The Williams Lake Tribune reports, “Federal candidates in the Cariboo-Prince George riding – Jon Ronan (IND), Dick Harris (CON), Jon Van Barneveld (NDP), Henry Thiessen (CHP), Sangeeta Lalli (LIB), Heidi Redl (GRN), and Jordan Turner (RHI) – (were in attendance) for the first of two all-candidates meetings Wednesday evening at the Cariboo Arts Centre.”
“The meeting was organized by the Williams Lake chapter of the Council of Canadians and gave the public an opportunity to submit questions that would be answered by each candidate.”
“When asked about what should be the future of Canada’s nuclear energy program given the recent events in Japan, Redl and Van Barneveld suggested it should be phased out; Lalli acknowledged that until alternative forms of energy can be found nuclear power is still necessary in places like Ontario. Thiessen suggested nuclear power generation is ‘fairly clean’ and that government should find ways to make the process ‘less risky’. Harris noted that there are nuclear power plants in Canada that operate ‘safety under strict regulations’ and that to his knowledge there has been, ‘no serious problems’.”
“The privatization of health-care was also queried. Lalli defended public care as a ‘necessity’. Thiessen suggested there was a place for private care in the system but that it should be ‘managed and paid for by the government’, and remain accessible. Van Barneveld said the public system should be protected and can be paid for by rolling back corporate tax cuts. Harris suggested that the Conservative party supports public health care and that the party has ‘no intention’ to privatize it. Redl promoted the idea of universal pharmacare, no health-care privatization and more beds across the system.”
The full article is at http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_cariboo/williamslaketribune/news/120667649.html.
