At time of publication, the federal election is just 19 days away, just shy of three weeks. Where does the time go? Are you ready to vote? Has a candidate come to your door yet? I wanted to take this week’s column and do a bit of a primer into the federal election in the Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry riding so far.
Specifically, if a candidate has not yet come to your door, here are a few issues that you can ask him or her about that affect the local riding of SD&SG.
Climate Change
The issue of the changing climate is the biggest one facing the world right now, but it particularly is difficult on municipalities.
Natural disasters are beginning to become more common place, just look at the floods from the past two years that hit municipalities in Ottawa and Quebec, or the severe drought our region suffered from in 2017.
When these disasters occur, it is cities and towns and their residents that are most deeply affected. We who live in municipalities are the ones who must bear the brunt of climate change related floods, storms, droughts and fires and we are the ones who have to pay to clean-up the mess.
When a candidate comes to your door ask them how their party will work to prevent natural disasters related to climate change and how their party plans on helping municipalities cope with their costs.
Final note on this issue, if you’d like to be better informed about the realities of climate change, then please check out scholarly research done by NASA, National Geographic, and Nature.
Provincial Issues
Yes, the provincial election was last year, but I have heard from at least one candidate that often when they’ve gone door-to-door in this campaign so far, they’ve heard a lot of concerns around provincial issues.
The federal government is, for the most part, the furthest removed level of government from our day-to-day lives. That being said, they do have a lot of connections with the provincial and to a lesser extent municipal governments, which do have more direct impact on our lives.
Ask our federal candidates where they stand on provincial issues too, and if you have any concerns happening at the provincial level, then ask how they will help resolve those issues.
Project investment
Like I said, there are not a lot of ways that the federal government directly affects us in our lives in the day-to-day, but investment is one way that can have dramatic change for our riding.
If not a specific project that a candidate can promise will come to our area, then ask them how they would market SD&SG so that we can secure more projects and jobs in the future.
Cornwall already is host to a federal call centre located on Campbell St.
Our riding is a great place to live and work, so we should have a candidate who can see those qualities and market them in committees and in the House of Commons to secure investment and jobs in our region.
What are some of your most important issues in this federal election?
Email me a Letter to the Editor at nseebruch@seawaynews.media
