Plenty of reaction from across northwestern Ontario to last week’s Throne Speech and the Prime Minister’s address to the nation shortly afterward.
The address was a subject of contention for both the Conservatives and the Green Party.
“They had asked him not to have a primarily political speech, and if they were going to grant him airtime that it’d be essentially for the good of the country,” says John Bell, President of the Thunder Bay-Superior North PC Riding Association. “In twenty minutes, we got five minutes of that, and for the remaining fifteen, we saw political pandering and an explanation of the throne speech.”
“From a communication’s perspective, I thought it was rather arrogant for him to launch into that right after the throne speech when what Canadians needed to do was digest the throne speech,” stresses Amanda Moddejonge, President of the Thunder Bay-Rainy River Green Party Riding Association. “We’ve been dealing with [the COVID-19 pandemic] for months, and this isn’t going away. [Trudeau] needed to be addressing that consistently throughout this entire matter. (Wednesday) night was not the time to take the attention away from the speech and put it onto what they have or haven’t been doing [during the pandemic].”
One idea that John Bell suggested was a Union parliament.
“The government would have a cabinet that was made up of members from each party. The leaders are already involved with the Privy Council, and Members of Parliament can be appointed to the Privy Council. I think it would make a great deal of sense.”
Despite the lack of unity, the wage subsidy extension is a topic Bell feels needs to clarified.
“Initially the Liberals had put that at a 10% wage subsidy. The move to 75% was actually a Conservative motion and an insistence that it be moved to a manageable level to encourage industries to take a hold of that benefit. In reality, it hasn’t attracted nearly the amount of uptake that they had expected. What [Trudeau] is essentially doing is re-announcing the same money, but extending it to the end of the government’s fiscal year [March 31st].”
Moddejonge, who ran for the Greens in the last federal election, wants to know more about the Liberal’s spending.
“What is going on right now is absolutely absurd. My guess is the government doesn’t know what it has spent, and has no idea how to tell Canadians that they’ve really let this go on for far too long in a way that is not sustainable,” says Moddejonge.
“We have a government that still has to fix the Phoenix pay system. Whatever system they’re putting in, I’m very worried about. The Universal Basic Income would give everybody the opportunity to have those safeguards when the government is failing.”
The Clean Power Fund did catch her eye.
“That was to help regions transitioning away from coal. We need 100% to transition away from coal. We have the means to do it. In fact, Ontario managed to do it back in 2014.” says Moddejonge. “Why this is still one of those carrots that [the Liberals] keep dangling over our heads, I’m not sure why.”
Former NDP MP Iain Angus has an interesting way of describing throne speech promises.
“They’re all carrots. But by the time the legislation gets introduced, those carrots have been peeled a lot and in some cases they’re down to stub or non-existent,” says Angus.
The discussion of pharmacare is the big discussion piece for Angus. He suggests the benefits of a national strategy would outweigh the cost.
“If you have a proper pharmacare program where everybody gets the medication that they need, that means they’re spending less time at hospitals and less time at the doctor.”