Peter Shokeir | [email protected]
Yellowhead candidates answered questions from the public during the Federal All Candidates Forum held over Zoom on Sept. 13.
Organized by the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce, the forum was hosted by past Chamber president Todd Noble and went virtual this year due to the fourth wave of COVID-19.
Five of the six candidates attended: Gordon Francey with the Veterans Coalition Party, Michael Manchen with the People’s Party, Todd Muir with the Maverick Party, Sheila Schumacher with the Liberal Party and Gerald Soroka (incumbent) with the Conservative Party.
NDP candidate Guillaume Roy was not in attendance.
Below are selected questions that were answered by candidates. Answers have been edited for conciseness and grammar. Go to the Chamber’s Facebook page for a link to the recording.
Mandatory vaccines
Q: What is your party’s position on mandatory vaccines?
Manchen: Mandatory vaccines are unconstitutional. I think at this point anybody who chose to get the vaccine has had the opportunity to get it. At this point, it’s just an infringement of people’s freedoms and rights. That’s not going over very well in Canada, honestly. We believe in personal freedoms, something that shouldn’t have to be an election concern.
Soroka: We have always said that no one should be forced to take the vaccine. It’s up to each individual. We have always said though that vaccines are safe to take, but it should never be forced upon anyone. As for vaccine passports, we’ve always said that we’ll work with our provinces for anyone who wants to travel internationally. It’s other countries that are asking for passports or documentation saying that you have been properly vaccinated.
Muir: In federal jurisdictions, like these federal workers, we will stand up for their rights and freedoms to choose or not to choose to be vaccinated, and in terms of passports, I question whether this streamlining or this simplifying of passports by Erin O’Toole and the Conservatives is just about international travel. We’ve seen him flipflop on a number of issues where he says one thing in the west or to appeal to the west, and then when he goes out east, he’ll talk about other things, such as with the carbon tax.
Schumacher: I’m absolutely in favour of vaccines and vaccine passports as the best possible way to keep to the people in our communities safe. You don’t have to get vaccinated, but you also don’t have to work for the federal government. You do have that choice. You don’t have to have a passport. You don’t have to go into movie theatres or sports events without one. Just stay home. That’s my answer to that.
Francey: Mandatory inoculations and mandatory inoculation passports: neither will be supported by the VCP. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was designed and agreed upon to prevent just these kinds of acts being forced upon Canadian citizens by the federal, provincial and municipal governments. Our first priority as a political party is and must be to uphold Canadians’ individual rights. Without those individual rights, democracy will have already failed.
Top priority
Q: What is your party’s top priority?
Francey: I guess upholding the Constitution, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms would be a priority. With that, everything else should fall into a line.
Schumacher: I would say the Liberal’s top priority is to proceed to a safe, clean, prosperous future with the strong, decisive decisions that we have seen so far from the federal government.
Muir: The Maverick Party is all about fairness for the west. We don’t ever get it from the Liberals. We sometimes get it from the Conservatives, but when push comes to shove, they will always side with the big population centres of Ontario and Quebec.
Manchen: Freedom and prosperity are the most absolutely important things, because free people will prosper. Whenever we have the government thinking that they need to spend the money to start an economy, that’s exactly the opposite of how an economy actually does flourish.
Q (to Soroka only): What would you do to support affordable housing in Jasper?
Soroka: Our party does support putting more low-cost housing in, especially in places where there is government land available. With the park situation and the proximity with the town, there isn’t much land available.
Election day is Sept. 20.
Information on how to vote can be found at elections.ca
Editor's note: The date of the election was wrong in a previous version of the story.
