agreed to an interview with me on Society Night, Sept 10, and an interview time was scheduled in person following the on-campus debate Sept 22. We spoke with the campaign team, said we wer e offering roughly half-hour interviews and had allotted at least one page of our ‘Election Issue’ to each candidate. Thus, the page you see above was the page allotted to DeLorey.
JULIA O’HANLEY | Editor-in-Chief Our first interview was cancelled just two hours before we were to meet. Scheduled to take place the morning of Sept 26, it was communicated to our team that there had been a miscommunication between DeLorey’s campaign and the Xaverian. We then tried to reschedule for a future date, to no avail. We emailed both his scheduling agent, and the general campaign email. We tried tweeting as well. We appreciate the Conserva-
tive campaign’s contribution to our ‘State of the race’ article on page 15, however it is unfortunate that DeLorey did not take this opportunity to pitch his platform and plans for the riding to student voters. All candidates were asked the same set of questions. The same question was removed from each printed interview due to space constraints. For full interviews, visit www.xaverian.ca.
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friday october sixteenth, 2015
Candidate interviews continued Sean Fraser, Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party is focused on giving help to people who actually need it. XW: Could you explain what, if anything the Liberal Party would do with C51 if elected on October 19th? SF: I have an extensive background in human rights law: I have studied international law with a strong human rights component in the HAG, and I’ve worked for a human rights organization in Johannesburg in South Africa through a program that was funded by the Canadian government. My wife wrote her Masters’ thesis at the London School of Economics about the use of emergency powers by government. I was having very interesting conversations about Bill C51 long before it came to a vote in the House of Commons. I have serious reservations about Bill C51. The Liberal Party, upon forming government, has committed to repealing the offensive portions of the bill, and making amendments to improve parliamentary oversight to
ensure that there’s a sunset clause and to further protect human rights. I believe I have the ability to provide value from day one by bringing a strong human rights perspective to that discussion to ensure that our fears over international security do not take precedence over the importance of protecting human rights in Canada, which is deeply important to me. STUDENTS AND YOUTH XW: What does the Liberal Party have planned for students and new graduates? SF: This is a deeply personal question to me. I grew up in a house where education was valued highly - both my parents were educators: they were high school teachers. I was fortunate enough to know, from the time I was very young that that university was obviously on the radar for me. The expense of going to school is mind numbing. When I was Students’ Union President at StFX, I
went to Parliament Hill to meet with our MPs to lobby for reduced tuition fees for targeted grants that would help students with need. The world’s greatest business solutions and scientific developments may be locked in the mind of someone who cannot afford an education, and that doesn’t work. We need to ensure that everyone, regardless of where you come from, or what socioeconomic background you may have, can afford an education to we can maximize our potential. I myself, as well as my five sisters and both parents all graduated from StFX and each of us pursued post-secondary education beyond that as well. I had the opportunity to go to law school and as I mentioned, the opportunity to study international law in the HAG. My wife and I each graduated with law degrees and finished our undergrad and Master’s degree in law with six figure debt. This has had the effect of pushing people away from Nova Scotia because there’s a lack of good paying opportunities on the back end for
recent graduates, which is another area that the Liberal Party is going to provide significant help. They are investing in young people, not only at the front end, but on the back end by providing good opportunities to start work right away. They are starting work-study coop funding programs to help people in business, science programs, math, engineering and technology, get their first taste of professional work right out of school. They are also helping people who are training to gain a trade by providing apprenticeship training programs and ensuring that when we make this massive investment in Canadian infrastructure, that there is going to be spots for young people to work on those projects. It’s exciting, there was been a real attitude from my party that says young people matter, education matters and we are going to invest in our young to make sure that they not only become educated, but they can use what they’ve learned to contribute to society at an early stage of their career.
XW: Why, in summary do you think that StFX students should vote for the Liberal Party in this election? SF: I’m the best choice for students from StFX to vote for on October 19th because I understand the experience of a young person gaining an education and wanting to make a difference in my community. This is something that I’ve gone through comparatively recently to the other candidates and I think we need fresh faces and fresh ideas in politics. But it’s not just my understanding of the experience, it’s the quality of the plan that my party is bringing to the table. What I like about the Liberal Party’s plan for the Canadian economy is that it’s simple and honest. We are going to build things that our community’s need, and we are going to pay people to restore our communities which is going to help grow the economy. This is an investment we can afford, and it is the right policy for the circumstances our country and our province is currently in.
XW: Why, in summary do you think that StFX students should vote for the Green Party in this election? DH: I feel as though we are the only one that’s really not pushing costs onto our future generations, and is looking to make investments that will continue to pay dividends ten, twenty years into the future. For instance, we are the only one that has significant action on climate change, banning all new pipeline
construction. The other parties with their pipeline position will almost double oil sands production. These environmental costs are potentially gigantic and they’re the ones that the next generation, StFX students and recent graduates are going to have to bear. Something has to be done sooner rather than later. It’s time to repair our crumbling infrastructure, it’s time to begin the transformation of the green economy which is the economic
opportunity of your generation. We’re falling behind; we’re falling increasingly behind. Continuing to focus on the oil sands, those are the jobs that are in Alberta. Clean economy jobs can be here and if people want to stay in Nova Scotia, it seems silly to continue to pursue a centuries built energy model. Pipelines are going to be expensive, and the world is moving away from that, so why are we going to spend so much money on it?
simply unfair. A point to keep in mind is that we are in the financial situation where students are today because of the 90s under the Martin and the Chretien governments. They stood with Mr. Trudeau recently, and they pulled hundreds of millions of dollars out of healthcare and education. That trend continued with the Conservative government. Therefore universities put their costs up and it’s just gotten out of hand. The first issue is student debt. We’ll end the Conservative and Liberal era of student debt with our Post-Secondary Education Act, including more transfer payments for tuition, halting privatization, helping provinces reduce tuition and providing enhanced grants and other aid. The second issue is our youth’s unemployment. The number of young Canadians unemployed for more than a year has tripled under the Harper government. Worse, the quality of new jobs is at a twenty-five year low with more part-time hours, lower wages and fewer benefits. It should not be harder for young people to start out in life than it was when their parents, my age group started out. We understand these problems very well and we understand the frustrations. Students are frustrated, and that’s why Tom
Mulcair recently announced a new plan to announce forty thousand new youth jobs through NGOs, private sector partnerships, and paid internships. This will also include creating apprenticeship spaces through infrastructure projects, protecting the safety of young workers by backing down on unpaid internships.
