HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-10-08, Page 19THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2015. PAGE 19.
Residents question state of Canadian science
Continued from page 8
veterans of one conflict shouldn’t
have their needs weighed against
those of a veteran of another
conflict.
“Get rid of that class system, you
know, it shouldn’t matter if you
served in Bosnia or if you served in
Afghanistan – you’re a Canadian
veteran, you’re willing to lay down
your life for this country and you
deserve the benefits that should be
coming to you,” he said.
Another question from the floor
asked whether or not the candidates
would be willing to vote against
their party’s stance on a particular
issue if it wasn’t going to serve the
Huron-Bruce riding. All candidates
but Lobb said they would, while
Lobb said the three needed a bit of a
wake-up call about party politics in
Ottawa.
“If you run for a political party...
and your party is government, I have
news for all the candidates up here:
you’re going to vote on what you ran
on and if you don’t then you’re being
disingenuous tonight,” Lobb said.
“If you have an issue with something
in your party’s platform, I think you
should have had that vetted long ago.
Those are the realities.”
Thompson said he has based his
campaign on the concept of being
able to speak his mind in Ottawa and
basing his comments on what’s best
for Huron-Bruce, not the party.
“Ridings across Canada and
particularly Huron-Bruce need an
MP who can be the voice of Huron-
Bruce in Ottawa, not Ottawa’s voice
in Huron-Bruce,” Thompson said.
“That means voting against or
speaking against your party in the
event that measures are being put
forward that are contrary to the
interests of Huron-Bruce.”
An MP speaking his mind,
however, doesn’t just have to happen
on the floor, Thompson said, an MP
can be highly effective when
shaping policies during closed-door
caucus meetings to ensure the
riding’s voice is being heard.
ORAL QUESTIONS
The first question from the floor
came from Helen Dykstra, who
asked the candidates if they felt any
party that receives 39 per cent of the
vote should have 100 per cent of the
control of Canada, as the
Conservative Party did in the last
federal election.
Splettstoesser said she felt the
number of people who voted for the
Green Party needed to be
represented. The party received
nearly one million votes in 2008, but
had no elected representatives due to
the current “first past the post”
electoral system.
The Green Party, she said, would
support proportional representation,
which, given that same 2008
example, would have seen 10 Green
Party MPs take seats across Canada.
Creces said the NDP has been the
only consistent advocate for
proportional representation over the
years, but added that the Liberals
have recently thrown their support
behind it.
“Now that the Liberals are in third
place, they have also jumped on that
boat after refusing it for years, but
the NDP has always championed
having an equal number of seats for
your votes,” Creces said, adding that
the current voting structure is a “sad
case” for Canada.
He said that some parties have
taken advantage of the current
structure in quickly turning their
backs on those who didn’t vote for
the party.
“Harper said this, and I was
hopeful in 2011, I remember him
saying this, ‘we won’t forget the 60
per cent that didn’t vote for us, but
he did on day two,” Creces said.
Thompson denied Creces’ claim,
saying, “Gerard, I’ve got news for
you, the Liberals are not in third
place.”
He said the Liberals were
committed to having a “national
conversation” on how to abolish the
first past the post system. What the
new system would look like, he said,
he didn’t know, but the current
system has to be changed.
Lobb, however, said he was in
favour of the current system and that
it worked well for ridings like
Huron-Bruce.
“Those that say they want
proportional representation are the
also the ones that criticize the senate
for being unelected and not
accountable, but with proportional
representation, you have the very
same thing. You have people
appointed by party figureheads,”
Lobb said. “When you have a system
like we have here, when you vote for
a particular person and they’re
elected and they’re the Member of
Parliament, if you think they do a
good job, that’s great, if you don’t
think they do a good job, you vote
for someone else.
“The system works. Just because
you’re in third place or second place
every once in a while, doesn’t mean
we have to shake the whole thing
up.”
A number of the final questions
concerned science and what those in
attendance called the “gutting” of
Canada’s scientific community
under Harper’s leadership.
Several candidates criticized the
treatment of Canada’s scientists by
the Harper government, while Lobb
defended the work being done.
“I know what Mr. Lobb is going to
tell you in a moment, that science is
alive and well in Canada, that
Canada is a Shangri-La for scientific
research and scientists and let me
tell you... that we have a government
that has just brutalized science and
scientific research and knowledge,”
Thompson said, calling the era
devastating and saying that the
Conservatives create policy out of
ideology, rather than the Canadian
tradition of evidence-based science.
Lobb did, indeed, defend the
Harper government’s investment in
science, saying that the national
media “has it wrong” when it comes
to science.
“Our government has invested
heavily, more heavily than any other
government before it, because we
know the return on investment for
science and technology and research
and development,” Lobb said.
Lobb said that in the field of
neonicotinoids, the Liberal
provincial government has based its
policies on ideology, while the
federal Conservatives have based
their policies on science, which is
why they have been endorsed by the
Grain Farmers of Ontario.
Dr. Jim Hollingsworth, in asking a
question from the floor, called the
Harper government “profoundly
unscientific” saying that thousands
of scientists have been fired under
Harper and that those who remain
are scared to provide independent
findings, calling it a “national
disgrace”.
Lobb challenged the question,
saying that its premise was incorrect,
reiterating the investment the
Conservatives have made in science
over the years.
Splettstoesser then challenged
Lobb saying that if the
Conservatives based their decision-
making on science, then they
wouldn’t turn their backs on climate
change.
Thompson told Hollingsworth that
he didn’t reject the premise of his
question and that in Lobb’s
statement, those in attendance were
hearing the voice of Stephen Harper
in Huron-Bruce.
“This Harper government’s war on
science is not only a violation of
decades of Canadian experience...
but I think it’s even more troubling
because of what it represents more
broadly,” Thompson said. “This is a
government that does not believe in
evidence-based policy-making and
that’s the foundation of Canadian
government.”
The federal election is set for
Monday, Oct. 19. Next week’s issue
of The Citizen will feature each
candidate answering a number of
questions pertaining to all aspects of
life in Huron County.
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