Whistlerites brought a range of issues such as visa restrictions for Mexican and Venezuelan tourists, military and health care spending, and labour mobility between provinces to four of the federal candidates running in the Sea to Sky riding at a public forum last Wednesday, April 20.
Of the nine candidates in the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding, Conservative incumbent John Weston, Liberal Dan Veniez, Green Brennan Wauters and Roger Legassé of the Progressive Canadian Party were the only ones to attend the meeting. NDP candidate Terry Platt sent a letter with her apologies for not attending, writing that it was her mother's 75th birthday.
About 60 people attended the session, which was hosted by the Whistler Chamber of Commerce and held at Whistler Secondary School.
There was some tension and verbal sparring between Weston and Veniez to start out the session, but aside from a few digs among the two candidates and an outburst or two from attendees, the dialogue was largely respectful.
In response to a written question about why the government is making it difficult for Mexican and Venezuelan visitors to come skiing in Whistler, Weston gave an indication that the measure to require visas for entry into Canada from those countries is a temporary one.
"If we can make the process easier we'll do that," Weston said. "We'll be removing that visa as soon as we can."
Because of the high number of refugee claims coming from Mexicans, the Canadian government made it a requirement in July 2009 for visitors from that country to have visas.
Veniez said it was a mistake for the Conservatives to "slap on visa restrictions without consultation" with the Mexican government.
"It damaged our relationship with Mexico. We never had issues before in the past," Veniez said.
Wauters said he couldn't comment on the specific issue of visa requirements for Mexican and Venezuelan visitors, but urged attendees to read the Green Party platform points about enhancing Canada's tourism industry. The Greens have committed to reinstate the GST rebate for visitors - a program that was scrapped by the Conservatives, Wauters said.
Military spending was also a focus for both candidates and members of the public. While Veniez hammered the Conservatives' plan to spend $30 billion on F-35 fighter jets, Weston said his party's contributions to the military were necessary because of 13 years of under-funding Canada's armed forces under the Liberals. Weston said the jets being replaced by the F-35s are 40 years old and must be swapped out. Veniez said the Liberals agree the military needs to be properly equipped and the planes need to be replaced, but there are more cost-effective ways to do so, such as putting the contract out to tender.
Wauters said "we can equip soldiers all we want," but the Green Party is asking why we're putting them in harm's way to begin with.
"We shouldn't be spending money on foreign wars we have dubious reasons for being in," Wauters added.
Legassé, meanwhile, spent most of his time on the microphone talking about the financial and human costs of war and driving home his election platform to "bring the troops home."
Wauters has also pledged to accept a challenge issued by Legassé to reduce his wage to that of an actively serving Canadian soldier should he be elected as MP. The remaining money would be distributed to grassroots sustainability organizations throughout the riding, Wauters added.
The verbal attacks between Weston and Veniez started during Weston's opening remarks, when he described the Liberals' platform as "flamboyant promises" that might be appealing but are "un-costed and unrealistic." When it was Veniez's turn, he told Weston he liked the "flamboyant" description. "I'll take it," Veniez said.
He talked about the Conservatives being found in contempt of Parliament and cited a "lack of transparency" and a "squandered" healthy balance sheet.
"This election's about character. It's about trust and it's about competence," Veniez said.
During a discussion about a possible coalition between the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois, Weston took aim at Veniez by citing some comments from an earlier candidates' debate. Veniez responded by saying Weston is "not straight with his constituents" and that he "hides behind his Blackberry." Veniez implied that Weston's answers were being fed to him through the device and dared him to leave it alone for the duration of the forum.
Other questions posed to the candidates included topics such as rising health care costs, labour mobility and trade between Canadian provinces, supporting sustainability, and how to engage young people in the election.
Wauters said young people don't vote because they're disenfranchised. He reminded the crowd that April 20 is known as 420 - a day when marijuana activists take to the streets to smoke pot and call for it to be legalized. The Green Party is running on a plan to legalize the "relatively innocuous drug" and impose government taxes on the substance -a platform point that seems to be getting attention from young Canadians, Wauters said.
