Federal candidates in the Ottawa-Centre riding duked it out in front of a standing room only crowd at a debate hosted by the Carleton University Students’ Association and the Graduate Students’ Association Sept. 29.
Present at the debate were New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Paul Dewar, Liberal candidate Catherine McKenna, Conservative candidate Damian Konstantinakos, Green candidate Tom Milroy, Communist candidate Stuart Ryan, and Libertarian candidate Dean Harris.
The debate included questions about tuition fees, violence against women, and Indigenous self-determination.
Dewar called rising tuition fees in Canada a “hypocritical trend,” and said the NDP would raise corporate taxes from 15 to 17 per cent to help lower fees and create affordable housing for students.
As for youth employment, McKenna said the issue was “not just unemployment . . . It’s underemployment.” She said a Liberal government would invest $1.3 billion to help students find jobs in their field.
Konstantinakos blamed today’s high fees on the “tax, borrow, and spend” policies of previous Liberal governments.
The Greens have said they would abolish tuition fees if elected, a platform promise Milroy repeated to the packed room of students.
Harris said students should not have to pay taxes on income they make while at school.
“Governments should not be adding to the burden of students working their way through university,” he said.
On tuition fees for international students, Ryan said the students are being used as “cash cows” by universities. He said a Communist platform would reduce international students’ tuition fees to the same amount as domestic students, which would eventually both be free under Communist government.
When the discussion moved to addressing violence against women, McKenna, the only woman running in the riding, said a multifaceted approach was needed.
However, she conceded that “changing attitudes takes time.”
Dewar encouraged more men to take responsibility for the issue. “Feminism is not a dirty word,” he said.
In the wake of the shooting deaths of three women in Wilno, Ont. by a man whom the women knew, Konstantinakos said more should be done to ensure dangerous offenders are kept behind bars.
On the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, Konstantinakos said “the time for reports has passed,” and “action is what is required.”
Ryan said the Communist party supports a commission to look into the cases of violence against Indigenous women and girls.
The epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women is an “absolute disaster of policing,” Milroy said.
Dewar criticized the Conservative’s track record with Indigenous communities.
“If this government doesn’t want to . . . have a nation-to-nation relationship, then please, get out of the way,” he said.
According to McKenna, a Liberal government would implement all of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations, which were announced in June.
After the debate, a long line of students waiting to ask questions snaked through the University Centre atrium. Although questions spurred debate about marijuana, Israeli-Palestinian relations, and election reform, many students left without the chance to have their questions answered.
As the election campaign enters its final three weeks, opportunities for students to inform themselves before heading to the polls on Oct. 19 are winding down.
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