David Hachey, Green Party of Canada and the RCMP with no oversight, with no supervising organization. We’ve already seen examples where the RCMP has been investigating groups and CSIS has information that is entirely relevant to the investigation and has not shared it. Creating these silos makes people less safe and is an unnecessary infringement on the freedoms of Canadians. STUDENTS AND YOUTH
XW: What does the Green Party have planned for students and new graduates? DH: There are a few other things that perhaps I could add to our policy on tuition. We’d also look to set up a billion dollars for students to get their first job. I don’t have the name of the policy at the tip of my tongue, but it’s to hire new graduates to get them their first job. We’d also increase bursaries and ban unpaid internships.
Ross Landry, New Democratic Party of Canada where innovation is important with the technologies changing from oil based. You stimulate the economy by creating new jobs and opportunities which will help young people in our community. Making transportation available, improving the quality of transportation. We do that by infrastructure development and that will reduce the dependence on having two vehicles or even a vehicle. That’s important. XW: Could you explain what the NDP would do with C51 if elected on October 19th? RL: Tom Mulcair and the NDP are proud to have opposed this flawed and dangerous Bill from the
beginning. We agree with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Canadian Bar Association and four former prime ministers that this Bill has no place in democracy. People are being told they have to sacrifice their basic freedoms to be safe. This is a false choice being presented by Mr. Harper and Mr. Trudeau. The truth is, we cannot protect our freedoms by sacrificing them. Bill C51 is a law that is sweeping and dangerously employed and likely ineffective. The conservatives have played politics and intimidated the Liberals into supporting this law. A single Liberal MP stood up to their leader. One MP stood up and said anyone opposing the Bill, which is
about 85% of the population by the way, will have blood on their hands. Trudeau recently went as far as to say that Bill C51 is a great example of what Canadians expect their government to do. The original Liberal candidate that was in this riding here, a decorated veteran of the armed forces stood up to Mr. Trudeau on Bill C51 and is no longer a candidate. Our plan is principled and has respect for our democracy. The NDP cares, and has respect for our basic rights and freedoms. I care about our basic rights and freedoms. I spent a lot of time as a police officer, as Minister of Justice, and Tom Mulcair is a principled and experienced leader with the conviction to preserve our freedoms. We would repeal that Bill in a New York second. STUDENTS AND YOUTH
It’s Yours.
Find us off exit 32 at 133 Church Street
XW: What does the NDP have planned for students and new graduates? RL: In the NDP, we have a very young caucus. Matter of fact, it is the youngest in history, so we take these issues seriously. The neglect from the Conservatives and Liberals has saddled students with crippling debt and double digit unemployment. This is not just to say its bad policy, it’s
XW: Why, in summary do you think that StFX students should vote for the NDP in this election? RL: The first and foremost issue is that we’re basically in this situation because of the Conservatives and Liberals’ mismanagement of the economy, pulling hundreds of millions out of funding to support university students, to allow transfer payments to go to provinces to go for universities. The burdening debt that’s put on our students: if we don’t have ways to get student loans or bursaries that reduce that at lower interest rates, that give people easier access to cash, to have a repayment schedule or have no payment where appropriate. It’s easy for someone to just come out and say they’ll wave a wand and get rid of that, but it won’t happen overnight. You have to have a plan, and you have to have a track record of doing things.
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Word on the street Interviews: Emily Keenan | Opinions Editor
Photos: Devon Chisholm | Artistic Coordinator
Layout: Rachel Revoy | Arts&Culture Editor
Who are you voting for and why?
Adam, 4th Year I align myself with the Green Party, but based on the voting system I can’t really vote for them as I have to vote for someone who has a chance of beating out Harper. I can’t vote for who I truly align myself with.
Emma, 3rd Year I don’t really know. I’m just going by from what I hear, obviously the big thing that I hear is that no Conservatives. I’m just trying to be informed as much as possible. My parents always talk about it so I’m planning to get some input from them when I go home. I think I’m leaning towards Liberal.
Carson, 3rd Year
Karina, 2nd Year
Liam, 2nd Year
Not Harper. For me, the issue is that all of our vote doesn’t count. Some of it counts, so we have to vote strategically to the ends that we wish. In this case it’s that Harper should not be in office, which means that whoever is going to have the best chance of kicking Harper out of office.
I’m trying to learn more about it because it’s something I consider myself to not have much knowledge in at all. As of right now, I like Liberal. I haven’t had time to look into much, so that could always change. I’m not a huge fan of Conservative.
At the moment I’m kind of mixed about it, I’m more leaning to a leftist view and hoping for the NDP, but I’d be open to Justin Trudeau for example. I guess I’m kind of in the movement of anything or anyone but Conservative.
Who do you think will win the election?
Julian, 3rd Year
Sam, 4th Year
JP, 11th Year
Patrick, 2nd Year
I think it’ll probably be the Conservatives just due to prior years. I think a lot of the polls that are going on online don’t take into account people in rural Canada and in small towns, so that’s really important too. But, there might be an upset, so we’ll see.
Honestly, I think in this election, it’s kind of one of the years where the youth vote is getting a lot stronger, so I think Liberals and NDP have a pretty good shot at it this year. I just don’t know if enough people are going to strategically vote. I really don’t want Harper to get in, but it could definitely happen.
That’s not for certain exactly, but from what I understand the Conservatives will win, I wouldn’t say they’d win with a strong majority government or anything, at most with a minority government and at that point it’s up to the left to form a coalition and defeat them.
I do not think the Conservatives will win, that’s all I’m going to say. It’s going to be close between NDP and Liberal I believe.
It’s really close but I think Justin Trudeau will come out on top. I was looking at some polls and he’s ahead by a little bit there now behind Stephen Harper but when it comes down to it I think Trudeau will get in. He’s probably the front-runner right now where Stephen Harper’s been in for ten years. I feel like he attracts a younger audience.
Brett, 3rd Year
Graham, 3rd Year
I just think that it’s important to use the vote because not every country has the opportunity to choose their government or make their voice heard, so where we have that freedom in Canada and we have the ability to choose our leaders, I think we should use it.
It’s important to be the holders of our own fate.
James, 1st Year
Why do you think it is important to vote?
Joelle, 3rd Year
Warren, 3rd Year
I think it’s important that young people get their voices out and a great way to do that is to participate in democracy. The whole point of it is that everyone votes, and if you have the ability to then you should definitely participate.
