Guelph candidates talk economy, housing and climate in bid to become new MP
8 candidates in Canada's federal election are in Guelph
Guelph, Ont., will elect a new MP on April 28.
Incumbent Liberal MP Lloyd Longfield, who has held the seat since October 2015, is not seeking re-election.
There are eight candidates in Guelph for this federal election. They are (in alphabetical order by last name):
- Elaine Baetz, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada.
- Janice Folk-Dawson, New Democratic Party.
- Gurvir Khaira, Conservative Party of Canada.
- Dominique O'Rourke, Liberal Party of Canada.
- Jeffrey Swackhammer, People's Party of Canada.
- Michael Wassilyn, Independent.
- Yurii Yavorskyi, Canadian Future Party.
- Anne-Marie Zajdlik, Green Party of Canada.
CBC K-W invited the candidates from the four major parties as reflected in the leaders' debates to take part in the panel discussions. The topics covered including the local economy, housing and climate.
Folk-Dawson of the NDP said she is an injured worker with a permanent disability and a socialist. She has worked at the University of Guelph, and was president of the Guelph and District Labour Council as well as executive vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour.
Khaira's campaign did not respond to CBC K-W's invitation to take part in the candidate panel. The Conservative's campaign has been sent the questions and this story will be updated with his responses when they are received.
O'Rourke, the Liberal candidate, is a current city councillor in Guelph. She has worked in government relations and communications and started her own communications firm when her children were young.
Zajdlik, the Green candidate, is a family doctor in the city who has also helped to build HIV clinics in Guelph and Waterloo. She says she's an activist who posted on social media daily during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the economy
Candidates were asked what they will do to support Guelph during a possible economic upheaval. The city could be hit particularly hard as the U.S. government changes the way trade is done between the two countries and employers in the city deal with potential tariffs.
O'Rourke called that the "burning question of our time" and said Guelph is one of the most vulnerable cities in the country.
"The first thing we need to do is to push back against the Americans. And while we do that, we need to be protecting the workers and supporting anyone who's being displaced. We also need to be building our own economy," she said, noting the Liberals have supported the expansion of companies like auto parts manufacturer Linamar, one of Guelph's largest employers.
She said the Liberals will also fund apprenticeships to invest in home building, more infrastructure and clean energy.
Zajdlik said people need to prepare for some "pretty difficult times" while also reimagining the economy. That includes rethinking the automotive industry, she said.
"I think one thing that we could work at doing over the short and long period is think about retooling our manufacturing industry to focus on creating renewable energy sources and the infrastructure and parts that are required for that," she said.
"While we are reimagining our local and Canadian economy, we need to focus on taking care of people."
Folk-Dawson says she's hearing at the doors that people are afraid of what the tariffs will mean. She said the NDP are part of "team Canada" and noted Indigenous voices need to be heard in this conversation.
"I think the very first thing that we need to do is take care of workers," Folk-Dawson said, saying the employment insurance system needs to be more "robust" to help people.
She said education and training also need to be focused on.
"We need to think about retraining — retraining the great skills that we have in our workforce here in Guelph, moving that training over into green jobs," Folk-Dawson said.
"I think that we also need to think about seniors and persons living with disabilities and the government supplements that they're living on are below the poverty line and certainly we need to bring them up to the poverty line or above."
On affordable housing
The price of a single-detached home in Guelph has risen significantly in the last five years, and housing prices in general in the city make it difficult for people to afford a home.
Zajdlik said the federal government "needs to get involved in investing in deeply affordable housing."
She said all federally-funded housing should cost no more than 30 per cent of a household income and she wants to see the government restore the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to directly finance and develop non-market housing.
She said the federal government needs to build homes and invest in social housing.
Folk-Dawson said it's not just homeownership, but the high cost of rent that's impacting people in Guelph.
"When we're talking about what can happen in Guelph, one of the things that the NDP is talking about is victory bonds. Victory bonds are very much like the bonds that we saw after World War II and it's an opportunity to reinvest in the infrastructure of our communities," Folk-Dawson said.
