NDP leadership candidates explain their plans to Power & Politics
CBC News | Posted: September 22, 2017 2:55 PM | Last Updated: September 22, 2017
A winner will be chosen from these 4 candidates and announced by Oct. 15
Voting is now underway to elect a new federal NDP leader, with the winner to be announced next month.
CBC News Network's Power & Politics has interviewed each of the four remaining candidates to see where they'll take the party in the approach to the 2019 election.
Charlie Angus
The MP for Timmins-James Bay in Northern Ontario says he'll pursue laws to cap greenhouse gas emissions coming from companies:
"I come from mining country. Nobody ever cleaned up Sudbury without legislation. Behind my property, there's a lake that's been polluted for over 100 years. They stopped dumping arsenic and heavy metals in lakes because of legislation. What we need to do is say 'What is the cap we need to meet?' [Then] we legislate it, we work with industry …. You legislate the limits, then you establish a mandate of experts who can look at this."
Niki Ashton
Ashton, who represents the federal Manitoba riding of Churchill–Keewatinook Aski, says she wants the federal government to invest in stable, year-long work for young people while raising taxes on large corporations and making new tax brackets for top earners.
"What we've proposed here is the need for fair taxation. That means those who have more pay more. Canada used to be a lot more equitable in terms of the tax system we used to have, then in the '90s that started going off the rails. What we've proposed is looking at some of what we used to do, including raising corporate tax rates to 21 per cent, which was the pre-Harper level."
Guy Caron
Guy Caron says the NDP would pour $30 billion to $35 billion into a basic income policy paid for by a tax reform package focusing on the wealthy if the MP for Rimouski-Neigette–Témiscouata–Les Basques is elected leader.
"We have to acknowledge that Canada is one of the countries that taxes wealth the least. It's also well known that our income inequality is increasing faster: $30 to $35 billion may look big, but you have to put it in context. The Liberals came into government with a balanced budget, now they're $28 billion in deficit [as of the last federal budget] with very little to show for it. I'm proposing basically $30 billion to eliminate poverty and face future challenges."
Jagmeet Singh
The representative for Bramalea–Gore–Malton in the Ontario legislature says his environmental policy favours any project that respects Indigenous rights, climate change goals and local priorities — so while he's against Energy East and Kinder Morgan, he's not a hard "no" on all pipelines.
"We need to make investments in the future, in projects that are going to help us build a sustainable economy. If we can meet the criteria for a sustainable economy, building something that's sustainable for the future, I'd support it. If it doesn't meet those criteria, I don't think it makes sense for our country."