I think it’s important. I think everyone should be political. It’s something that has to happen in a democratic country. It’s a right we have in Canada and I guess you have to exercise that right.
Claire, 1st Year I believe that we need to. You can’t criticize a political system that you have the right to speak in if you don’t take advantage of that.
are you unsure who to vote for??? 8
friday october sixteenth, 2015
Article by: Features editor Paige Chisholm
Liberal Party
Leader: Justin Trudeau Regional Candidate: Sean Fraser What they want to do:
- Offer more benefits for families
- Readjust tax brackets in favour of the middle class - Make investments into clean energy technology - Improve the protection of Canadian marine areas, land and wildlife - Adjust admission fees into national parks to encourage more people to visit them - Call for a national inquiry into murdered and missing Aboriginal women - Implement all 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission - Invest $515 million per year in funding for First Nations K-12 education - Support the Keystone XL Pipeline and Energy East projects - Oppose the Northern Gateway Pipeline project - Legalize and regulate marijuana - Introduce new initiatives to support emergency workers - Provide improved home care for seniors - Work with provinces to lower prescription drugs costs - Create a more flexible and accessible Employment Insurance Compassionate Care Benefit - Strengthen ties with North American counterparts - End current bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria - Institute a plan to ensure that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is used only to fill jobs when qualified Canadians cannot be found - Bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada ASAP - Introduce a universal Early Childhood Education program - Create a national housing commission to work with all levels of government, provide tax incentives for developers and landlords to build and renovate rental units - Keep and amend Bill C-51 - Explore mandatory and online voting - Restructure Senate - Replace the current first-past-the-post electoral system - Cancel Canada Post’s plans to end door-to-door delivery
NDP
Leader: Tom Mulcair Regional Candidate: Ross Landry What they want to do:
- Raise the federal minimum wage - Create an innovation tax credit worth $40 million - Create 40,000 youth jobs, paid internships, and co-op placements - Invest in retrofitting homes to make them more energy efficient - Eliminate subsidies to the fossil fuel industry - Strengthen laws to protect Canada’s lakes and rivers - Launch a public inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women - Oppose the Northern Gateway project and the Keystone XL project - Decriminalize marijuana immediately - Study the resulting health and societal effects of marijuana - Establish a national Alzheimer’s disease and dementia strategy - Build and expand 200 healthcare clinics across Canada - Invest in mental health innovation for children and youth - End the current bombing campaign and pull out all military personnel from Iraq and Syria - Boost humanitarian aid to help refugees affected by ISIS - Make family reunification central to immigration policy - Immediately bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to Canada - Begin to phase out interest on federal student loans - Provide incentives for the construction of affordable housing across Canada - Oppose Bill C-51 and the Anti-terrorism Act - Replace the current election system with a mixed-member proportional system - Cancel Canada Post’s plans to end door-to-door mail delivery - Create additional childcare spaces across the country - Invest in supporting sporting programs to disadvantaged youth - Restore Statistics Canada’s mandatory long-form census
Lucky for you, there are awesome resources like pollenize.com to help summarize each party’s platform. Here are pollenize’s summaries of the liberal, conservative, NDP and green party platforms 9
Green Party
Leader: Elizabeth may Regional candidate: David Hachey What they want to do:
- Shift the economy to a “green economy” and create jobs in renewable energy and efficiency - Place a fee on carbon pollution and pay it back through a dividend to all Canadians - Focus on fighting youth unemployment and raise the federal minimum wage - Change the way Ottawa interacts with Indigenous communities by implementing “true nation-to-nation dialogue” - Address inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities - Call an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women - Be opposed to all current pipeline proposals - Stand in solidarity with First Nations fighting pipelines crossing their territory without consent - Eliminate mandatory minimum sentences - Repeal Bill C-51 - Establish a national pharmacare program to ensure Canadians have access to affordable medicine - Expand investment in health care to ensure that it remains universal - Re-orient the Canadian military towards peacekeeping and disaster response - End the lump sum payment for injuries - Bring back lifetime pensions for veterans - Eliminate the Temporary Foreign Workers Program - Remove barriers to family reunification - Eliminate student debt by moving to institute a grant system instead of the loan system - Implement a national housing strategy to develop affordable housing - Repeal the portions of Bills C-13 and S-4 that allow warrantless disclosure - Introduce legislation to “defend an internet that is open and free, where Canadians have a right to privacy” - Reform the electoral system to establish a form of proportional representation - Slash the budget of the Prime Minister’s Office by 50% - Implement a Guaranteed Livable Income to make sure no Canadian lives in poverty
Conservative party Leader: Stephen Harper Regional Candidate: Fred Delorey What they want to do:
- Create 1.3 million new jobs by 2020 - Reduce the small business tax rate from 11% to 9% by 2019 - Provide $670 million in federal tax relief to Canadian seniors over the age of 70 - Reduce Canada’s emissions to 30% below 2005 levels - Provide $500 million to building and renovating schools on reserves - Review the 94 recommendations released in June by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission - Already approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, supports the proposed TransCanada Energy East project and the TransCanada Keystone XL project - Would not legalize or decriminalize marijuana - Establish a tip line for reporting “barbaric cultural practices” to the RCMP - Increase funds to help international organizations fight the forced marriage of young girls and women - Increase annual health funding to the provinces - Provide the Department of National Defence with an additional $11.8 billion over the next 10 years - Ban travel to places that are “ground zero for terrorist activity” - Spend $500,000 to collect data on foreign real estate buyers - Accept 10,000 refugees from Iraq and Syria over the next 4 years - Commit $300 million over 5 years to expand the use of biometric screening at Canadian borders - Increase the number of computers in schools to have more Canadians engage in the digital economy - Work with business and industry associations in order to better align with postsecondary institutions - Spend $2.3 billion per year to give Canadians access to affordable housing - Allow aspiring homeowners to make tax-free withdrawals from their RRSP to finance the purchase/construction of their first home - Passed Bill C-51 - would not change it - Keep the current voting system - Oppose a “Netflix” tax on digital streaming services - Spend $200 million on expanding high speed broadband Internet services
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friday october sixteenth, 2015
OPINION: Committing Sociology Will you make your vote count? LINDSAY JOHNSTONE Columnist In 2013, Stephen Harper spoke to the media regarding terrorism as speculation had been made that a group was plotting to attack a VIA Rail train. Luckily, police were able to make the arrests prior to the incident occurring. When a reporter asked Harper what the root of the problem was, Harper responded with a spiel of things including, “Now is not the time to commit sociology.” Harper clearly understands what sociologists study - yet, he does not want others to ‘commit sociology’ because sociology focuses on
societal problems versus individual problems. Harper wanted the potential terrorists arrested, but did not want to confront the societal issues surrounding terrorism, and that is why he said it was not a time to ‘commit sociology.’ Harper makes committing sociology sound like a bad thing, but is it actually a bad thing? If you are interested in how things happen and why things are always done in a certain way, you are beginning to commit your own forms of sociology. Sociology seeks to understand these things through research and investigation. Sociology uses a scientific approach and
rigour in pursuing things like this terrorist incident in 2013. If you have ever found yourself questioning the norms of society, asking why everything is organized this way and why people do what they do then you have committed sociology. Mr. Harper does not like this. After watching the Mercer Report and his emphasis on students getting out the vote, my advice is to get out there and vote for who you believe will make Canada better. Who will you be voting for? If you have any belief at all in the sciences, social sciences or natural sciences, give your vote to someone who also believes in the power of science.
