Pierre Poilievre owns the night at Camrose byelection forum

The forum was moderated by Alberta Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, Shauna Feth.

Below are some notable feature remarks, followed by a brief summary, with some direct quotes, of each candidate’s response to each question asked during the forum, and with the exception of opening remarks.

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FEATURE REMARKS

WOO OF THE NIGHT (loudest cheers): Conservative Party candidate/leader Pierre Poilievre, asked about supporting post-secondary education: “This generation has been screwed.” Mentions foreign workers, universities not properly equipping people with the correct skills; says U of Calgary is great though. Remove red tape and taxes to build homes our young people can afford.

BOO OF THE NIGHT (loudest boos): United Party candidate/leader Grant Abraham, asked about supporting farmers through climate change, and promoting sustainable practices — Canada is riddled with foreign interference, he said, noting that the leader of the Conservative Party, who was obviously present, will not attain his security clearance — this is where the heavy booing began — “It’s the truth,” Abraham chided. “There are 11 MPs in the last election who were direct agents of foreign interference, and you weren’t told … Thank you Mr. Poilievre.”

OOOH OF THE NIGHT: Christian Heritage Party candidate Jeff Willerton, asked about supporting post-secondary education — “I have a high school education, my pristine mind has not been polluted by our post-secondary institutions.”

BEST ‘GOOD POINT’: NDP candidate Katherine Swampy, asked about electoral reform — “Electoral reform is what the Longest Ballot Committee wanted, so this shows their form of protest is working.”

BEST ‘HA HA’: Conservative Party candidate/leader Pierre Poilievre, in his closing remarks — “I’m not a farmer, but [former MP Damien Kurek] tells me that if I was, I’d be outstanding in my field.”

BEST ‘MADE YA THINK’: People’s Party candidate Jonathan Bridges, in his closing remarks — “I think it’s time to put a commoner in the House of Commons.”

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QUESTION 1 – What measures would you propose to meaningfully improve affordability and economic security?

Abraham: Look at immigration, immigrants are taking all our jobs; need to repatriate the industrial base, and stop the flight of funds out of the country.

Bridges: A lot of people coming to this nation, crowding out people from housing and job markets; average Canadian pays ridiculous amount of taxes.

Critchley: Government bloat has to stop; we need MPs to step spending excessive amounts of money.

Harris: Government spends way too much money.

MacDonald: Phase out raw resource exports, create more jobs, more industry, and take raw materials out of the hands of foreign governments; wants to strengthen Canadian Disability Benefit.

Poilievre: Cause of inflation is government; out of control immigration and money printing; need negative population growth for several years; cheap energy and affordable homes.

Spady: Impressed with Carney.

Spanier: Bring funding back, more support for farmers, would propose Affordable Food Act to lower grocery prices.

Swampy: “When people are this worried about paying bills, who is the economy really working for? Under the Liberals and Conservatives, the powerful and wealthy keep getting further ahead, and the rest of us keep falling further behind.”

Willerton: Eliminate income and business taxes, add consumption taxes; downsize government.

QUESTION 2 – Do you support increased immigration?

Bridges: Press pause; there is a place for true refugees with unrest in their country, but when that’s over, they should return; my family was immigrants once upon a time, so not opposed to controlled immigration.

Critchley: Can’t take care of our own, so agree with controlled immigration; need to stop government bloat where we’re giving trained doctors and nurses huge stacks of paper, instead of allowing them to use their skills here.

Harris: People like to blame immigrants, most of the time we should blame the government created welfare state of handing out cash; “Alberta should be able to choose who comes into this province.”

MacDonald: “Immigration is one of Canada’s greatest strengths.” Labour shortages, immigration can help build more vibrant future, but it must be planned and responsible

Poilievre: “We did it right for 158 years; Liberal-created post-nationalist ideology, too many temporary foreign workers, abused international student program.

Spady: Time for a pause and adjustment, went a little too rapidly.

Spanier: Put Canadians first, lower immigration levels “just a little bit,” and “reinvest in Canadians.”; balance and compassion.

Swampy: Said some candidates need to “check their privilege.” Immigration is vitally important, especially with wars and unrest, where should people look to go? “We should be welcoming … it’s not pie where they get everything and you get nothing … Canada is vast, there’s more than enough space.”

Willerton: “The Liberals have done everything they can to ruin this country.” Too much tax, too much spending, too much giving money away, opening door to everyone. “I believe in controlled immigration until we get our own house in order.” Agreed with Swampy re. refugees.

Abraham: Family was immigrants; attendees are “being sold a bill of goods by Poilievre” who refuses to tell Canadians if he’ll leave the carbon-restricting UN climate accord.

QUESTION 3 – What does local representation mean to you?

Critchley: Favourite question; Longest Ballot stuff is crap. Has to stop. No agent should be representing 200 people. “You don’t know what’s going on here unless you live here.”

