Residents in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith riding will go to the polls on April 28 to vote in the federal election. We invited the five nominated candidates to weigh in on current issues. Stephen Welton, running for the People’s Party of Canada provided the following answers. Responses may have been lightly edited for clarity.
What is your position on U.S. tariffs, and what approach should Canada take in managing its relationship with the United States?
Tariffs are commonplace. For instance, Canada imposes huge tariffs on foreign dairy and poultry. I understand the U.S. tariff moves in the context of their response to the extraordinarily low value of the Canadian dollar, i.e. Canadian goods are very attractive to U.S. buyers currently, because the Liberal government has driven the Canadian economy into the ditch. The Liberal government is encouraging outrage towards the U.S. as a diversion from what their bad policies have created. We need diplomacy and discussion, not emotional outrage. And we've got to recognize that Donald Trump, love him or hate him, is a master dealmaker. We have to approach this in a deal-making manner, not with knee-jerk reactions and juvenile tough talk. Our negotiations with the U.S. should have friendly relations and fair deals as the objectives.
Major tax cuts are being proposed during the election campaign. Do you believe this could affect the government’s ability to fund social programs due to reduced revenue?
No. The Liberals argued that the carbon tax was revenue neutral and we saw that it was just a socialist wealth transfer from those with higher incomes to those with lower incomes, so technically, the revenue wasn't being used to fund social programs. Furthermore, we can afford to maintain legitimate social programs if we cut government waste and corruption. We can help our most unfortunate if we stop enriching the already rich friends of establishment politicians. We need a Canadian version of DOGE.
Housing affordability in Canada is a key issue in this election. As an MP, how would you and the federal government help Canadians buy homes and manage rising rents?
This is largely a supply and demand economic equation, (i.e. high demand and low supply leads to higher prices). The PPC would reduce demand by pausing immigration, then slowly reintroduce it in sustainable numbers in coming years. Lower immigration means lower demand for housing, which will naturally take the foot off the inflationary pedal. The other parties are promoting high immigration and promising to build homes, but politicians in Ottawa don't know much about building houses and they have a track record of failure with projects, not success. And building houses means demands for goods and services which are inflationary, not deflationary. Those are election promises, not real solutions. The PPC has a simple, immediate, enactable solution.
What specific actions would you support to fight climate change and protect Canada’s environment?
Canadians have limited effect on climate change. That's an absolute fact. The PPC does not believe it makes sense to impoverish Canadians in futile efforts to support the so-called green ideology. Even if CO2 is a real boogeyman, nothing we do in Canada makes any difference to the planet while China and other developing nations continue to ramp up CO2 output. All we are doing is harming our citizens. The PPC would focus, (as I did in my career), on protecting the environment through pollution prevention and through meaningful actions to promote the cleanest energies that maintain a decent standard of living.
What steps would you, as an MP, like to see taken to address the opioid crisis?
The opioid crisis on our streets is painfully visible to everyone. It is a clear sign of societal breakdown and it has been getting worse, not better for years. That means the current government policies are failing people. They're failing those who are vulnerable to substance abuse and those who have to face the side-effects of substance abuse in the form of vagrancy, litter and crime. I believe our debt to fellow human beings is a hand up, not a hand out. That means offering and encouraging treatment to get people off drugs, not just enabling their illness by giving them drugs. We should re-criminalize hard drugs, which would allow us to police the issue. Regular citizens have a right to safe, livable streets and cities. Drug addicts deserve assistance with returning to health, but their addiction is not a right to commit crimes and impose the negative external effects of their addiction on others.