As Mercer stated, StFX has the highest campus election voter turnout in all of universities in Canada! Let’s keep that statistic going. As StFX students, we are all fa-
miliar with making an “X” with our arms; let’s make that next X on your voting ballotand don’t be afraid to consider “committing sociology” in the process.
OPINION: The Niqab Debate Forcing Canadians to choose a side RACHEL LEBLANC Senior Reporter Canada’s 2015 federal election has wavered from side to side, covering everything from the economy to humanitarian aid; inequality to the TPP. But now, something strange is happening: Canada, a nation praised for widespread diversity and freedom of rights, has hit a bump in the road that is prompting us to reevaluate how accepting we really are. The ongoing discussion about whether the niqab should be banned while swearing the oath of citizenship has rather unexpectedly become a central topic for Canadian party leaders in the upcoming federal election. For Harper, the answer is clear get rid of it. The potential security risk is not a line he wants to cross, and is an issue he has raised to the Supreme Court several times. NDP leader Tom Mulcair believes “we live in a society where we must have confidence in the authority of the tribunals, even if the practice is uncomfortable to us,” or in other words, yes to the niqab. For Trudeau, the topic is undecided. Harper argues that Canadians should embrace an open and transparent practice at a time of gaining citizenship, despite the fact that this requirement runs contrary to our national values. According to Harper, the niqab is apparently rooted in a culture that is anti-women and can pose a security risk to Canadians in a time they are swearing the oath of citizenship. Since the issue has been raised as a topic of discussion
in this election, more than 60% of Canadians agree with Harper and support the ban on niqabs in our citizenship ceremony and in other public spaces such as government offices and courts. Moreover, a third of Canadians say they feel shocked and angry when they see a niqab. This spark that has grown into a massive flame in Canadian politics has not only had an impact on the federal race, but has divided Canadian on an issue that is fundamental in achieving our dream of restoring our international reputation. How Canadians choose to see the niqab at home is a clear indication of where we actually stand in regard to our role as international stewards. If you are not familiar with the niqab, it is a veil worn by Muslim women that covers the entire face apart from the eyes. It is worn for religious reasons, the same way a Christian might wear a cross around their neck. While the niqab is worn in public in order to dress modestly, Muslim woman will remove the niqab when they are in a private setting and surrounded by other women. Those who wear the niqab often do so on their own terms, not only for their religious beliefs but for their own sense of freedom from judgment. According to The Globe and Mail’s Naheed Mustafa, “Wearing the hijab has given me freedom from constant attention to my physical self. Because my appearance is not subjected to public scrutiny, my beauty, or perhaps lack of it, has been removed from the realm of what can legitimately
be discussed.” When a Muslim women decides to wear the niqab, she often does so for reasons that allow her to feel more respected, free, and virtuous. This is not rooted in a culture of ‘anti-women’, but in one whereby women are taking action to feel as free and respected as possible. Banning the niqab would actually be more ‘anti-woman,’ as it strips a woman’s right to do what makes her feel comfort-
able, respected and free. In Canada, we promise Canadian citizens the freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, expression, press, peaceful assembly, and association. If we ban the niqab, or any other religious headdress, we are going against the promises the constitution makes to citizens. I ask myself about Canadians sometimes - are we serious about restoring this philanthropic reputation? Or are Photo: canadianinquirer.net
we more concerned with scrutinizing and discriminating against unfamiliar religious practices? If we are supposedly a country that aspires to be charitable and to uphold human rights and freedoms, why are we so afraid to begin here at home? This federal election is a critical time for Canadians not only to choose who they want to lead the nation, but to also decide on who we really want to be as a nation.
