Charlottetown-Parkdale byelection: 4 issues of concern to voters

Voters in Charlottetown-Parkdale have plenty on their minds as the byelection for District 11 approaches.

Residents will decide on Nov. 27 between Liberal Bob Doiron, Progressive Conservative Melissa Hilton, Green Party candidate Hannah Bell and the leader of the NDP of P.E.I., Mike Redmond.

Here are four of the issues that are of concern to people in the neighbourhood.

Proportional representation

Marilyn McKay says the topic of proportional representation is influencing who she will cast her ballot for.

"The big thing for me is the proportional representation issue," she said.

"I'm quite disappointed with how both levels of government have handled that." 

McKay added that she is also concerned with issues related to poverty, such as income distribution and food security.

Employment

Oren Harris says employment is the most important factor going into the byelection.

"I think it's a concern province-wide, there's just no industry here and there's nothing to keep young folks here," he said. "The government has talked about wanting to retain people on this Island but how on Earth can they do that if there's no employment?"

Harris said he hopes politicians can come up with concrete plans of how to create jobs to allow Islanders to stay on P.E.I. rather than leaving to find work elsewhere.

"The politicians, they make promises but they just sort of touch on issues without actually giving firm ideas on how they're going to do things," he said.

"Everyone wants to see Islanders stay here if they possibly can."

Education

Thom MacMillan says he is worried about the future of the Island's education system.

"Our children all went through the education system here," he said.

I think that after you've been through the number of elections that I've been through, you get a little concerned about promises that aren't kept.- Thom MacMillan

"I'm concerned about the teachers to pupils ratio ... about help for people that are having a bit of difficulty, maybe they have a learning difficulty that there's not enough support for them ... about the psychological aspects of some children that are having problems in school and how they're handling them."

MacMillan also said the cost of post-secondary school and accessible higher education were important for him.

Rural areas

MacMillan also raised the issue of rural areas across the Maritimes, but specifically in P.E.I. 

"I think the governments have not done enough yet to instigate revitalization of those areas," he said. "What I hear are political answers, which to me are non answers.

"I think that after you've been through the number of elections that I've been through, you get a little concerned about promises that aren't kept. And people forget too soon, I don't tend to forget that easily."

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