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2- The Oakville Beaver, Friday October 3, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Tory candidate gets rough ride at CAW debate By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The woes facing the manufacturing sector were front and centre at the all-candidates meeting, hosted by CAW (Canadian Auto Workers) Local 707, Tuesday night, with some candidates clearly being more well received than others. When asked what each party would do to stem the flow of disappearing manufacturing jobs, Oakville Green Party candidate Blake Poland provoked heavy applause from the audience by attacking globalization and free trade, which he called a disaster. "Globalization is about getting people from half way around the world to work for next to nothing with no environmental standards and almost no labour standards. It's not fair to them and it's certainly not fair to us," he said. "I can tell you when energy prices go through the roof, we're not going to find these imported goods so cheap anymore. We're going to have to figure out how to make those things here again. So, the sooner we figure that out and DAVID LEA / OAKVILLE BEAVER CANDIDATES: Liberal candidate Bonnie Brown and Green Party candidate Blake Poland at the CAW all-candidates meeting. start buying local and getting things made here that we use here, the better, as far as I'm concerned. There's nothing free about free trade." Oakville NDP candidate Michelle Bilek also called for a change to the North American Free Trade Act and the keeping of jobs in Canada by shifting the focus to manufacturing things in Canada that Canadians need. "We need to look to the future, where we buy locally, where we look at the tags on our shirts or the appliances that we use and feel good that they were made here in Canada," she said. "We will also ensure that these Canadian workers and their jobs are protected under labour laws that don't exploit them and don't exploit our environment. The made-inCanada solution is the only solution for the future." Oakville Conservative candidate Terence Young brought a different opinion to the meeting noting the free trade was not a disaster because one in five jobs in Canada comes from free trade. The remark drew some laughter from the audience, but Young continued with his answer. "Eighty per cent of what we produce in Canada is sold to the United States, we have blossomed from free trade. If we were a protectionist country, our standard of living would be half of what it is now," said Young. Young said the Conservatives would address job losses through a sevenyear plan to invest $33 billion in infrastructure for the building of roads, bridges, sewers and the like. He also noted that making different types of cars could save manufacturing jobs. "Everybody here knows, and the CAW folks know, that no government can make somebody buy a car they don't want to buy. We have to make new kinds of cars, hybrid cars and we have to have new kinds DAVID LEA / OAKVILLE BEAVER CANDIDATES: NDP candidate Michelle Bilek and Conservative candidate Terence Young at the CAW all-candidates meeting. of manufacturing." Oakville Liberal MP Bonnie Brown said Canada is facing a looming deficit, a credit crunch, an American economy in recession, surging energy prices, rising inflation and falling productivity all at once. She noted the status quo is no longer sufficient to deal with these challenges. "Surging energy prices will demand that we not cart goods quite so far and that's why we're encouraging people to shop locally for fruit and vegetables, so we don't have to bring them all the way from California or even Israel," she said. "The message I have is we all need a change in order to prosper. We need to green the economy in order to be competitive. We need to invest in infrastructure. We need to cut taxes on income and capital in order to free up money for investment. We need to put a price on carbon, so we can get ahead of our energy wasting competitors and get in line with Denmark and Sweden and the other countries, who are years ahead of us in this new world economy." While the bulk of the evening's questions focused on manufacturing and economic issues, discussions were also held on mandatory carpooling, privacy concerns, native issues, crime, income trust and more. When the issue of transparency in government was brought up, Brown attacked the Harper government for not allowing their ministers to respond to questions from the opposition in the House of Commons. Poland attacked the Harper government for not releasing pertinent information on the state of the environment and noted that the Green Party would amend the Accountability Act and pass legislation that would protect whistle blowers. Bilek said the NDP would establish a Public Appointments Commission to end, what she called, the Liberal and Conservative practice of awarding political friends. Young attempted to use his time to point out promises the Liberals had broken over the years, but was prevented in doing so by angry shouts from the crowd demanding he answer the government transparency question. Young then spoke about the difficulties he'd had trying to get information from Health Canada after the death of his daughter in 2000, accusing the Liberals of covering up a study that listed similar deaths from the same prescription drug she had taken. This did not satisfy some audience members, who continued to shout for Young to discuss what a Conservative government would do to increase transparency in government. Things didn't get any better for Young during his closing statement when his assault on the proposed Liberal Green Shift brought on a wave of booing and hissing from some audience members. `Tell the truth!' yelled one man. Eventually the moderator was able to regain control, telling the man that he would able to express his opinion at the polls. Bilek told the audience that her party was the only one that would stand by Canadians while Poland advised the audience to vote for what they believe, not strategically. Brown used her final statement to try and deliver a reality check to all those thinking of voting NDP or Green. "If you vote for what you believe, you will be giving Harper a majority government," she said. Brown expressed regret that that is what it comes down to, noting the current electoral system would not allow for any other outcome. Amber Door Spa Our award winning spa is the best kept secret in Oakville! 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