Harris: You should have to live in the riding to run in it. Won’t take a wage if elected, doing it for free.

MacDonald: Admits to living in Red Deer; says quickest way to prevent ‘longest ballot’ is some form of electoral reform; Liberals dropped the ball on electoral reform and Greens will fight for it every day.

Poilievre: Having a national leader as your MP is a tradeoff — on one hand, travelling more than most and all over, but on the other hand, bring a very powerful megaphone to issues of the community, such as getting pipelines built, protecting firearms rights for hunters, and fixing the prison in Drumheller.

Spady: From Three Hills, doesn’t want to be prime minister, wants to represent community’s key issues.

Spanier: Wants to represent residents, no one else, and no matter what political stripe you are. All fighting for same thing, but saying it in a different way. Residents are my boss.

Swampy: Is from Maskacis, which used to be part of riding, but still travels through it often, and knows many of its important issues. Not from Ontario.

Willerton: Lives in Airdrie, doesn’t want to be prime minister, and would relocate to riding if elected .

Abraham: Albertans only ones willing to stand up.

Bridges: Electoral reform; Conservatives get more votes, yet don’t form government, doesn’t make sense; born and raised in riding.

QUESTION 4 – Do you believe the trend of health care privatization threatens the universal health care system, and what would you do to strengthen the public system?

Harris: Libertarians are in favour of private health care, but he believes in hybrid system.

MacDonald: System isn’t broken, but is being attacked by forces who want to privatize. “If we don’t have enough doctors, nurses etc. now, we’ll have even less when the for-profit side can pay more than the government.” Green government would fight for access to dentistry, therapy, public access to health care.

Poilievre: Liberals have “denigrated the health care system.” Out of control population growth, ratio of patients to doctors worse than ever, 32,000 immigrant nurses can’t get a license.

Spady: Loves the current system, it’s the “greatest in the world.”

Spanier: Independent MP can truly utilize their leverage within a minority government in this area.

Swampy: When Poilievre was part of Harper gov’t, he voted to cut $43 billion in health care transfers; NDP are the ones who fought for access to birth control, dental coverage.

Willerton: “It’s nice to have everything for free, but nothing is free … It doesn’t matter who delivers [the health care] as long as it’s done in a timely manner.”

Abraham: This is a provincial issue, not federal. Let’s look at equalization.

Bridges: Says to ask your MLA why there’s so much bloat at AHS; we already have a two-tiered system; says there are many who spend money outside country for private health care, so why not allow it here, and keep the money north of the border?

Critchley: This is a provincial issue, would love to see it go federal. Silly how service changes from province to province. Premier Danielle Smith is “selling us out.”

QUESTION 5 – What is your position on electoral reform? Should we transition away from ‘first-past-the-post,’ and if so, to which type of system?

MacDonald: Yes, move away from first-past-the-post. New system would have to be studied.

Poilievre: “Longest ballot is a total scam and must be stopped.” Require unique signatures, unique agents, and he will put forward legislative changes to ensure this never happens again, if elected.

Spady: The Longest Ballot Committee has been “quite problematic.” Doesn’t think it has a place, but the system allows it, and the system generally works.

Spanier: Healthy protest is good, “but this has not been good.” New system would have to be studied.

Swampy: “Electoral reform is what the Longest Ballot Committee wanted, so this shows their form of protest is working.”

Willerton: If Canada used proportional representation, and the Christian Heritage Party got even one or two per cent of the vote, we’d have one or two per cent of the seats.

Abraham: We need reform; western Canada is “set up as a colony inside a colony,” and since 1867, it’s always been disproportionate.

Bridges: Reform is long overdue. Proportional representation is a good option. A lot of ridings the winner got 35 per cent of the vote, so what about the other 65 per cent? Lots of gatekeeping from constituency offices, MPs need to make sure all constituents’ questions are addressed.

Critchley: Poilievre “skirted the question,” and said nothing about reform. We’re all mad at the LBC, but this current system benefits the two big parties. Looking into proportional representation.

Harris: Shouldn’t give more attention to LBC. “They’re asking for attention. They’re a joke, not a protest.” Need a ranked ballot system.

QUESTION 6 – How will you support farmers to adapt to climate change and extreme weather while promoting sustainable agricultural practices?

Poilievre: More direct rail to west coast, get rid of industrial carbon tax, support firearms rights.

Spady: Fertilizer is too costly. Canada was once known as global superpower in cereals.

Spanier: This is exactly where an independent MP can help; “The funding is there,” and the people exist locally who can work on rural economic development.

Swampy: Not many farmers are interested in these forums, because there’s no changing their stances politically and they have work to do. But they are lacking in hands, they’re aging. Let’s take the ag folks Trump is getting rid of.

Willerton: Not my bread and butter, but carbon taxes drive up cost of everything.

