Scarborough Southwest event draws large crowd

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In a divided Canada on the edge of a recession, voters in Scarborough Southwest can take comfort in knowing their federal candidates agree on a lot.

All five say it's time for our governments to stop bickering and work together, our immigrants need more help and somebody has to rebuild Canada's cities and bring new manufacturing jobs to the riding.

Sitting on a pew behind a table in the basement of Birchcliff Bluffs United Church - home to the area's recently expanded food and clothing bank - they also said we'd better fix the root causes of crime and poverty.

His party may not have a national poverty-reduction plan, but the Conservative, Greg Crompton, suggested one is needed. "Poverty has to be addressed nationally," he told a crowd Monday that swelled to nearly 100.

"Poverty has many complex reasons and they're usually local."

Michelle Simson, a party volunteer running for the Liberals, said some manufacturing jobs the riding lost will never return.

But employers say the area is still a good location. If it attracts manufacturers of green technology, "if we can wrap our arms around going green," Simson said, "I think we will see an economic boom."

Green candidate Stefan Dixon, a high school vice-principal, said Canada's governments have to do better: we're falling behind in green technology, he said, "and if we don't get onto that train we're going to miss it."

Promoting such technology requires more courage than the Liberals and Conservatives have shown, Dixon added.

The low-speed Zenn electric car, made in Canada and sold in the U.S., cannot be bought here because of government regulations, he said. "It would have required too much courage to go up against the oil companies."

Crompton, a Bell Canada employee, said a re-elected Tory government will help by keeping business taxes low and he's confident its programs will retool local plants and retrain employees.

Alamgir Hussain, a newspaper publisher and New Democratic candidate, said a recession is coming because the Liberals and Conservatives who spent the last two years "working the Parliament like brothers" have failed to stop it.

To keep jobs from leaving the country, the government should "prevent the big corporate owners investing outside of Canada," said Hussain, who promised changes benefiting not a small number of people, but the "maximum" possible number. "That is democracy."

Though she said the election has "no burning issue except a lot of mudslinging," Simson said she doubted the Conservatives will work with cities, charging comments by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty "openly discouraged investment in Ontario."

Joining the debate in progress was independent candidate M.H. Fatique Choudhury Kabir, who said he wasn't happy with the time spent waiting to see doctors in Canada.

As an independent, Kabir, who has a taxi business, said he has freedom to speak, while candidates bound to a party can't say or do anything without permission. "Parties say they do one thing, they do another," he added.

All five contenders at the event organized by the East Beach Community Association were community volunteers who believe themselves uniquely qualified for the job longtime Liberal incumbent Tom Wappel (now retired) held for 20 years.

One-third of the riding - which is roughly between Eglinton Avenue and Lake Ontario, Victoria Park Avenue and Bellamy Road South - are immigrants, many of them professionals driving taxis and "doing the odd jobs," said Towhid Noman, a high school teacher and president of the Ontario Bangladesh Educators' Community Support Service, who asked what could be done.

Hussain said he came to Canada as a social worker but found such work hard to get; thousands are in the same position, but the NDP will help with job training and co-op placements, he said.

Simson agreed foreign-trained professionals face too many roadblocks to having their credentials recognized but said she was also concerned new Conservative legislation will fast track people of certain occupations into Canada at the expense of family reunification.

A re-elected Stephen Harper will address the problem immediately, said Crompton, adding thanks to the Conservatives potential immigrants can find out what credentials are needed in Canada and how long it takes to bring their families there, instead of arriving with a "false promise".