The absence of Conservative candidate Sukhman Gill was referenced several times during a debate Wednesday night (April 23) for Abbotsford-South Langley federal election candidates.
At one point during the forum at the Sports Legacy Centre in Abbotsford, independent candidate Mike de Jong joked that he was giving one of his rebuttal cards to Gill.
He then placed the card in front of the empty seat where Gill would have been seated, while chants of “Where is he?! Where is he?!” came from the audience.
Gill has been criticized by his opponents and voters for not showing up to any of the debates, deleting his social media accounts, and refusing to do media interviews.
NDP candidate Dharmasena Yakandawela was also not present – due to a previous engagement – but has attended other forums.
In addition to de Jong, attending the debate were Aeriol Alderking with the People’s Party of Canada, Kevin Gillies with the Liberals and Melissa Snazell with the Green Party.
The forum was hosted by the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board and the Fraser Valley Indo-Canadian Business Association.
The focus was on business issues, with topics that addressed infrastructure development, economic uncertainty and supporting Canadian business, crime reduction and healthy communities, and international trade.
Each candidate had 30 seconds to respond to each of the 11 questions asked, and provided opening and closing remarks of up to three minutes.
Each was also given three rebuttal cards to use in response to another candidate’s comments.
This is how they responded to three of the questions:
Question: What specific policies or initiatives will your government prioritize to increase the supply of affordable housing in the Fraser Valley?
Gillies: “A Liberal government will use every tool at its disposal to leverage technology and innovation to build more homes at a scale and a speed that’s not been seen since World War Two … They will provide over $25 billion in financing to innovative pre-fabricated homes to try to reach a target of 500,000 new homes in Canada.”
Snazell: “The Green Party has been very clear that what we need is creative solutions … We need to get people together. We have a social issue where people are isolated, feeling lonely. We have people who can’t afford housing … The whole Green Party mantra is we need balance.”
De Jong: Spoke about the need for a light-rail commuter service through the Valley, with densified housing along the route in partnership with the private sector.
Alderking: “We have immigration that’s flooding in 1.3 million people last year. That’s the size of Saskatchewan and that puts such a demand on housing that it’s impossible to put a roof over everyone’s head .. We should be looking at bringing in economic migrants, people who are young, people who can work … The other thing that we need to end is money laundering because Chinese money is driving up the prices of these homes.”
Question: How would you deal with US president Donald Trump and Canada’s global trade relationships?
Gillies: “The Liberals will unleash fair trade in Canada by passing legislation that removes interprovincial barriers within Canada by 15 per cent by Canada Day … We will also invest to build infrastructure that will bring people and business closer together and increase trade across the country, instead of north-south.”
Snazell: “If anybody was surprised by what’s happening from Donald Trump, shame on you. They literally told us what they were going to do … We’ve been trading in this country for its entire existence. It’s time we get back to our roots and just let the Americans have their tantrum. They don’t run the world … We have other trading partners we can engage with.”
De Jong: “We have to control the things that we can, and I can assure you the president’s behaviour is not something we can control or anyone else in this world. What we can control is interprovincial trade barriers and eliminating them … We can diversify our markets, which we have to apply ourselves to recognize when there are opportunities.”
Alderking: “We need to get to the negotiating table and negotiate a deal … We need to get to the table and resolve those issues so that we resume the peaceful relationship that we’ve always had with the United States. We also need to diversify our markets, and part of that is working with the EU.”
Question: What is your position on creating a regional 20-year transportation and infrastructure plan that includes increased funding for flood mitigation and Highway One expansion?
Gillies: “The Greater Vancouver area is unique in that it only has one direction to grow out, and people are coming out here at such a fast rate without a transportation plan. I agree with Mike’s assertion that we need commuter rail out here.”
Snazell: “I love Mr. de Jong’s idea to throw a train through the Valley. We have tracks; we just have to put a train on it … I will do everything in my power to put a train on that track because it solves so many problems … I think we need to stop relying on highways and making highways bigger.”
De Jong: “We’ve talked about idea about commuter rail … and I’m passionately in favour of advancing that at the senior levels of government and with the province … (In terms of) flood mitigation. This is a serious thing that is going to happen again … There is a much larger infrastructure need that is going to require us to engage with the Americans."
Alderking: “The need for our infrastructure being improved is absolutely stunning. Every time I drive to Vancouver, I see how many cracks and potholes are on our highway … Unfortunately, we’re in so much debt, it’s caused these sorts of breakdowns. So we need to have a 20-year plan. We need to do it in a fiscally responsible way.”
The full debate can be viewed below:
