Thomson, Nelson, Motz, and Kirshenbaum at Wednesday's election forum (Photo by Colton McKee)

By Hayley Ferguson

Federal Election

Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner candidates agree at forum that more collaboration is needed

Oct 3, 2019 | 12:45 AM

Medicine Hat, AB – You don’t have to look far beyond social media to see that this federal election has been a polarizing one when talking about party leaders.

In an election forum held by the Medicine Hat & District Chamber of Commerce, audience members saw Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner candidates Glen Motz with the Conservative Party, Andrew Nelson of the People’s Party, the NDP’s Elizabeth Thomson, and Liberal Harris Kirshenbaum agree on a major topic though.

That Canada is better when every voice is heard.

“Collaboration is critical to get things done. And I think we’ve seen that occur on multiple occasions. But unfortunately, it doesn’t occur to the extent it needs to,” Motz said during the forum.

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Collaboration was something that was brought up multiple times throughout the evening.

While some jabs were thrown by the candidates at party policies and party leaders, the local candidates agreed that they needed to hear the thoughts of each other.

“A vast domination, a vast country like this, collaboration is how it works. It’s how it’s always worked. And it takes foresight and bravery, it takes really putting it on the line to be able to go up and say ‘you know what, we’ve been doing this wrong. Let’s make it better.’” Kirshenbaum said. “There are some ideas out there from all sides, well most sides, that have potential and could move things forward.”

Nelson pointed to the federal debates where not all party leaders have been invited to participate.

“It’s absolutely critical. We need to hear all sides of the story. It’s only the benefit of Canadians and the voters to hear all the sides of the argument. Otherwise, you’re not making an informed decision,” the People’s Party candidate said.

Thomson with the NDP is hopeful that the willingness to listen to each other won’t end once Canadians cast their ballots at the end of the month.

“All of us are candidates for our own personal reasons and we come from different backgrounds and different expertise. And I would like to see whoever is elected, that they collaborate with their fellow candidates to see what it was they were most passionate about during the election and what they heard,” Thomson continued. “Because we’re all door knocking, but it’s impossible to door knock the entire city, the entire riding. So we’re hearing different stories from different people that we really need to be sharing with each other.”

Although they agreed that they needed to collaborate on issues, they were very torn on issues like taxation and climate change.

Motz went on the offensive of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, saying that Canadians have been overtaxed throughout the past four years and how the government needs to “spend within their means.”

Kirshenbaum defended the Liberal’s term and emphasized the need to fund public services and focus on climate change.

Kirshenbaum made the point to say farmers in the area are “victims of climate change.”

Thomson spoke about the need for pharmacare for all and taxation of large businesses and the wealthy Canadians worth more than $20 million, while Nelson talked about a balanced budget and taking a harsh look at the amount of foreign aid Canada sends to other countries.

In a riding that has voted for a conservative party since 1972, many of the candidates agreed that having debates and forums like this are even more needed here.

“If we are complacent and predictable, Ottawa is not going to care about us. The campaigns are not going to care about us. I mean look at the materials that myself and the other candidates have. It’s because the conservatives are able to invest and they can give all the attention in the world here,” Thomson said. “For the NDP, I don’t have anything and part of it is because they feel like there’s not a point investing in me. So let’s make a change.”