Orleans Weekly Journal
Published: Friday, October 10, 2008

Questions to the candidates

With just over 100 hours until we vote, your response to my column last week was heartwarming, either by email or from the folks I bumped into at Tim Horton’s, the grocery store, the mall and even at the gas station… great election questions for the candidates were thrown my way.

And as promised, now we toss them out to our local aspirants and you too may wish to drill Mssrs. Galipeau, Godbout, Maillet and Ms. O’Dell when they come knocking this weekend for clear and succinct answers.

Question set one: If you are elected and your party is not in government, how will you be able to deliver on your promises, especially when it comes to leveraging federal money for various projects?

Question set two: Enough rhetoric. What is your concrete plan for economic diversification or growth in our riding? Are you focused on public sector jobs, private sector activity or both? And do you believe in poaching government jobs from other parts of our city/region – a zero-sum game at best – or will you fight for new government jobs in our own backyard?

Question set three: Will you work with our local city councillors and support their plan for mass transit or will you propose a different option? Where does your party stand on supporting Ottawa’s transit plans, not just with one-time funding, but at each stage of this project? If you are proposing something different than city council’s present course, how will this actually work?

Question set four: None of the candidates have really spoken of their daily role as MP. How will you and your office help your constituents with issues of Employment Insurance, immigration, expediting passports, getting community organizations access – funding or partnership opportunities – to government initiatives, CPP and OAS disputes? This is the daily grind but important work for an MP as our servant and ombudsperson. Do you understand how the machinery of government actually works?

Question set five: If you are elected on Oct. 14 and come back to knock at my door during the next election, what is the most important promise/accomplishment by which you want your tenure as MP to be judged?

If you have other questions which are of greater importance to you, by all means add them to this mix.

On another note, it seems as though the permanent voters list is still not perfect as my next door neighbour and two acquaintances (one in Avalon and another in Blackburn Hamlet) did not receive their voter identification cards in the mail from Elections Canada.

Not to worry. You can visit www.elections.ca and follow the 40th General Election links to find out where you vote simply by keying in your postal code and other address information. You will also find contact information for our local returning office. And remember, you must bring a piece of photo identification to vote.

Finally, voting is not only your right as a Canadian citizen, it is your responsibility as well.