Climate change, taxes, traffic, public transportation and economic expansion were all at the forefront of the Nepean riding debate held at the Cedarview Alliance Church on Oct. 9.
Hosted by the Barrhaven Business Improvement Area – all candidates in contention were present.
Green Party representative Jean-Luc Cooke, Chandra Arya (Liberal), Azim K. Hooda (PPC), Justin Wang (Communist Party), Brian St. Louis (Conservative), and Zaff Ansari (NDP) all had their say on relevant issues.
Transportation and traffic buildup in the Nepean area is a subject that has loomed over the community for a long time, therefore sparking conversations about this issue.
“LRT is one of these things I will absolutely be fighting for,” said St. Louis.
Being a 19 -year-old student, Communist candidate Justin Wang mentioned it takes him one hour to travel from Barrhaven to uOttawa.
With the candidates speaking much about how people’s money is going to be spent, the topic of taxes came into play.
“The whole idea of changing your tax system is that you want to create behaviours that you want to see,” said Cooke. “The behaviour we want to see is successful business owners to stay in the game and keep reinvesting and mentoring the next generation.”
While some focused on taxing bigger companies, others like St. Louis focused on smaller companies.
“Small businesses get ignored because big businesses are busy with business,” said St. Louis.
St. Louis said that the current Liberal MP failed to help smaller companies. He said he will do the opposite, making support of small businesses a top priority if he were to be selected as the Nepean MP.
Ansari spoke about the people needing a change of political scenery and that Nepean is the perfect place for him to work.
“We need a government who actually works for the people,” said Ansari.
While the Conservative and Liberal candidates focused on one another, PPC candidate Azim K. Hooda had other thoughts.
He described the LRT as not being up to standard and that Canadians should focus on new technology like that of a mechanical train, which he says “can go from Ottawa to Toronto in one and a half hours.”
“You are the future, not just students,” said Hooda. “What you do today is for the future. Don’t think (because) you are a student, you don’t have a voice. You are this country.”
