MERIGOMISH, N.S. — Boat Harbour, climate change and rural economic development - Central Nova candidates tackled it all at a Q&A event on Oct. 9 in Merigomish.
All six candidates spoke to a full-house at the Merigomish Schoolhouse Market & Cafe.
338Canada.com, currently shows the Liberal party in Central Nova with 39.4 percent support based on the poll aggregator's formula which measures a party's national ups and downs. The Conservatives currently trail the liberlals in Central Nova with 33.9 percent support.
The Green and NDP parties follow behind with a respective 13.3 and 11.6 percent share of the projected support.
The People's Party of Canada is placed in last with 1.4 percent.
Chris Frazer, candidate for the Communist Party of Canada, is currently not showing any polling results.
National communist party leader Elizabeth Rowley was also in Merigomish, attending the event as an audience member.
On economic development and job creation Fraser touted Liberal funding for infrastructure projects like the twinning highway 104, Boat Harbour cleanup, funding for the Stellarton NSCC's Skilled Trades wing, and the potential for new jobs in the region coming out of the newly minted Zenabis facility in Stellarton.
Canyon spoke of a need to increase funding for small businesses and the need to foster job growth in areas that are attractive to young workers.
Randle spoke of the urgent need to de-carbonize the region's economy, moving away from coal and oil for electricity and emphasized new job opportunities that the green economy would create.
Likewise, MacDonald committed to investments in the Green economy, boosting the NDP's plan which she says would create 300,000 green jobs. Both MacDonald and Randle highlighted the need to support workers during the transition. MacDonald also spoke about the need to support Nova Scotia's creative economy, saying that "creative talent is one of our greatest natural resources here in Nova Scotia and we need to invest in their economy."
Muir criticized the highway successive liberal and conservative governments for not twinning highway 104 far enough.
"That road should have been extended all the way to Cape Breton," he said, adding that it should be twinned all the way to Sydney. He also said that he would want to secure regional oil production in Cape Breton and supported construction for an oil refinery in Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
Frazer, of the Communist Party doubled down on wealth inequality, and his call for the public ownership of Nova Scotia Power earned a round of applause from the audience.
He also said that he would support publicly owned bus and rail transportation throughout the province.
The evening's tone was civil and respectful. The only out-of-turn exchange came during the prepared question on Boat Harbour, when Rowley of the Communist Party challenged Canyon.
Canyon said that more communication is needed between affected fishermen, forestry and the people of Pictou Landing First Nation, and repeated that the decision to offer an extension to the Jan. 31, 2020 closure date is now in the hands of Nova Scotia's premier Stephen McNeil.
"Yes, but what is your position?" asked Rowley from the audience. To which Canyon replied, "I just told you."
Later, during the formal audience question period, the candidates were each asked whether they would give an extension if the decision was theirs to make.
Fraser, Canyon and Muir all said that they would only consider an extension with the consent of Pictou Landing First Nation. Randle, MacDonald and Frazer all said that they would not grant an extension.
On the climate crisis, all six candidates seemed at least to accept the scientific consensus that it does, in fact, exist.
Fraser defended the Liberal Carbon tax from candidates' criticisms that it punishes people and not polluters.
"It is not free to pollute anywhere in Canada anymore," he said. He also lauded the Liberal commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050, a recent announcement to plant two billion trees which would act as a natural reservoir for carbon that would continue to get released into the atmosphere as a result of current emissions largely being produced by fossil fuel industries.
Randle also supported a massive tree-planting project and the plan for carbon neutrality by 2050, but still criticized the Liberals for its $4.5 billion purchase of the Trans-Mountain Pipeline in May, 2018.
"What we propose to do is declare a climate emergency and actually mean it, not approve a pipeline the next day."
The candidates will next appear at the NSCC Stellarton Campus for a debate starting at 7 p.m. on Oct. 10.
