Knives out at Chamber of Commerce debate

Green Party candidate Meg Purdy makes a comment during Wednesday night's debate. Listening to her are (L-R) Liberal MP Anthony Rota, Conservative Party candidate Peter Chirico and NDP candidate Dave Fluri. Photo by Bill Tremblay, Special to BayToday.ca.

Federal Nipissing-Timiskaming candidates squared off at the Clarion Resort Pinewood Park Wednesday during the North Bay Chamber of Commerce All Candidates Night.

The evening allowed for introductions and opening statements by the candidates followed by a round of questions by a media panel (including BayToday’s Phil Novak), questions from the general public and candidate summations.

The media panel took the candidates to task on issues that ran the gamut from FedNor, hospital wait times, youth migration to federal-provincial transfer funding gaps and childcare.

While there were light-hearted moments between the candidates, New Democrat Dave Fluri, the Green Party’s Meg Purdy and Conservative candidate Peter Chirico had sharpened their knives and took aim at Liberal incumbent Anthony Rota, and his party’s record.

Fluri, shot straight from the hip when addressing health care wait times and youth migration and was quick to point out the inequities of both the Liberal and Conservative party platforms stating any one with a clear answer to how to stop youth migration should be canonised.

“It’s just dressing on the cake,” states Fluri in regards to the wait time issue.

“Priority surgeries for knee and hip replacements are bumping out other surgeries to say wait times are down. We need to take profit out of healthcare, for the whole dollar to be spent on healthcare not 90 cents for care and 10 cents for profit.”

With a change in the polls, Chirico stayed on message and called for a change in the power structure on Parliament Hill and promised that he and the Conservative Party would return integrity back to Ottawa.

“The Liberals have lost the moral authority to govern the country.”

Chirico spoke to FedNor affirming that it was not the intention of the Conservatives to scrap the FedNor program merely to return the program back to its original intention instead of a ‘Liberal slush fund’ that demonstrates favouritism.

“They want to go away, leave the roost,” states the Conservative candidate weighing in on the youth retention issue.

“There has to be something for them to come back to.”

Green Party candidate Meg Purdy got a round of laughs when she questioned why the panel would ask her if the Conservatives will keep the FedNor funding and also stating her party doesn’t have enough money for attack ads, but she did have opportunity to address several issues including her party’s platform.

Purdy told the audience that alternative energy is a major plank of the Green Party and that the Greens would like to see an end to subsidies for fossil fuel business and money put into research and development of wind power and other alternatives.

“We need to develop Eco-tourism, humane hunting and trapping, green energy and organic agriculture,”

Rota stood his ground during the barrage of charges of Liberal scandals and waste to the attack ad campaigns, not giving an inch to his opponents instead letting his 19-month record speak for itself,

“I promised to deliver and I believe I’ve done so,” Rota told the audience.

When it came to the negative ads by his party Rota battled back pointing out his was a positive campaign.

“Have I had a negative ad,” he asked the crowd that in turn answered no.

“Am I arrogant or tired,” and once again the crowd returned with no.

“People will get the same level of service once the campaign is over regardless of who they supported.”

It appeared by the button clad crowd, that the majority of the people in attendance had already decided who they would be casting ballots for, however, the crowd was not pleased that when the floor was opened to the public there was only time for four questions, leaving some in the audience less than impressed.

“I had a question and they didn’t get to me, and that’s what this night is all about,” one man grumbled on the way out.