Canadians will elect their 2015 federal candidates on Monday, Oct. 19. Get acquainted with your candidates and inform your vote.

On-campus voting on election day will take place between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. in SFU residence’s Shadbolt Building, room B1050. Make sure to bring identification with you, including something that qualifies as proof of address.

All candidates’ responses have been printed as received. Responses exceeding the given word count have been cut off at the mark, indicated by an ellipsis.

Questions:

1. Why are you running?
2. What are the the most important issues facing young people today?
3. What will you do for SFU students?
4. List 5 points in your platform in bullet points.

In alphabetical order.

Carol Baird Ellan, New Democratic Party

1. During my 19 years as a Provincial Court Judge, I saw the gradual erosion of the quality of life of everyday people. Education, housing, child care, health care, transit, good jobs becoming less accessible and more expensive. When I left the bench I became deeply concerned about the direction that Canada was headed under Stephen Harper. I saw contempt for democracy, rights and freedoms, justice, the environment, science, the arts, immigrants and refugees. I couldn’t remain on the sidelines anymore. I chose to run for Tom Mulcair and the NDP because we will restore Canadian values and quality of life.

2. The skyrocketing cost of education and housing. The accessibility of quality education and quality jobs. The debt burden and student loan interest rates. The cost of entry level housing, child care, and the availability of long term jobs with benefits and pensions. Just the accessibility of a decent life for our next generation – the first that will be worse off than their parents! I have 5 children aged 23 to 31, and they had way less chance of putting themselves through school, finding jobs, houses, child care, benefits, than we did when we started out. This is just plain wrong. 

3. The NDP will provide funding for post-secondary education to make it more affordable, tackle students’ skyrocketing costs and unmanageable debt loads, lower interest rates and ATM fees, put funding into affordable housing and transit, and kick start the economy to create stable, good quality jobs. In partnership with small business, industry, NGOs and government, we will help 40,000 young Canadians get jobs, paid internships, coop placements, and infrastructure apprenticeship spaces. We will protect the safety of young workers and crack down on the use of unpaid internships. We will provide $15/day child care.

Platform Points:

• Kick start the economy and create stable, full-time jobs
• Create 1M daycare spaces at less than $15/day
• Protect the environment, cut greenhouse gases and tackle climate change
• Provide better health care,  retirement benefits and support for veterans
• Grow better cities with stable funding for infrastructure and transit

Terry Beech, Liberal Party of Canada

1) I want to live in a country where everyone is given the opportunity to succeed:

A country where new ideas and innovations not only are welcome, but are the engine of the new economy;

A country where environment protection is part and parcel of public policy;

A country that is inclusive, where citizens and their institutions are respected;

A country that we can be proud of once again on the international stage.

Canada needs all of its passion and talents. That is the Liberal principle. I have lived its legacy and I want others to live it as well.

2) Young Canadians want to live active, purposeful lives in a clean, open, and inclusive country. This means:

– Financial aid to access a good education,

– Meaningful and decently paid work at the beginning of their career

– Affordable housing especially for those who live in the Lower Mainland.

– The quality of the environment is high on young Canadians’ list of priorities, and they expect their government to formulate policies based on solid scientific information.

Last but not least, they want a reform of our outdated electoral system and make it easier for young people to vote.

3) I will make sure that SFU students take full advantage of the new Liberal financial assistance policies:

– Canada Student Grants of up to $ 3000 for full time students, and $ 1800 for part time students.

– A more flexible Student Loans system: graduates will not have to start repaying until they earn at least $ 25000 a year.

I will make sure that SFU students get their fair share of the new co-op placements created for students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and business.

A Liberal government will re-invest in science, and fund scientific agencies adequately.

Platform Points

• Policy decisions must be made using the best data available.
• Environmental sustainability and economic prosperity are inextricable, not opposites
• We must support innovation and clean technology industries
• Education is the key to the elevation of all Canadians
• Investing in affordable housing is crucial to help young Canadians

Mike Little, Conservative Party of Canada

This candidate did not submit responses by The Peak’s deadline.

Brent Jantzen, Communist Party of Canada

1. I’m running in this election to voice the many problems common people in Canada face every day. Unfortunately, none of the three main leaders provide any real solutions to the multitude of problems in Canada. I believe a massive issue facing our youth today is student debt and un-employment after university. Since one of the largest universities in BC is in this riding, I plan to show students that our party is the only party talking about eliminating unemployment, tuition and student debt. We want to show the youth of today that a socialist alternative is possible.

2. I believe that the most important issues facing young people in Canada today are debt, unemployment, and climate change. Our party proposes a strategy to help eliminate debt by raising the minimum wage and guaranteeing strong benefits. We will enact a plan to increase value-added jobs in the manufacturing and secondary industry, which will be greatly beneficial for youth, particularly those graduating from University. Our goal is to create good jobs until we reach a 0% unemployment rate. Additionally, we will be dedicated to phasing out the tar sands while working to create an environmentally sustainable Canada.   

