Federal Election Debate Comes to Calgary
Party leaders go head-to-head on Canada’s economic issues
Sam Ridgway, Contributor
At 6pm on Thursday Sept. 17, federal election candidates met at the BMO Centre in Stampede Park to talk national economics and political platforms in a debate hosted by the Globe and Mail’s editor in chief David Walmsley. The party leaders brought a lot of information to the debate, expanding on their platforms and challenging the others.
“The essence of our plan,” current prime minister and leader of the Progressive Conservative party Stephen Harper, said, “is making good investments that we can afford.” He followed this statement with a later clarification that these investments include an effort to “help build our labour force, build our infrastructure, build our manufacturing and our resource industries while at the same time making sure that we are keeping our taxes down and our budgets balanced.”
Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau made a point of mentioning that his plan – which includes running a planned deficit for three years – “starts with actually raising taxes on the wealthiest 1% so we can lower them for the lower class”. He believes that rather than directly investing in a labour force, the best way to grow Canada’s economic future is to invest “in roads, in clean water, in transit…to grow the economy, give it the kick start it needs, and put more money in Canadians’ pockets.”
“We want to help people get ahead, and make peoples’ lives easier,” said Thomas Mulcair, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP). “We want to drop the taxes of Canada’s small business…[we want to] bring in quality, affordable childcare, [which] will be good for the economy but will also be good for women.” Mulcair’s platform also included raising taxes on the most profitable companies in the country while dropping taxes for the lower and middle class. He also noted that the NDP is the only party to have publicly published the specifics of their financial plans.
More information on party platforms and voting dates and locations can be found in the next edition of The Reflector or online at www.elections.ca.