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OPINION: Climate change should be the top priority ALEX MILLER & VICTORIA CULLEN Contributors Climate change is the defining challenge of our generation. Greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas have changed the composition of our atmosphere, resulting in an average global rise in temperature. This increase in temperature will alter our climatic patterns and wreak havoc on our natural and human-made systems. A changing climate means more unpredictable weather patterns and the increased likelihood of floods, droughts, and extreme storms. For Nova Scotia and other coastal jurisdictions, sea level rise threatens to encroach upon our land and damage our infrastructure. A changing climate means that shortages of water and food will be more common, which in turn will threaten the very foundation of humanity’s survival. Famine, political instability, economic decline, and increased likelihood of conflict are all potential impacts of climate change. It is imperative that international action on climate change mitigation take place. A global strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is needed in order to keep the increase of the earth’s temperature from passing 2°C, the scientific consensus of the threshold at which we can avoid catastrophic climate change. In November and December of this year, the United Nations is hosting the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference. At this meeting, leaders from around the
world will come together and attempt to create an enforceable international agreement with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This conference is considered to be the ‘last chance’ we have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before the 2°C limit is passed and our current political and economic stability is sent into disarray. Going into the Paris Climate Change Conference, it is important that Canada be prepared to take meaningful action on climate change. The approach Canada’s negotiators take in Paris may depend greatly on who is elected on Oct 19, as the various parties differ greatly on their positions regarding climate change policy. Below is a summary of the main policy positions of the Conservative, NDP, Liberal, and Green parties. In the interest of fairness, the authors will attempt to remain impartial. However, it is important to keep in mind that election promises do not necessarily translate into action, and the authors encourage readers to critically assess each party’s platforms. Conservative Party: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has committed to reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30% from 2005 levels by the year 2030. The Conservative plan depends largely on greenhouse gas emission reduction policies being undertaken by provincial governments. Stephen Harper has openly opposed climate change policies such as cap-and-trade and carbon taxation. As of the time of writing, the Conservatives have yet to outline a plan detailing how they would reach
their emissions reduction targets. New Democratic Party: Thomas Mulcair’s NDP has committed to create a capand-trade system which would set a price on carbon emissions. The cap-andtrade system would allow provinces to opt-out if they are able to match or surpass federal emissions targets. The NDP have stated that they would remove $1 billion in subsidies to fossil fuel companies and use this money to invest in the clean energy sector. Liberal Party: The Liberal Party, under the leadership of Justin Trudeau, has committed to setting a price on carbon. In their platform, they outline a plan in which they will meet with the leaders of the provinces and territories in order to create a national climate change policy. The Liberals also plan on investing in low-carbon technologies through a $2 billion Low Carbon Economy Trust and phasing out subsidies for fossil fuel companies. Green Party: Leader Elizabeth May has committed to setting a price on carbon through a fee-and-dividend system. The Greens plan on eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and investing in clean energy research and commercialization. Interestingly, the Greens also want to invest $500 million per year into funding climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing nations. Young Canadians have been told throughout this election that our vote matters now more than ever. Young Canadians have been told that we have the opportunity to prevent our demographic from remaining ig-
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nored. We must have our voices heard and remind our political leaders that youth issues are Canada’s issues. This is not only a crucial election for the future of Canada, but it presents Canadian citizens with the unique opportunity to translate their votes into potential momentous action on climate change mitigation. It is no secret that the economy is considered to be the number one issue of this federal election, but it is imperative to keep in mind that without aggressive action on climate change the entire foundation upon which our economy is built will be compromised. Wheth-
er or not Canada acts as an influential constituent at the Paris climate talks, the extent to which our federal government commits to the global effort on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is entirely determined by the decisions that we as Canadian citizens make when we show up at the polls on Oct 19. About the authors: Alex Miller is a fourth year Political Science and Aquatic Resources student. Victoria Cullen is in her third year, studying Economics and Aquatic Resources. They will both be voting on Oct 19.
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friday october sixteenth, 2015
OPINION: Making the ‘right’choice Why Harper must stay RJ COOKE & PATTY MACMILLAN Contributors I don’t know how you feel about having a well-paying job after university, but to me that sounds pretty good. Choosing a political party is all about tradeoffs: what you’re willing to give up to get what you really care about. Most of us at StFX are new voters unsure who they’re going to vote for in the upcoming election. As university students taught to think critically, we should be more concerned about why we’re voting and not who we’re voting for. In this federal election, most voters are more concerned with the figureheads of the parties in question, i.e. ‘the tyrant,’ ‘the pretty one,’ ‘the one who looks like my uncle”,’ and ‘the participation award.’ A party is more than just their leader. As an ideology, Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, limited government intervention, free markets, individual liberty, traditional values and strong national defense. Conservatives believe the role of government should be to provide people with
the freedom necessary to pursue their goals. Their policies generally emphasize empowerment of the individual to solve problems, rather than the government solving them for you. The Conservatives lowered Canada’s small business tax from 13% to 11% and created the twoyear Small Business Job credit, which saved 780,000 job-creating businesses across the country more than $550 million in tax relief. This gave Canada one of the lowest overall tax rates on new business investments. In doing so, the Conservatives have made our country one of the best in the world to do business in. Our hospitable economic environment is a platform on which new entrepreneurial ventures can flourish. As a country, we have the choice to continue this trend of lower taxes for small businesses. By lowering small business taxes, small business owners now have more capital to hire new employees, keep current employees, and/or re-invest in their business and local community. This translates into higher employment rates that make our economy stronger. The Conservative’s Economic Action Plan aims to
create 1.3 million new jobs within the next five years. This is only possible by lowering the small business tax. Just like picking a political party, university is a trade off. As students we gave up the opportunity to enter the work force straight out of high school and instead opted to pay tuition. We do this in hopes that with a degree we have a better chance to do what we love and make more money doing it. So what did you do? You decided to come to StFX and take out loans with the hope of future prosperity. So what do you want? To lower student loans so it takes less time to pay them off, or a better chance at actually getting a job with a higher income to pay them off? I know by the time you finish
your scholarly pursuits you’ll be looking for a job. Working backwards from that day and factoring in what you want the econo-
my to be like, it looks like voting conservative is the best choice. Can you commit to voting the ‘right’ way on Oct 19?
OPINION: Why I hate the federal election How youth are forced to chose between the lesser of four evils LAUREN AGNEW Senior Reporter As a 21-year-old university student, I have spent the better part of this election hearing that young people are the problem, and that we are the reason the government is in trouble. I would like to take the time to point out first and foremost that the majority of the people now occupying the 18-24 year old demographic were not eligible to even vote in the 2011 election, so perhaps we should rescind some of the venom directed towards the “youth of today.” Don’t get me wrong, I under-
stand the issue: young people for some reason have not picked up on the importance of voting in federal elections in years past. Perhaps some truly don’t care about the outcome, but as an educated and informed member of society, I don’t believe the answer is that simple. I believe that young people no longer have confidence in the power of policy. We have grown up hearing that we must be the change we wish to see, but voting for a platform that doesn’t align with our values is not a satisfactory manifestation of said change. We are the generation that will not elect to power
someone we do not believe in, and with the platforms this year it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel for young people. Education is a right and a necessity, not a privilege. It is pretty much impossible to find gainful employment in this day and age without at least a university degree. Even so, only the Green Party has made a substantial claim about eliminating the cost of tuition for post-secondary education. The Liberal party is telling me to get a job (I have seven, but thanks for that suggestion) to pay for school and not be a burden to the economy. NDP plans to slowly phase out paying interest Photo: petermackay.ca
on student loans over the next 7 years. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help me repay the $40,000 I owe for my undergrad that needs to be repaid by next year. The current interest rates are frighteningly close to the amount of my bi-weekly paycheque from my job. The Liberal Party is supposed to support me with my (now implied necessary) education, but will they really? I appreciate the Green Party’s understanding that education is a right and not a privilege, but the notion of paying zero dollars in tuition seems ludicrous in the current economy, so it’s hard to stand behind them while watch-
ing tuition fees increase and my bank account decrease. Finally the Conservatives have honestly been so useless in helping students so far (and their action plan makes no mention of helping current students get out of debt) that they do not even deserve to be acknowledged. I am tired of being told I do not care enough to vote, when the reality is that my vote is just making the best of a bad situation. If a party wants my unwavering support I need to know that my immediate future, as well as the future of my entire demographic is a legitimate concern for party leaders.
