Liberal candidate Amy Bronson speaks with constituents at Didi’s Playhaus after the candidate forum on Oct. 12. Bronson grew up in Lethbridge and has a master’s degree in Global Affairs.
New Democratic Party candidate Shandi Bleiken socializes before the candidate forum begins at Didi’s Playhaus on Oct. 12. Bleiken is an administrative assistant at the University of Lethbridge and volunteers with a number of local organizations.
Green Party candidate Stephnie Watson watches as the panel speaks about issues affecting Lethbridge citizens at Didi’s Playhaus on Oct. 12. Watson has a masters degree in Environmental Science and runs their company, Sherlock and Watson Scientific.Lethbridge federal election candidates discussed pertinent local issues at an LGBTQ+ theatre last weekend.
Didi’s Playhaus, formerly Club Didi, invited the candidates to discuss the supervised consumption site, LGBTQ+ issues and more.
Of the candidates invited, Liberal candidate Amy Bronson, Green candidate Stephnie Watson and New Democratic Party candidate Shandi Bleiken attended.
Rachael Harder, the current Member of Parliament for Lethbridge did not attend, despite being invited.
The forum was a panel discussion with the candidates being asked questions from the panel in the latter half of the event.
Several important local issues were raised by the panel in the first half, including the supervised consumption site and what defines a safe space.
The order in which the candidates were brought to the panel was randomly drawn, as were the questions.
ADVERTISEMENT
No question was repeated and each candidate had 15 minutes with which to provide their answers.
Bleiken was first, with the question of whether political candidates should march in pride parades.
“As a queer person, I’m really tired of being used for political capital,” said the NDP candidate.
She went on to say that any person that isn’t actively fighting for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, any person that is not an active ally, should not be at pride events.
The topics of homelessness and life expectancy among LGBTQ+ people were brought up as well.
“I’m running because the two people that mean the most to me are trans and their life expectancy is a lot less than mine,” said Bleiken.
She also brought up legalization of sex work and bringing forth laws and regulations to better protect sex workers.
Bleiken also wants to create dedicated hate crime units and find a way to combat online hate.
The second question posed to the NDP candidate was about conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy is the attempt to convert an LGBTQ+ person to heterosexuality using various means.
According to Bleiken, conversion therapy is “trauma-inducing” torture and is something we need to be “tackling from all sides.”
She wants to create a task force to find the best way to ban conversion therapy.
Her final question was regarding the many Indigenous communities in Canada without clean drinking water.
Bleiken says the NDP have a plan to have entirely clean drinking water by 2021 and that it’s a problem because it’s not happening in an urban centre.
“If it was Lethbridge, it would be done now. If it was Toronto, it would be done now,” she said.
The Green Party’s Watson was the second candidate, receiving a question about immigration.
A significant part of Watson’s ideas for immigration revolve around retooling refugee status.
“We need to make sure that our refugee status includes LGBTQI2S+ people,” they said.
They also said that we should support organizations such as Rainbow Railroad, that get LGBTQ+ people out of danger and take them somewhere safe.
Watson also wants to go through the more archaic laws on the books and repeal them and change them to better enforce modern ideals and beliefs.
They believe that it is during times of major polarization such as this one, that real change begins to happen.
The Green candidate says not dealing with the environment will have a major impact on all of us.
“If we don’t deal with our environmental issues, people are going to go into survival mode and all the social stuff goes out the window,” they said.
Watson also thinks that there comes a point where we must move past trying to convince people and just solve the issue, that we “can’t wait to take action.”
The final candidate to take the stage was Bronson of the Liberal party, who started with an overview of who she is and why she decided to run.
“I’m running for election because I know this place is underappreciated and underrepresented,” she said.
Her first question was regarding drug-related offenses, harm reduction and supervised consumption sites.
According to Bronson, the concept of harm reduction is something the Liberal party restored.
She says they want to fund rehabilitation and detoxification efforts, as well as create a treatment track for non-violent first-time offenders.
The Liberal candidate believes that “we need a federal voice here who knows where jurisdiction lies.”
Bronson also wants to place restrictions on the precursor chemicals used to create many illicit drugs.
Her second question was about bringing business to the Lethbridge area.
She says Lethbridge “is an exciting place if you’re interested in innovation” and that it’s up to “the elected representative to let [businesses] know.”
The Liberal party wants to have 100 per cent broadband internet access in Canada by 2030 and decrease cell phone bills by 25 per cent as well, according to Bronson.
One of the key points that came out of the forum, was the issue of accountability and how we keep our elected officials accountable.
The answer to that was given succinctly by the panel and candidates – vote.
The polls open on Monday, Oct. 21 from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Alberta. For more information, visit elections.ca or call toll-free at 1-800-463-6868.
