NDP leader candidates address northern concerns

The race is on across the country to fill the seat of the late NDP leader, Jack Layton.

Seven of the eight candidates vying to become the new leader of the official opposition gathered at the United Steelworkers' Hall on Brady Street Feb. 5 for the Northern Ontario Leadership Forum, organized by the Sudbury and Nickel Belt NDP.

Participating in the forum were Niki Ashton, Nathan Cullen, Paul Dewar, Thomas Mulcair, Peggy Nash, Martin Singh and Brian Topp. Romeo Saganash was unable to attend.

The federal NDP is choosing a new leader March 24. The leader's seat was left vacant in July when Layton died of cancer. Nycole Turmel has been acting as the interim leader until a new leader could be officially elected.

Richard Eberhardt, president of the Sudbury NDP riding association and the organizer of the forum, said because all NDP members are able to vote, it's important for local members to be able to “size up” the candidates.

“If we don't host a debate here, there's no guarantee that the issues important to northern Ontario are going to come up in the course of this leadership race,” he said in a previous interview with Northern Life.

In fact, the hall was filled with hundreds of members, listening to the candidates appealing for support in their respective campaigns.

"Our new leader is going to defeat Stephen Harper and be our next prime minister," Topp, president of the New Democratic Party of Canada, said. "So I'm here applying for the job."

Candidates had the opportunity to offer comments on various issues important to northern communities, including jobs, poverty, education and health care, as well as to pose questions to their fellow candidates.

"What the leadership race demonstrates is the NDP has a pretty strong team," Topp said. "As a number of people remarked today, we're trying to make it as difficult as possible for the members by demonstrating there's lots of good candidates. That's good for us, it shows we have the depth we need to form a government, and that's what this is all about."

Sudbury was one of six scheduled stops on the cross-country leadership campaign. Peggy Nash, the NDP MP for Parkdale-High Park and the party's finance critic, said Sunday was the first opportunity the candidates had "to get into one region and talk about the issues that concern that region."

"To talk about concerns in the north is really an important opportunity," she said. "We talked about resource development here, the key priority of jobs, the issue of foreign takeovers and what that's meant to many communities, also about first nations. We've all heard about Attiwapiskat and how we need to invest in first nations communities to deal with the terrible crisis of poverty there."

The audience also had an opportunity to pose questions to the panel of candidates. Caceila Trahan, the northern organizer for Ontario New Democratic Youth, as well as the youth rep for the Sault Ste. Marie riding association, raised concern about the inaccessibility of post-secondary education.

"My issue was how are the future leaders going to make education a right, and not just a privilege, since tuition fees are rising," she said.

As for how she thought the candidates handled her question?

"I feel it was a start to an answer ... I believe education should be free, but for long-term sustainability, this is a really good start.

"I thought today's debate was well-rounded," she continued. "I like that after I spoke, they started approaching youth issues more. I feel like that's a learning experience for the hopeful leaders and they'll bring it forward to the rest of Canada, which is important to me as an activist."

Following the forum, Sudbury and Nickel Belt MPs Glenn Thibeault and Claude Gravelle shared the same sentiment about the candidates.

"They're all great candidates ... it's going to be hard to pick," Gravelle said. "Whoever wins is going to make a great prime minister."

" We're very lucky to have eight dynamic candidates," Thibeault added. "It's great to hear new ideas ... and I think that's going to help us get over the next step to form government in 2015."

Thibeault emphasized the importance of continuing the work for which Layton laid the foundation.

"I think the important thing to recognize is that our former leader, Jack, who we all loved so very much, saw northern Ontario as a very important part of a New Democratic plan. Northern Ontario was always getting the short end of the stick with previous governments, (but) northern Ontario is an important place.

"When we talked about putting together this debate, we wanted to ensure all the candidates saw that the north was still a piece for New Democratics and an important piece of the country."
 

Posted by Laurel Myers