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For the sake of the Indigenous Each party’s plan to solve the health crisis among the aborignal population CAITLIN VANCE Health Columnist I, like many of us, tend to take for granted the quality of life that I am privileged to have here in Canada. It is hard to think that people in our own country are suffering, but like everywhere else there are still people in need. Having recently learned about some of the health and lifestyle complications surrounding the Aboriginal communities in Canada, I wanted to explore the proposed plans and solutions for these issues based on each party platform in the hope that they can be addressed post election. Aboriginals have higher rates of chronic disease than any other demographic in Canada. They have on average 1.5 times higher rates of heart disease, 3-5 times higher rates of type 2 diabetes, and 8-10 times higher rates of
tuberculosis. All of which are influenced by lifestyle conditions, specifically diet. A large population of First Peoples in Canada live in isolated northern communities. It is no wonder that these populations are suffering when they are so limited in healthy and reliable sources of food due to extremely high food prices ($26 for orange juice) and lack of vegetation in these frigid climates. The Liberals aim to tackle this lack of food security by increasing investments to the ‘Nutrition North’ program. Said program subsidizes healthy food for isolated northern communities, by $40 million over four years. Arguments that the program is not doing what it should for residents after being put into the hands of market retailers back in 2011 by the Conservatives persist. Consequently, the Liberals plan to improve the program by
ensuring it becomes more transparent and accountable. The NDP proposes to fix the Nutrition North food program, though the methods of attack are not given. They plan to implement $32 million over the next four years to ensure Northerners have access to nutritious food. Of course food subsidization is not the only thing with potential to improve the health of these communities. Variables such as education, infrastructure, and income all come into play when considering the overall health of a community. The Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP all propose to put aside money for education for Canada’s first peoples. The NDP has recently pledged to provide $4.8 billion over the next 8 years to ensure adequate education for First Nations, while simultaneously working to build a strong nationto-nation relationship. The
conservatives wish to provide $500 million to building and renovating schools on reserves, as well as commit $567 million over five years to help build “stronger communities” if re-elected. The Liberals hope to see improvements in the First Nations health by providing $2.6 billion over the next four years towards schooling and $500 million towards immediate education infra structure over the next three years. Finally, the Green Party also wants to create opportunity for growth in indigenous communities by providing increased education opportunities, but no given amount of funding has been provided. Another one of the issues Aboriginals are experiencing across the country is a lack of safe drinking water. A boil-water advisory is currently advised to nearly half of the 133 First Nations in Ontario. The Neskantaga First
Nation in Northern Ontario, for example, has not had access to safe drinking water for 20 years. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have promised to end these advisories within the next five years if elected on October 19th. First peoples are both hopeful and dubious about the upcoming election and the potential for change, due to past broken promises from the government. All four major parties are promising that improvements in Aboriginals lifestyles will be made, but whether or not these promises are kept is another story. Positive change for these isolated communities would mean better health for the population of Canada as a whole. After all, the Aboriginals were the first people to set roots in our beautiful country and should feel just as secure and a part of it as everyone else.
writer Yoni Goldstein, the damaging effects that would stem from legal, regulated pot would not target the generations that are already innocently enjoying the herb, but for the generations to come who, when faced with the inevitable “rebellious period.” If pot becomes legal, drug dealers won’t sell it anymore. What this means is underground drug deals could switch to the next best thing cocaine, or other more addictive, harsh drugs. Our children will no longer have a relatively mild drug, like marijuana, as a rebellion option. While many students have spoken openly about their support to legalize
pot, others have stayed firm in their belief to keep it criminalized. “In the long term, marijuana’s effect would turn us into a society that believes that doing drugs is okay. Which it is not,” a third year student says. “We must not encourage people to believe that drugs are okay. It could have terrible long term effects in the years to come.” In the end, the country has not yet come to an agreement as to how we will handle the issue in the coming years. With so many topics being covered in this upcoming federal election, Canadians will certainly see some change in the air - whether it’s marijuana or not.
The Weed Election? Pot has people polarized. RACHEL LEBLANC Senior Reporter The discussion over legalizing marijuana has persisted over several years now and Canadian party leaders have taken opposing standpoints on the issue. Justin Trudeau has made it very clear that he is pro legalization, especially when he told media that he smoked a joint at his home in Montreal back in 2003 after becoming an MP. For Tom Mulcair, he believes people shouldn’t have a criminal record for using pot. Stephen Harper is still strongly against legalization. But whether you are for, against, or do not care about weed, the topic will be covered in the coming election and the regulations will certainly be re-evaluated. At the moment, where do Canadians stand on the subject of pot? In recent studies, less concerned than ever. Since 1987, the support for decriminalization has risen from 39% to 65% in 2015. Canadians aged 18-35 are the most in favour, holding 70% for decriminalization. Those in favour of marijuana legalization are evenly represented across Canada, ranging from 74% in BC to 60% in Quebec. Here in Atlantic Canada, 71% are in favour. Canadians are clearly growing more and more supportive of weed. For some, it is simply because it really isn’t that bad. Many argue that alcohol and
cigarettes, two legal commodities, are much worse. Many look to cities like Amsterdam who have legalized marijuana to see its effects. Many locals don’t want people pushing drugs in the dark alleys, and would rather see marijuana in regulated shops. Many also say the prohibition is more expensive: legalizing the substance would boost the economy, and would have a positive impact on future employment opportunities for youth by saving their criminal records. “Students will get high regardless of its legal restrictions,” Laura says, a second year student. “Making it permissible would avoid so many punishments and charges against those who are not hurting anyone in their own consumption. It is something that should not have punishments, since it does not affect anyone else.” Pot supporters also tout pot’s supposed medical effects that help relieve cancer patients from pain and enable epilepsy
patient to cope with their symptoms. With all it can offer society, many think legalizing marijuana is virtually a no-brainer. “Those who disagree with legalizing pot are certainly not obligated to use it, so it wouldn’t affect them,” Kiana, a second year Business student, argues. “However, those who chose to, will use it regardless and will avoid criminal charges for very harmless acts. I don’t smoke weed, nor am I interested in it, but I do believe it is important to legalize it for those reasons.” On the other hand, some argue that decriminalizing marijuana will have worse long term effects on society. According to
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friday thursday october september sixteenth, twenty-fourth, 2015 2015
Voting 101 SEBASTIAN JURGA Staff Writer Voter apathy is a problem in today’s society. The majority of people who tend not vote also tend to have some of the most influence. As of the 2008 election (and we all know how that turned out) only 37% of the population age 18-25 (that’s around 1.13 million out of 2.94 million potential voters) actually voted. Due to the fact that we live in the golden age of information, I am going to, most likely wrongly assume that this is not because of sheer ignorance, or a simple lack of motivation (to take 30 minutes out of your day) to change the outcome of something that could drastically alter the state of our country. Instead, I am going to assume that the reason our demographic doesn’t vote is simply because
they don’t know how to. Luckily for you, The Xaverian is here to make the process nice and easy for you. The first step is pretty straight forward. All you need to do is register. This can be done in a few different ways: online, in person at the local office, or even at the location for polling on Election Day itself. The first is by far the easiest, since most of us have a phone, or at least some way to stay in the loop. Simply visit www.elections.ca and select your language. Next thing you know you’ll be prompted to register. If you choose to be a little edgy and do it in person, then you will have to go to 193 Westville Road, New Glasgow, which is the Central Nova election office. That’s a lot of effort, so I expect you’ll all want to do the online route. Finally, if you want to do it in person right before you vote
on the 19th of October, than visit the polling station with a piece of ID, and proof of your place of residence. Also, it’s quite important to know that registering in person could take some time, so it’s probably best to do it online. The deadline for registration online is October 13th. The process itself is quite simple, just fill out the information (name, address, postal code, etc.) as prompted. You probably have some questions about the actual process of voting. Don’t worry, I’ll smooth that out too. First and foremost, a lot of you probably don’t actually reside in Central Nova, being students. That’s ok: you get the choice of which riding you choose to vote. While registering, either select your current location (in Antigonish) as your home, or your family home where you grew up.
