Kitchener-Centre debate
Posted Apr 26, 2011 09:32:26 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Kitchener-Centre candidates addressed questions Tuesday night, in the latest in a series of debates put on by 570 News and Rogers TV.
Many of the questions were about issues we’ve heard talked about several times during this election, including how to deal with crime.
Conservative Candidate Stephen Woodworth said his party is the only one with a balanced agenda on the issue. He said it, “balances prevention with deterrents and protection of victims and with rehabilitation.”
Liberal Karen Redman accused the Tories of cutting back on crime prevention which, she says, should be the focus. She added, “Waterloo Region is the poster child of the Community Safety and Crime Prevention Council.”
Green Candidate Byron Williston said the money the Tories want to spend on prisons, the Greens would spend on prevention programs. NDP candidate Peter Thurley pointed out that it costs more to house prisoners than it does to prevent crime.
Preserving public health care also came up. Thurley said his party would work to bring in more doctors and nurses. He said, “The NDP is proposing to increase the number of doctors to 1,200 new doctors, and the number of nurses by 6,000. We will work to make medicines more affordable…by implementing a national pharmacare program.”
Redman said her party would also look at funding for pharmacare as well as homecare. Woodworth pledged his party would bring in more doctors and nurses with student loan forgiveness. Williston said the focus needs to be on health promotion.
There were some heated responses to some of the questions, including one about minority governments and parties working together.
Redman said minority governments can work and suggested why she thinks the Conservatives are angling for a majority. She said, “…and I wonder if the reason he wants a majority is that so he can turn back women’s rights and deny women the right to choose.”
Woodworth responded by saying, “It’s truly regrettable that any reputable candidate would stoop to such a slander.”
Thurley brought up strategic voting, saying the only kind of vote that is thrown away is a vote for something you don’t want. Both Williston and Independent Alan Rimmer pointed to Lester B. Pearson’s government in the 60’s as an example of how minorities are able to do good work.
A question came in from a viewer about the abortion issue. The candidates were asked for a “yes” or “no” answer to the question, “If there was a private members bill before the house and the resulting vote was a free vote as determined by your parties, would you vote to take away a woman’s right to choose?”
Redman, Thurley, Williston and Rimmer all answered “no,” while Woodworth said the question was too complex for a “yes” or “no” answer. He added, “…our current law on abortion which says that ‘a child is not a human being until the child has fully proceeded in a living state from the mother’s body,’ is not consistent with current 21st century medical scientific evidence.”
