On Thursday, May 4, grade 5 classes from McKim Middle school, and most of the students at Selkirk Secondary gathered in the gymnasium for a debate between the Columbia-River Revelstoke candidates. Four out of six candidates were present including NDP candidate, Gerry Taft; Green Party candidate, Samson Boyer; Independent candidate, Justin James Hooles; and Independent candidate, Duncan Boyd Macleod. Both BC Liberal candidate, Doug Clovechok and Libertarian candidate, Rylan Kashuba were absent.
Candidates had two minutes to present their platforms to the students before the question and answer period. Students asked questions about, environment and pipelines, low and middle incomes, job security, foster care, why the candidates chose to run independently or for a party, and most fittingly, education.
All of the candidates touched on the Jumbo Glacier Resort and the potential environmental and economic impacts that it could have. They also spoke about the importance of young people being knowledgeable and involved in voting and politics. Some suggested that the voting age be lowered so that there are more opportunities for people to vote.
The first question, from Selkirk Student, Lisa was, “how will you make sure that small schools have the same benefits as large schools?”
Boyer responded by saying that he was home-schooled, so he did not go through the high school education system, but that, “education is one of the most valuable things that we [the Green Party] can invest in.”
Macleod responded by stating, “the last fifteen+ years have not been the best for education in British Columbia, not just in terms of funding but also in terms of innovation. There are lots of ways and opportunities moving forward that give us the opportunity to basically redistribute the learning opportunities throughout the province.”
Taft said that the BC NDP want to put more money into education as well as resource staff, he also said that as MLA he would, “love the opportunity to fight for rural schools, and fight to maintain services. The idea that some students have to spend an hour plus every day on a bus just doesn’t seem acceptable.”
“We need to change how we are doing our schooling, and what we are focusing on, and I think that the tech sector needs a bigger focus within our schools,” responded Hooles. “I think that we need to be offering more courses based around coding and the ability to be able to learn something from the internet.”
Another question asked by a Selkirk Student was, “how are you going to make life more affordable for middle and lower class people?”
Taft answered with, “we’re talking about freezing fees and in some cases decreasing or eliminating them all together, like the medical service premiums, and instead taxing those at higher incomes and taxing the large companies.”
Taft explained that if the NDP increases corporate income tax by one percent, it would generate more money that would stay in the province, which would keep costs lower and allow people to afford to stay in communities like the ones in Columbia-River Revelstoke.
Macleod was on the rebuttal saying that if the NDP win, corporations will pull back on exploration and jobs will move out of the province, “the reality is that we have to change our way of governing, period.”
Hooles responded with, “we need to largely reorganize how our money is being handled by our government right now. I think that ICBC is time for a review of wether or not it can become profitable again and if it can’t, then we need to look at possibly ending it.”
Some of the other questions that were asked were, “what do you think about the pipelines? Where is the funding for transitioning youth out of foster care going to come from? and what are your policies and goals for the environment?”
The Provincial Election takes place on Tuesday, May 9 and advanced polls are open.