3. Our party has always maintained that we would be dedicated to work on student issues. As mentioned before, we are currently proposing to eliminate tuition and student debt. We want to create a system in which students do not have to fear unemployment upon graduation. We also want to stop the drive to ‘corporatize’ education, which will essentially protect freedom of speech on campuses. Furthermore, increased funding to universities would allow specialty classes, which have been previously cut, to re-open. Therefore, we intend on providing students with both an affordable and higher quality of education.

Platform Points:

• Job Creation
• Raising Wages
• Expanding Social Services and Government Funding
• Environmental Sustainability
• Taxing the greedy and not the needy

Lynne Quarmby, Green Party of Canada

1. I stepped up to run in this election because neither the Liberals nor the NDP and certainly not the Conservatives are proposing genuine and urgent action on climate change or social inequality – the intertwined and defining issues of our time. I am a research scientist, a Professor, a University administrator, and a climate justice activist. I understand that it is possible for us to transition to a post-carbon economy within twenty years and that there is no excuse for poverty in Canada.

2. Young people today are faced with crushing debt, precarious employment and insecurity about how the consequences of climate change will affect their lives. I will tackle these issues with energy and compassion and my decisions will be based on the best evidence available.  Canada is a rich country and we must ensure that everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.  Burnaby North – Seymour deserves a Member of Parliament who will listen to and work for them.

3. I will work toward abolishing tuition fees for students without adequate financial means, including removing the inadequate 2% annual cap on increased funding for post-secondary education for all First Nations students. I will work toward investing in the success of current students and give our graduates a hand-up by implementing a debt forgiveness program.  Our plan will eliminate any existing or future student federal debt above $10,000.  I will also work to create a national Community and Environment Service Corps, which will provide $1 billion/year to municipalities to hire Canadian youth to do work that needs to be done.

Platform Points:

• Guaranteed Livable Income to ensure no Canadian lives in poverty;
• National Housing Strategy based on Housing First principles;
• Defend our coastal waters from risky pipelines and oil tankers;
• Demonstrate climate leadership at the UN Climate Summit in Paris
• Roll out a National Sustainable Jobs Plan

Brian Sproule, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada

1. The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada is running 70 candidates across the country including 14 in BC to ensure that the missing voice, the independent voice of the working class is heard and to raise some concerns for discussion such as the marginalization of the vast majority of people. Citizens have no say in decision making except to vote in elections. We propose a new electoral process whereby the citizens would directly select the candidates rather than the parties. There would be no public funding of political parties. Elections Canada would be mandated to ensure a level playing field for every candidate.

2. Conservative and Liberal governments have both pushed a neo-liberal, anti-social offensive in the interests of the rich. Youth face a bleak future of unemployment, impoverishment, environmental degradation. and the danger of war. We call on the youth to end their isolation, to get in involved in politics by voting to defeat the Conservatives and keeping the Liberals out of government,  to work for democratic renewal, a new pro-social direction for the economy,  humanizing the natural and social environment and creating  a society fit for humans where the rights of all are guaranteed.

3. In 1968 SFU students occupied the administration building to protest the refusal of the university to accept transfer credits from the colleges. Students must seize their future in their own hands by consciously organizing to put an end to tuition fees, for adequate housing and transportation, interest free loans and a say in decision making and  course content. Students must demand that universities and colleges be fully publicly funded and corporate control ended.

Platform Points:

• Renewal of the political process. No election without selection!
• A new direction for the economy with environmental safeguards.
• Stop paying the rich! Increase investments in social programs!
• An anti-war government and respect for national sovereignty.
• New nation to nation relations with indigenous peoples

Chris Tylor, Libertarian Party of Canada

1. I am trying to help the Libertarian Party grow and be more successful. In just one year we have a new leader, a new executive board, an all-new public image and social media presence, new branding, and we’ve tripled the number of candidates we’re fielding since the last election. We hope to have a full-slate in four more years. We want to remind people there is a party more business-friendly and fiscally-responsible than the Conservatives, while more progressive and liberal on personal freedoms and individual rights than the Liberals and NDP, namely the Libertarians. Many of us watched Ron Paul [. . .]

2. In Metro Vancouver, we face an out-of-control housing bubble that has sent a generation that grew up in single-family homes with decent yards into being forced to live in expensive shoe-boxes in the sky or live in half-a-house with some other family renting the upstairs or downstairs and think of that as normal. Affordability is the number one issue with people starting off their careers. We are not ‘lucky’ like the Baby Boomers and able to buy giant houses on three-years’ salary. Things can kind of suck for most people—I know!

3. I promise I will never vote for an increase in your taxes or a reduction in your freedom. Never. I will aid all constituents in their dealings with the federal government, whether Immigration, Citizenship, Revenue Canada, or the Firearms Program. If me and 169 fellow Libertarians are elected, we will eliminate the GST (5% down to 0%) and nearly double the basic income tax credit for students from $11,500 to $21,300 leading to a modest but noticeable increase in your income. And more to come later.

Platform Points:

• Flat tax of 15% (first $21,300 exemption for students)
• End the war on drugs, end all Prohibition (the Portugal model)
• Pro-Immigrants: increase the number of visas issued, cut red-tape
• End all our wars, bring troops home & Arctic sovereignty
• Allow polluters to be brought to court for causing property damage