She said one of the criteria to receive funding is to build homes with Canadian materials. As well, Folk-Dawson said there needs to be new housing that's tied to green building standards.
"Go back to that idea of having mixed neighbourhoods to meet the needs of everyone. And we need to talk about refitting the homes that are there to make them climate resistant," she said.
O'Rourke said there is so much to cover and a key piece of housing is that the provincial government also plays a role in making sure housing is affordable.
"The provincial Conservative government has removed rent controls and as the federal government has invested in homelessness, the province has actually decreased its investment in housing. So for deeply affordable housing, there is a provincial responsibility," she said.
She said under the Liberals, thousands of new homes will be built and investments will continue under programs like the Housing Accelerator Fund.
O'Rourke said Guelph has its own building targets and the Liberals would continue to support those plans with funding.
On climate change
Folk-Dawson says people need to really think about how fossil fuels are used and the impact it's having on the environment.
"I think that the electrification of all of our systems and working towards electrifying existing infrastructures and the development of new electrification that creates a vast number of green jobs and we have to be prepared to transition those workers with creative pathways to those green jobs," Folk-Dawson said.
Folk-Dawson also reiterated that there needs to be a focus on building climate resistant communities and said there needs to be infrastructure supports to help small businesses transition to a green society.
O'Rourke said climate action taken by the Liberals has been working and the Liberals would continue to work to "make Canada a clean energy superpower in collaboration with provinces, and Indigenous people, businesses and labour will cap emissions on oil and gas, cap emissions and not production."
She said the Liberal programs can be seen in Guelph with the purchase of electric buses, EV charging stations, the Greener Homes grant and HVAC retrofits.
"We're also looking at protecting water, wetlands, grasslands to an extent that's never been done in Canada," O'Rourke said.
Zajdlik said she's been disappointed in the federal government's response to climate change over the past decade.
"It is the greatest emergency that we are facing as a country and as a planet," she said.
She said she knows tariffs and the economy are a top concern in this election, "but we need a government that's able to focus on climate change as well, by reducing emissions very rapidly, by mitigating and adapting what's already happening, and by creating accountability across government so that good government policies stay in place."
Other candidates
CBC K-W sent questions by email to the independent and other party candidates in Guelph. When those responses are received, they will be added to this story.
Baetz has run for the Marxist-Leninist Party locally since 1993. In 2021, she ran for the party in the riding of Kitchener South-Hespeler.
On his PPC page, Swackhammer says he is a "follower of Christ" and he "cherishes Christian values."
In videos on his Instagram page, Swackhammer talks about various issues including concerns about stripping charitable status from churches, the need to allow freedom of religious expression, concerns about foreign interference in Canadian elections and concerns about immigration policies of federal parties.
In a video dated April 13 and posted on the Facebook page The Guelph Citizen, Wassilyn says he was a member of the convoy protests in 2022.
"I truly have a passion and desire that this country doesn't go down," he says in the video.
Wassilyn says he has concerns with Pride parades and worries about children being indoctrinated.
Yavorsky immigrated to Canada from Ukraine in 1994. He says his top issue in this campaign is housing.
"We are calling to reinstate the federal government's role in directly funding non-profit, co-operative, and low-income housing through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation," he said in response to questions emailed to him by CBC News.
"We must create dedicated federal immigration pathways for skilled tradespeople and construction workers — both temporary and permanent — to meet growing labour demands and avoid bottlenecks in the housing sector."
His second top issue is the health-care system, which he says "requires urgent help and overhaul." He said while delivering health care also involves the provinces, "the federal government has a responsibility to lead where it can." That includes hiring more internationally trained doctors, developing and funding digital tools to help modernize family medicine and help Canadians find the health care they need within the country rather than having to travel for some procedures.
"I believe the Canadian Future Party offers a platform that truly resonates with Canadians whose voices have often gone unheard and whose needs have been overlooked," he said.
Advance voting takes place Friday to Monday.
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