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It’s now up to voters

Squamish hosts a rousing all-candidates debate one week before election

They came from all corners of the riding to tell about 100 people at the Squamish all-candidates meeting why voting for them and their party would be a good decision "for all Canadians".

It was an impressive display of political argument and debating skills by all the candidates, but in the end it was the local boy who stole the show.

Marc Bombois, who lives in Squamish and is representing the Canadian Action Party, garnered the least number of votes in the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast riding in the 2000 election but from the moment he opened his mouth in this meeting, it was clear that result had done nothing to disturb his passion.

Bombois was up against the big ideas and reputation of the incumbent Conservative MP John Reynolds, the clean-cut exuberance of Liberal candidate Blair Wilson, the resolve and determination of Green Party candidate Andrea Goldsmith, the entertaining style of NDP candidate Nicholas Simons and genuine Marxist Leninist candidate Annie Jamieson.

But Bombois creamed it even though he has some radical ideas and really only espoused opinions on two issues: free trade agreements and banking reform.

Regardless of what the topic was, he was able to act like someone who wants to represent people rather than an agenda.

"The Canadian Action Party was formed to stop the take over of Canada by the U.S.," said Bombois.

"Since 1988 some 13,000 organizations have been bought by wealthy foreigners…. This brings me to my pet peeve: the sponsorship scandal was precipitated by an Auditor General’s report and the media was all over as they should have been.

"But what they never tell us about is another Auditor General’s report in 1993, chapter five, paragraph 41, it’s available online, the federal debt of $550 billion, or whatever insane number it is now, is based on an actual expenditure of $37 billion – all the rest of it is interest.

"Now who would enter into a loan agreement like that?

"There’s no shortage of money is this country, the banking cartels control the money and the federal government allows them to do it."

While he was good, Bombois wasn’t the only one getting his points across crisply.

Goldsmith spoke to the wider issues of democracy in Canada and why this election is so important for all the political parties.

She did the same thing in her dialogue café in Whistler two days earlier.

"I think the single most important issue in this election is democracy and representation," said Goldsmith.

"We don’t have it, people are not participating in this election, people are not voting because they’re disgusted with the government that we do have.

"The Green Party, to adjust this, would institute proportional representation; we’ve been advocating this for a long time.

"We know in countries that do have proportional representation there are more minorities in government, there are more women in government and the percentage of people voting goes up because people see they have more of a voice with their vote and the number of seats in the house reflect the popular vote."

MP John Reynolds has also spoken of proportional representation, but as one of the most powerful men in the Conservative party he spent most of his time at the all-candidates debate talking about what it took to be a successful MP.

"The most important thing for Canadians, which is all of us in the Squamish area, will be to bring integrity back to government," said Reynolds.

"Secondly, I think the most important thing is to commit to the Olympic Games and my party will make sure that that is perfectly funded – transportation is a key issue and we’ll put $300 million-$500 million a year from the gas tax back into British Columbia for transportation and infrastructure."

At his dialogue café in Whistler Reynolds also spoke of many of the same things but went into more detail with regard to the Kyoto Accord and the plight of the Liberals.

Reynolds said the Kyoto Accord was essentially a "great PR (public relations) job" that was expensive and had "very little return for us."

He added that he believed the sponsorship scandal was the reason why the Conservatives have a chance of winning this election.

"The sponsorship scandal killed Paul Martin and his other leaders, before that the Liberals were polling at 58 per cent and now we’re pretty much even."

Liberal candidate Blair Wilson used the all-candidates debate to talk as much as he could about accountability and his new ideas.

"The most important thing for Squamish is for diversifying the economy and creating jobs, that’s what my background has been as an entrepreneur and small businessman and I’d like to continue that as your representative," said Wilson.

"The other thing we can absolutely do, and we put it in our Made in B.C. Agenda, and we’re the only party to put together platform specifically for B.C., my proposal is to move the headquarters of Tourism Canada from Ottawa to Vancouver.

"You want to see jobs, you want to see the economy diversifying, you want to see tourism explode, then we should move the centre of tourism from Ottawa to Vancouver."

NDP candidate Nicholas Simons had two people show up at his dialogue café in Whistler, just hours before the debate in Squamish, but that did not shake his confidence.

He used humour at the all-candidates debate as he tried to reflect a mandate he has consistently spoken of, which is to force people to look at the person rather than the promises, which can be broken.

"I think I know a little bit about government, as a criminologist I’ve had my experience working in prisons, but I’m not making any connection," said Simons to a round of applause.

"I’m not going to tell people in Squamish what they need, but essentially the NDP is about creating a society where there’s balance and fairness and progressive taxation and equality of life that we can show the world.

"I have my own mind I don’t really answer to any authority other than my value system and my value system comes from my grandparents and my parents and I think that’ll serve me in good stead to be a good representative."