Whichever you consider to be home will be the riding you vote in. After that’s all said and done, the rest is easy. Make sure you are 18 years of age, a Canadian citizen, and have proof of identity and home address. If you don’t have a piece of ID corresponding to the province you vote in, than make sure you have 2 pieces of ID, one of which that corresponds to your home address. Your home address could be that on your driver’s license, government issued ID, lease, or a bill addressed to your current resident. If you don’t live on campus, then you will have to vote at one of a number of different Antigonish polling stations between 8:30 AM and 8:30 PM on October 19th. Check out elections.ca or call Elections Canada to find out the location of your polling station. If you do live on campus,
then you can conveniently vote at the same time in either the MacKay Room in the Bloomfield Centre (SUB) or the Charles V. Keating Centre – Conference Rooms A & B. Be sure to ask the university’s residence office to print your “proof of residence” here on campus if you have not yet registered to vote. This, accompanied with your government ID will be sufficient evidence to prove your identity. Hopefully I have managed to rid our campus of voter apathy by tackling it at its source. You all know how to vote now, so what will be your excuse come election day? And I swear to god if it’s because “my vote won’t make a difference” than you better be ok with who gets elected. Because it most likely be same guy as the last 2 elections. And we all know how that has turned out.
OPINION: A necessary evil Our best bet to saying goodbye to Harper is through strategic voting EMILY KEENAN Opinions Editor Is your number one priority in this upcoming election to get Harper out of office at all costs? You’re not alone. Millions of Canadians, exhausted by a decade of secrecy, fear-mongering, and despotism, are heading to the polls on October 19th with this shared goal in mind. It seems impossible that Harper could possibly get elected again, right? Think again. As students, a predominantly leftist demographic, it’s easy to underestimate the size and influence of Harper’s base. Say what you will about Harper, but he’s a cunning bastard if there ever was one, and he’s spent the last ten years mutating our wellrespected, peaceful nation into its ideological opposite. Don’t believe me? Take a look at one of the key issues that has come to define this election campaign, the niqab. How else could you explain the fact that 82% of Canadians believe people should be required to show their face during citizenship ceremonies? But I digress. Putting aside Harper’s many discrepancies (I could go on), this isn’t the first time our nation has been disenchanted by the Harper government. Four years ago, our last election left Harper with a majority even after he was found in contempt of parliament. Harper emerged with 53% of the seats in the House of Commons - a majority
that, within our current parliamentary system, is more or less a dictatorship - despite the fact that only 39% of voters cast their ballot in favour of the Conservative Party of Canada. 61% of Canadians wanted Harper out of office but we split the progressive vote and here we are, four years later, finding ourselves in the same slowly sinking boat. How can we avoid another four years of tyranny? The best way to guarantee our success and avoid splitting the left this time around is to conform to the devastatingly necessary phenomenon that is sweeping the nation: strategic voting. Strategic voting is a devastatingly necessary methodology that asks voters to vote for the party in their riding that has the best chance at beating out the Conservative candidate, regardless of their party line. According to strategicvoting.ca, 5.5 million votes were wasted in the 2011 election because the progressive vote was split. While it is arguable that no vote is ever truly wasted, in a flawed electoral system such as ours strategic voting is the best way to give your vote as much significance as possible. Obviously, this situation is not ideal. Strategic voting has often been criticized as being undemocratic, and rightly so. Strategic voting can be likened to Winston Churchill’s classic quote: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” In such dire circumstances, it is the most pow-
Photo: rabble.ca erful weapon in the electorate’s arsenal. We have the privilege of casting a single ballot every four years, and in an election this pivotal, we simply cannot afford the luxury of voting as we please. If voting against your conscience makes you feel uncomfortable, consider this: every political party except the Conservative Party has made it a top priority in their platform to reform the electoral system by 2019. The Liberals, the NDP, and the Green Party have all seriously committed to replacing the first-past-the-post system with varying alternatives. One alternative, proportional representation, would allow us to vote for whomever we please and rest assured that our vote
will give greater representation to our interests in parliament via the party of our choice. Strategic voting is a necessary evil, but if we cast our ballots right (as in not right [wing]) we can do away with it entirely. Vote strategically one last time so that we never have to vote strategically again. And if you need any more fuel to feed the fire, when asked about strategic voting by Toronto TV station CP24, Harper dismissed its existence. He claimed, “Nobody votes strategically, you and I both know that. People vote for what they think is best for them.” For the love of God, let’s ‘do what’s best for us’ and vote this asshole out.