Abraham: Canada is riddled with foreign interference, he said, noting that the leader of the Conservative Party, who was obviously present, will not attain his security clearance — this was heavily booed — “It’s the truth,” Abraham chided. “There are 11 MPs in the last election who were direct agents of foreign interference, and you weren’t told … Thank you Mr. Poilievre.”

Bridges: “CO₂is needed for plant life, so if we’re going to tax it to death, we’ll have less plants.”

Critchley: Has heard a lot from folks on the campaign trail about agricultural innovation. Said big corporations charge farmers royalties for seed, which must stop. “This has to come back to you so you can feed the entire country.”

Harris: Likened the Canadian ‘supply management’ to the former Soviet era ‘Gosplan’; noted many hundreds of litres of milk gets wasted which is a shame.

MacDonald: Green Party knows Canadians need healthy food that isn’t “absurdly expensive.” Party has a plan to strengthen food security. “Family farms need to be run by families.”

QUESTION 7 – Student loans are a huge financial burden, but education is needed for many jobs, so how will you ensure Canadians have access to affordable education?

Spady: Canada has a great post-secondary system; support skilled trades. Maintain summer jobs program.

Spanier: Canada has amazing system; need more post-secondary in rural areas, and to revamp loan repayment system.

Swampy: Shout-out to U of A campus in Camrose, noted extensive personal education.

Willerton: Need more, yes. “I have a high school education, my pristine mind has not been polluted by our post-secondary institutions.”

Abraham: Says to look closely at how post-secondaries fund themselves through foreign students, intertwined with immigration problems. Need to purge the “DEI and woke agenda.”

Bridges: Challenges the premise of the question — post-secondary is not needed to get a good paying job.

Critchley: This is provincial, but would like to see less barriers for students who want to get into the trades.

Harris: “The issues we’re facing are completely the result of the premier and government here in Alberta.” Says there’s lots of corruption and people get massive bonuses while students take on debt. More trades. University not necessary for good paying jobs.

MacDonald: Need to train people to meet demands of the future.

Poilievre: “This generation has been screwed.” Mentions foreign workers, universities not properly equipping people with the correct skills; says U of Calgary is great though. Remove red tape and taxes to build homes our young people can afford.

CLOSING REMARKS

Willerton: Talked about the Biblical ‘Good Samaritan’ story, relating it to indoctrination and gender conversion. Believes if elected, CPC MPs would cross the floor, opening country’s eyes to a CHP movement. “My party is not about a slight deviation in policy, but a 180 degree change in course on serious issues.”

Swampy: “We live in a democracy, not in an authoritarian regime, and although we may not always agree, we all want to make things better … I understand this is a losing run for me and that’s fine, but I’ll still be here advocating for issues otherwise ignored by the government.”

Spanier: This has been fun, but scary, and although people have berated her, she’s still committed to showing up.

Spady: Admits he’s a bit of a neophyte in politics. Noted his technical career and testifying to Commons committees, and wanting to be a part of the process even deeper. “The women and men out there in the fields, they’re the best in the world.”

Poilievre: “It’s been a privilege to get to know you better. My mission here is to give national leadership to the issues of local importance.” Noted his vow to reverse the electric vehicle mandate, protecting firearms rights, changes to Drumheller prison, and fighting tariffs, saying these are all local issues. Called the thought of representing the riding the “privilege of my life.”

MacDonald: “I think we all know this is Pierre’s riding to lose. He’s definitely going to win, but don’t be swayed by fear of a Liberal, NDP or independent MP for your area.”

Harris: “There aren’t too many times Libertarians are invited to these things, but when we are, we come in swinging like a hammer.”

Critchley: “This is our home, our riding. I’ve said it before, I don’t want to do this, I was enjoying my retirement from the military, but this is important to me that we have a voice in Parliament, and I firmly believe Monsieur Poilievre has too many personal aspirations. With a leadership review coming, are we doing this again in February? I am here for my neighbours, together we can make our mark on the map, and we can stand up for ourselves.”

Bridges: “I haven’t prepared a bunch of speeches, I’ve worked as a mechanic since I got out of high school, but I resonate with so many of you and would love to be your voice in Ottawa. I think it’s time to put a commoner in the House of Commons.”

Abraham: “There are Canadians across the country like you who know the country is broken, and that we’re not being told the truth. We just had a Throne Speech approved for our country to be operating without a budget and I’m fed up with this discussion where we don’t actually know where we are. It troubles me to have to break this down in a debate like this because people aren’t thinking. The Liberals are betraying the nation, and the Conservatives are [supporting it by omission].”

You can watch the live-stream of the forum through about 9:30 p.m. on July 31, or 48 hours after it ended, below. As well, find below our prior coverage of this byelection.

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by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

Pierre Poilievre owns the night at Camrose byelection forum

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