Fighter jets, fish, foreign policy and fiscal responsibility topped the agenda Thursday night as six Nanaimo-Alberni candidates competing to win that riding in Monday’s federal election squared off at Dover Bay Secondary School.
It was the ninth and final all-candidates meeting for the riding and the second of the day for the Green Party’s Myron Jespersen, Conservative incumbent MP James Lunney, NDP Zeni Maartman and Liberal Renée Miller.
The Pirate Party’s Jesse Schroeder and Christian Heritage Party’s Frank Wagner also took part. Wagner said he showed up to an earlier all-candidates meeting in Parksville at Ballenas Secondary School but was escorted away.
The CHP’s political stance is primarily anti-abortion, while the Pirate Party advises constituents to “vote for yourself”.
The most heated topic of the night was the original reason for Monday’s election, the defeat of the Conservative minority due to contempt of Parliament, reportedly the first in modern Commonwealth politics.
“I think we’ve established trust, trust in this government is not the question,” said Lunney. “We’ve passed five successful budgets as a minority government and we’ve advanced our agenda and emerged from an economic tsunami relatively unscathed.”
Lunney endured some boos and heckling from the audience of about 150 people on the subject, but it didn’t last and the panel moved on to other issues, including debt relief for students, health care and social justice.
In total, moderator Daryl Major of Island Radio asked candidates 14 questions received from the audience during the two-hour meeting.
The subject of salmon farming emerged on several fronts with all candidates agreeing they should be moved inland or away from migratory salmon routes.
“We need to protect salmon not only for a food source for us, but for biodiversity,” said Miller. “The environment relies heavily on the success of the salmon runs.”
But not all parties agreed on the role or financial burden of Canada’s military, namely the increasingly expensive 65 F-35 fighter jets.
“The role of our military should be to assist people during atrocities and natural disasters,” said Maartman, adding the NDP did not want to be part of the Afghanistan war from the start. “Our military should be peacekeepers and peacemakers.”
Jespersen agreed Canada is in a strong position to lead the world in peacekeeping efforts.
Lunney countered by adding money is also being spent on arctic patrol vessels and supply ships to patrol the arctic.
“We have resources to protect,” he said. “We’re part of an international coalition and we need to make sure we invest. If we don’t patrol our borders somebody else will.”
Schroeder said modern threats are more likely to come in the form of industrial takeover rather than military.
All parties had different thoughts on the Conservatives’ ‘tough on crime’ policy.
Miller said the $10- to $13-billion program would be more useful if that money was spent on education, rather than incarceration to keep people out of jail, while Maartman said creating caring communities is essential to reduce crime.
Jespersen said he was confused by the Tory policy.
“If we’re getting tough on crime and if crime statistics are going down, why do we need more prisons?” he said.
Lunney, meanwhile, said his party has not announced a program for building any new prisons, but pointed out $400 million has been set aside to update existing prisons.
Wagner said modern society is trying to “dismantle” families with high costs of living resulting in unnecessary stress.
In the last federal election in 2008, Lunney won his seat in Parliament by earning 28,930 votes, or 46.6 per cent. He has held his seat since the 2000 federal election. Maartman finished second with 19,680 votes.
The Greens were third with 7,457 votes, Liberals fourth with 5,578 and Wagner and the CHP fifth with 176.
Monday’s polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at all locations throughout both ridings.