Redmond gets high profile

Election notebook by Dan Hilborn
Published June 12, 2004


Has Burnaby-New Westminster Conservative candidate Mike Redmond turned into the provincial poster boy for his entire party?

That could be the impression this week after the local lawyer was chosen as his party's official representative at two very different region-wide all candidates debates.

On Wednesday, Redmond represented the Tories at an official B.C. Nurses' Union debate against Liberal Dr. Hedy Fry, NDPer Libby Davies and Green candidate Andrew Lewis. That debate was held at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown Hotel.

"They were looking for a guarantee of a reduced role for the private sector in health care, and I couldn't give them that," Redmond said after the hour-long debate. "There's already a large role for the private sector. Doctors and most medical clinics are already for-profit organizations."

"But I did reiterate our call for a single-payer system," he said. "The federal government is not the level to design the delivery of health care - that's a provincial responsibility. But we have to make sure they (the provinces) have the funds that are necessary."

Under a Tory government, Ottawa would develop national standards, determine what services are offered, what waiting times are appropriate and then set and enforce ratios of doctors to nurses and patients.

"Frankly, the delivery of health care in Metrotown or downtown will be different than that in Nunavut or rural Saskatchewan," he said.

Redmond knows his statements weren't exactly what the nurses union was hoping to hear.

Just hour after the debate, the BCNU issued a press release in which Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions called on all political parties to commit to a "fully public, not-for-profit medicare system."

Redmond expects to have a much warmer reception when he represents the Tories at a democracy forum sponsored by the Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver on Monday night.

The organizer of that debate, Father Ian Stewart of St. Francis of Assisi Church, attended Vancouver College high school with Redmond.

"We were in the United Nations Club together," said the candidate. "We were both kind of nerds in high school."

The Catholic debate will also feature representatives from the Christian Heritage Party, Canadian Action Party, Green Party, NDP and Liberals. The event takes place at 7 pm., Monday, June 21 in the gymnasium of St. Jude's school, 3078 Renfrew St., at Grandview.

LIBERTARIAN JOINS RACE

Government should get out of the business of trying to run people's lives, says Adam Desaulniers, the 31-year-old Libertarian Party candidate running in the Burnaby-Douglas riding.

"Basically, we want government out of every sphere of influence where it does not protect fundamental rights," Desaulniers told the Burnaby Now this week. "What we want is a government that is only interested in making sure people leave each other alone."

While most people have never even heard of the Libertarian Party, it is in fact one of the oldest political ideas in North America. The Oxford Canadian Dictionary describes a libertarian as "an advocate of liberty, especially, of an almost absolute freedom of expression and action," or "a believer in free will."

It's an idea that Desaulniers first encountered during the 1988 election when he went with his parents to listen to an all- candidate's debate.

"The Libertarian had the crowd in his hand," said Desaulniers, who remembered someone in the audience asking about selling bulk water exports to the United States. "His (the Libertarian candidate's) line was "I don't see what the problem is. Millions of litres of flow into the ocean every day.

"Sure it rankled the socialist crowd, but I couldn't think of a wittier rejoinder."

Working as a computer programmer, Desaulniers said he see the effects of over-regulation every day. For example, new technology means that someone in Bangalore can now use instant messaging to work for a company in Vancouver. "That's the kind of thing that Canada needs to play up. Government needs to get out of the way of that. Government needs to get out of the way of someone doing the same job for far less.

"We should make government more like the network," he said. "On the network, people try to exercise control and it never works, because you can' control user behaviour and you can't restrict information.

"On the web, you can see the free-for-all, you can see the best and worst of people. That's libertarianism in action. On the web, there's no practical way to coerce people's behaviour. If you try to control them, they go elsewhere."

BURNABY NEW WEST MEETING

The lone all-candidates meeting for the Burnaby-New Westminster riding has been rescheduled to Thursday, June 17.

The meeting, sponsored by the New Westminster West Side Residents Association, has a rather ambitious agenda that calls for introductory speeches by each candidate, responses to a predetermined list of questions, responses to a media panel, a mini- debate, questions from the floor and closing statements.

The meeting takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 17 in the gymnasium of Lord Kelvin elementary, 1010 Hamilton St., in New Westminster (across from Moody Park, on 10th Street.)

BURNABY-DOUGLAS MEETING

The rumble on Capital Hill is ready to go.