While the gap between parties is widening in the polls, the three-way race remains a tight one; the phrase every vote counts has never been as true as it is in this election. Allow the three left-leaning parties to follow through with their promises to retire our outdated and undemocratic electoral system. Read up on how to vote strategically in your riding and encourage your friends to do the same. On October 19th, cast your vote wisely. Another four years under the Harper regime could leave us with a Canada we truly do not recognize. Check out strategicvoting.ca and votetogether.ca for information on how to vote strategically in your riding.
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The state of the race Who will replace Peter MacKay in Central Nova?
IZAAK MACMULLIN News Editor Election day is fast approaching, and local campaigns across the country are working ever more feverishly to ensure they come out on top. This is certainly the case in our own riding, Central Nova. A longtime Conservative stronghold thanks to popular Cabinet Minister Peter MacKay, this riding is being watched very closely by political junkies all across Canada. Central Nova is seen as a bellweather: a riding that will help indicate if the Conservatives will hold on to power or be swept aside. National polls have been all over the place this election, with every major party spending time both in first and in third, so tight ridings like Central Nova could decide this election. MacKay’s Conservative successor, Fred DeLorey, feels confident that people are responding well to his campaign, and want him to continue is the same vein as his predecessor. Via email, he explained, “While meeting voters at the doors they have expressed to me that they are grateful for all of the support that they have received whether through investments in our community or in ensuring that they are able to keep more of their hard earned money through lower taxes. They have indicated to me that they want to continue to see these positive investments and that their taxes remain low. Voters also want to see increased support for seniors and families and they like what they hear when I tell them about our plans to continue our support.” DeLorey feels his support is
strong, saying, “We have exceeded the number of lawn signs we anticipated that we would need and have had to place two additional orders to keep up with the demand. We have reached and exceeded our fundraising goals and are extremely grateful to everyone that has been willing to lend a hand whether through donations of their time or money.” Ross Landry, the NDP candidate, counters that people in Central Nova are far from happy with the status quo, people in and want to see Harper turfed. “The number one issue we’re hearing on the doorsteps is stop Harper. It’s time for him to go.
riding, finishing ahead of the Liberals here in every election since 2004. While the other major parties try to convince voters that, this time, they will support sensible, progressive policies, voters know the NDP has been fighting for them all along.” His campaign claims that voters are responding to his party because they have taken a stand on important issues against the Conservatives and Liberals, saying, “It’s about change, plain and simple. Voters are tired of Stephen Harper’s policies. We hear a lot about C-51, climate inaction, and handouts for large corpora-
locals. He explains, “Local Liberal membership is up more than 300% since July. We have 650% more volunteers in this election than in 2011, we have raised more money than any previous Liberal campaign in Central Nova and we’ve knocked on thousands and thousands of doors as a team. Our team has travelled more than 5000 kilometres around the riding and we’ve made thousands of phone calls. We’ve held over 50 events and Sean himself has devoted himself to 12, 15 and 18 hour days since the election began. No group is working harder to bring real change to Central Nova than Team Sean.”
Photo: Devon Chisholm It’s also our number one priority. That’s why voters are looking to the NDP. We are the traditional second party in this
tions. Ross is the only major party candidate in Central Nova who opposes these policies. He promises to repeal C-51, support strong federal carbon caps to drive down greenhouse gas emissions, and end Harper’s handouts to large corporations. Time and again, on the issues that really matter, the two traditional ruling parties stand on one side, and the NDP and the Canadian public on the other. Voters’ response to our message of change has been incredibly positive.” The Liberal candidate, Sean Fraser, also feels that voters want a change, but he claims that the ‘ABC’ vote is breaking his way, not the NDP. “We are hearing on almost every doorstep a clear and strong desire to see an end to the Stephen Harper decade. This motivation has been strong enough to bring traditional Tory supporters and NDP supporters into our offices looking to lend a hand.” Fraser provided several figures that he believes show that the Liberal campaign has captured the imagination of
The Green candidate, David Hachey, had not yet replied to our emails at the time we went to press. To get an expert perspective on how the race is panning out, the Xaverian spoke to Political Science professors Jim Bickerton and Yvon Grenier, both of whom frequently comment on the election on the news and radio. When asked how MacKay’s exit had affected the race, Bickerton simply responded “Profoundly. There wouldn’t be a race if Peter MacKay was running again.” Grenier elaborated on what made MacKay so important, explaining, “The new Conservative Party of Stephen Harper has very shallow roots in the Maritimes. The old Progressive Conservative Party has very deep roots. There’s a difference between the two: the Progressive Conservatives, they are more like old tory-style, a bit more paternalistic, in favour of the welfare state, not very different from the Liberals when you think about it. Much less emphasis on cutting taxes for the sake of cutting taxes, on reducing the size of the federal
government, which Harper did like no other Prime Minister has ever done before. It’s a matter of tone perhaps as well. So Peter MacKay was the last leader of the old Progressive Conservative Party. Of course he was instrumental in creating the new Conservative Party when he accepted to merge the two parties, the west one and the east one. In the region he was a reminder of the old party, and he still spoke, a little bit, the language of the old party when he was in the Maritimes. When he was in the cabinet in Ottawa he was a very loyal lieutenant of the Harper government, but here he was supplying that little bridge, and they don’t have that little bridge anymore.” One issue that Bickerton feels is flying under the radar in this election is the topic of heath care transfers to the provinces. “The federal funding formula transfers money to the provinces to help them pay for the cost of healthcare. The old formula, before Harper, there used to be an equalization component in that transfer. So it took into account that Nova Scotia is both older and poorer than many other provinces. So they got an additional transfer to compensate for that. The Harper government has eliminated that equalization component. Surprisingly, there is very little discussion of that in this election campaign. I thought there would be, because this will essentially remove $1 billon from the transfer that is made to the poorer provinces, to the benefit of provinces like Alberta, which have very young, growing, healthier population.” Most available polling shows the NDP in third place in this riding. Bickerton speaks to this, saying “My inclination is to say it will either be the Liberals or the Conservatives who are victorious in the end.” He sees the overall federal election as even more difficult to predict but he did add “The thing I can speak about with some surety, is that there will be a minority government. I don’t see the possibility of anyone getting a majority.” Grenier was also not yet ready to pick a winner, but he did offers his view on how the various campaigns have done, saying, “It looks like the Liberal candidate has had a very good campaign, I think Mr. Landry also has had a good campaign. The Conservative guy seems to be a little bit less comfortable on the door to door and the debate and the formula and so on. He seems to be more of an éminence grise, someone who was in the Prime Minister’s Office. Of course the Conservatives still have the support of the MacKay clan, and that means something in this riding.”
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friday october sixteenth, 2015