Emilie Taman, Angela Keller-Herzog, Catherine McKenna, Carol Clemenhagen, and Merylee Sevilla—the five female MP candidates for Ottawa-Centre participated in the first all-candidates debate ahead of the 2019 federal elections on Sept. 25.
The debate was moderated by Adrian Harwood, co-anchor of CBC News Ottawa, and took place at the Glebe Community Centre.
One of the focuses of the evening was addressing climate change, and incumbent Liberal MP McKenna faced sharp criticism from NDP candidate Taman for her party’s approval of the Trans Canada pipeline.
“One of the biggest acts of hypocrisy I’ve seen of our current government was declaring a climate emergency one day and approving a pipeline the next day.”
– Emilie Taman, NDP candidate.
McKenna retorted, arguing the pipeline isn’t increasing emissions, and that its the federal government’s responsibility to act in the national interest and take a stance on interprovincial disputes that may arise from infrastructure projects.
“The federal government sometimes will not be able to get an agreement with provinces and territories, and we need to have a federal government that exercises its constitutional right and makes these decisions,” McKenna said.
Clemenhagan of the Conservative Party argued for the establishment of mandatory emission standards while lowering the threshold to catch more large emitters, and Keller-Herzog of the Green Party advocated for a carbon tax that would rise over time.
The most controversial remarks came from Sevilla of the People’s Party of Canada, who outright denied human-induced climate change.
“There are two sides to this story,” Sevilla said before being interrupted by the crowd. When Harwood, as moderator, requested evidence against human-induced climate change, Sevilla was unable to cite any studies or name any researchers.
As the debate turned to affordable housing in Ottawa, the candidates unanimously agreed on the importance of the issue, but differed in their proposed solutions.
Keller-Herzog spoke about the ineffectiveness of the 2017 National Housing Strategy in Ottawa, and how the Green’s election platform supports rental housing, co-op housing, and non-profit structures. She emphasized the need for a local focus.
“It’s not just Vancouver or Toronto.”
– Angela Keller-Herzog, Green Party candidate.
Clemenhagan also spoke about how affordability is a local issue, adding that in terms of the 2018 Ottawa housing budget, the federal government constitutes only 13 per cent of funding, whereas the City of Ottawa provides 53 per cent and the provincial government provides 33 per cent.
Because of the federal government’s limited involvement in local housing, Clemenhagan called for municipalities to lead the charge in building affordable homes, a process which the Conservatives would facilitate.
“The Conservative plan deals with increasing the availability to first-time homeowners.”
– Carol Clemenhagen, Conservative Party.
Taman placed affordable housing next to climate change in terms of importance to Ottawa-Centre, and talked about the most ambitious housing plan amongst the five candidates, pledging the NDP will build 500,000 new units of affordable housing Canada-wide.
She continued to stress the direness of the situation to local residents.
“I’ve seen people struggling,” Taman said. “I met someone who was renting a balcony to sleep on, in a G7 capital. It is completely, completely unacceptable.”
Sevilla focused on Lebreton Flats and the lack of development on the federal land, pledging to find builders and developers to create affordable homes and complexes.
“We shouldn’t have to live far away, we should also be able to experience the city, to be close to the Ottawa River, and Lebreton Flats is untouched,” she said.
“Affordable housing, lowering taxes? That is what we stand for.”
– Merylee Sevilla, People’s Party of Canada.
McKenna echoed many of the previous sentiments and proceeded to highlight achievements in the past four years. She subtly refuted Keller-Herzog’s comments on the ineffective National Housing Strategy, mentioning investments of $220-million in Ottawa-Centre.
“The federal government was absent for decades. Do we have more to do? Absolutely, but let’s be clear, nothing was going on for the past decades, the federal government was missing in action. We’re going to continue rolling out these investments.”
– Catherine McKenna, Liberal Party.
Finally, candidates discussed the opioid crisis being observed across Canada. Harwood brought up Portugal’s 2001 decriminalization of all illicit drugs, and asked whether decriminalization was part of each party’s opioid crisis plan.
The question drew resolute answers from multiple candidates.
Taman drew rousing applause and cheers for a simple “yes,” drawing from her experiences as a crown prosecutor, saying that criminalization is contributing to the health issues that exist today.
“I would actually take it one step further. In addition to decriminalizing, we have to start looking at safe supply,” Taman added, referring to a legal and regulated supply of drugs only accessible through the black market.
Sevilla opposed decriminalization, suggesting more research was required before any decisions can be made.
Harwood responded by saying that 18 years of research has already been conducted on this issue.
The Green Party would work towards decriminalizing the use of opioids, said Keller-Herzog.
“We see it as a health issue, a mental health issue,” she said. “And we see it as a poverty issue. We don’t see it as a criminal issue.”
Clemenhagan advocated for increased addiction and mental health services and support, proceeding to comment on Liberal debts.
“We tend to forget these things, but Moody’s Credit Agency actually downgraded the credit rating for the province of Ontario, the largest and most prosperous province in the country,” she said.
When Harwood requested a yes or no answer on decriminalization, Clemenhagan did not respond, returning to how services can help a person return to a stage where they’re not suffering from an addiction.
McKenna then rebuked Premier Doug Ford’s $1.8-million cut to addiction services and programs, prompting a fierce response from Clemenhagan.
“That is simply not true,” Clemenhagen said.
According to a May news release by the Ontario government, it is investing an additional $174-million to support desperately needed mental health and addictions services in schools, communities, and health centres across the province. This is part of the Ford government’s commitment to invest $3.8-billion over 10 years to implement mental health and addictions strategy.
Like Clemenhagan shortly before, McKenna refused to provide a direct response on decriminalizing addiction when asked by Harwood, instead mentioning how services wouldn’t be cut, unlike with a Conservative government.
As the debate concluded, audience members appeared dissatisfied with the question period that lasted only five minutes.
“I think that there could’ve been more discussion on local food systems, and the cost of food in particular, and definitely would’ve enjoyed more discussion on transit … But really happy they were able to talk about the environment,” a student attendee told the Charlatan.
All five candidates will engage in a second debate hosted by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) on Oct. 2.
Feature image by Benjamin Steven.