Dick Harmon, president of the Capital Hill community hall association, confirmed that he will be hosting an all-candidates meeting for the Burnaby-Douglas riding at 7 p.m., Wednesday, June 23.

The hall, located at the corner of Hastings and Howard Ave., is the typically the scene of the most entertaining all-candidate meeting of any election, and all of the major parties have confirmed their attendance.

CUNNINGHAM CONFIDENT

Paul Martin's candidate in Burnaby-Douglas is feeling upbeat and confident, despite recent polling numbers that seem to indicate the federal Liberals are having a tough time in B.C.

"Things on the ground are going great," Cunningham told the Burnaby Now Monday afternoon. "We still very much have a sense that, at worst, this is a tight three-way race and, at best, the momentum is continuing to build."

Cunningham, an investment banker and president of the B.C. wing of the federal Liberals, was particularly pleased to see the party come up with a made-in-B.C. platform, which he said is different from the national campaign.

Chief among the recommendations is a Liberal promise to open a national tourism centre to Vancouver, and consider the possibility of giving B.C., its own department of fisheries and oceans.

"We're not going to be shy to talk about things," Cunningham said.

Other issues identified by the Liberals include the need for more community policing resources and preserving Canada's Pacific salmon resource.

The made-in-B.C. platform was released just one week after Cunningham issued a statement in support of the national party platform. Chief among the national policies is the five-point plan to "fix health care for a generation," by delivering stable long- term funding, reducing waiting times, reforming primary health care, introducing a home care act, launching a pharmaceutical strategy and protecting the principles of the Canada Health Act.

However, Cunningham admitted that he may not see Prime Minister Paul Martin in the riding before the voting takes place on June 28. He is, however, hoping that finance minister Ralph Goodale will make a stop in town, possibly as early as this week.

CONSERVATIVE HITS BACK

Conservative candidate George Drazenovic is hitting back after being the brunt of some NDP criticism for his response to a question about immigration made on an open air radio station earlier this month

On Thursday, Drazenovic issued a press release that accused NDP hopeful Bill Siksay of mudslinging and insulting his family.

"I was stunned by the NDP candidate's allegations against me," Drazenovic said in the press release. "This is a deeply personal issue for me - my parents are immigrants, many of my closest friends and colleagues are immigrants.

"For him to suggest that I believe in anything other than an open and inviting immigration policy while supporting family reunification is mudslinging of the worst kind and simply not true. Perhaps the NDP candidate should stick to the facts until he gains a better understanding of our policies, the immigrant community and what matters most to them.

"I would like the think the NDP candidate did not mean to insult my family. We are certainly determined to rise above such uncalled- for accusations."

According to his website, Drazenovic was born in Vancouver and his parents both hail from Croatia.

THE HOMELESS PROBLEM

Burnaby-New Westminster NDP candidate Peter Julian was knocking the Liberals for their lack of action on affordable housing in a press release that claimed New Westminster has the worst homelessness rate in the Lower Mainland.

In the statement issued May 30, Julian said a 2002 GVRD study showed that new Westminster had 69 homeless people out of a total population of 54,656 - a wore ratio than Vancouver or Burnaby. He also raised the alarm over statistics that show almost 14 per cent of families in his riding are spending more than 70 per cent of their income on housing.

"This isn't a crisis in the making - it's already there and being ignored by the Martin Liberals and made worse by the Campbell Liberals," said Julian, who added the Conservatives would only make the problem worse with their promise of a 25 per cent tax cut across the board.

"Families in our communities have heard this promise before and are now living with the consequences," Julian said. "Closures of hospitals, closures of programs that give families hope - I don't know how much more Burnaby and New Westminster families can take."

NO BUSINESS SUBSIDIES

Conservative candidate Mike Redmond issued a press release echoing leader Stephen Harpers' vision of low taxes and reducing the number of grants and subsidies offered to corporations.

"This is how we will get our country moving again - by encouraging innovation and real business investment," Redmond said. "The old parties, like the Liberals and the NDP, believe in handouts. Conservative believe that Canadian businesses can thrive if we give them the chance."

Harper made his pledge at the Toronto Board of Trade last week. "I am here to day to issue a challenge to the business community," said the new tory leader. "If you want lower business taxes, you must be willing at the same time to stop receiving government subsidies. I won't lower one without lowering the other."