During this campaign there has already been a raft of tax promises from all the major parties and there is no doubt there will be more before election day on June 28.
But despite all the commotion that surrounds the word "tax", according to a report released in February from the Canada West Foundation, tax cuts are not a high priority for people living in the western provinces.
The "Looking West" survey from the CWF documents that the major issues in Western Canada are health care and the lack of skilled labour.
Gary Slywchuk from the CWF said the organization, a "think tank" based in Calgary that works on public policy, releases its Looking West survey every two years.
The surveys outline what the emerging issues are and highlight what issues, if any, have become more important.
In the 2004 survey, the foundation interviewed 800 people in each of the western provinces for a total of 3,200 opinions, and lowering taxes was 11 th on the list of 13 priorities.
The key findings outlined in the report were:
• Almost three-quarters of westerners feel that improving the health care system is a high priority. Ensuring skilled labour, reducing poverty and protecting the environment were also ranked as high priorities by two-thirds of westerners.
• Westerners feel that Canada should pursue stronger economic ties with the U.S.
• Westerners believe local government should be better funded.
• Westerners are not happy with how governments are handling environmental stewardship.
• B.C respondents were the most optimistic about the future of their province while Saskatchewan respondents were the most pessimistic.
• Westerners have greater confidence in the provincial governments than they do in the federal government.
Election Update
The June 7 deadline for registering candidates has passed and West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast has another candidate.
Anne Jamieson from the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada is going to run.
Jamieson, 60, lives on Bowen Island and has been aligned with the Marxist-Leninist party since its inception in 1971.
She is a nurse and a mother of four and her goal is to get more people involved in the political process.
"In the present set-up lobbyists and petitioners can’t really achieve very much… because the power bases are becoming more and more centralized," said Jamieson.
"People are not involved in political process at all except for an election every four years… we need to go a step further to look at how we can overcome political marginlization."
In Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon, Norm Siefken from the Marijuana Party, Dorothy Jean O’Donnell from the Marxist-Leninist Party, Aisha Coghlan from the Green Party and Ron Gray from the Christian Heritage Party have all filed their papers with Elections Canada.
Siefken, who is a x-ray technologist in Chilliwack, was a candidate in the Fraser Valley during the 2000 election, where he finished fourth with 811 votes.
Siefken, 46, is an avid supporter of an individual’s right to choose marijuana but he also has strong views on the Conservative Party.
"The greatest threat to Canadians today is the Conservative Party," said Siefken.
He added that he was aiming at winning "at least 10 per cent of the vote in this election, if not more."
Siefken started publicly advocating marijuana use after he was hit by a car and suffered a severe back injury.
After the accident he started using pot for medicinal purposes and found that it helped him more than any prescription painkillers ever had.
The Christian Heritage Party candidate in Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon is actually the party’s national leader.
Ron Gray leads the CHP, which has about 6,000 members nation-wide, and he is determined to push for more debate about same-sex marriages.
"We’ve recently got a lot of support from people who used to be part of the Reform or Alliance parties who have just been very disappointed by the policy standards of the Conservative Party because it refuses to take any policy on moral issues," Gray said.
He added that the party had been frustrated by the media’s refusal to present a balanced view on homosexuality and same-sex marriages. Gray, 70, said he had also been frustrated by the lack of debate on the subject from the major parties.
The CHP began in Surrey in 1986 and Gray joined in 1988.
The Marxist-Leninist candidate in Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon, Dorothy Jean O’Donnell, is a former bus driver who is now a lawyer.
O’Donnell, who is openly gay, has been in the party since 1973 and is a staunch socialist.
She said her party was opposed to party politics and was striving for "democratic renewal" in the process of selecting candidates.
O’Donnell added that her party was also strongly against helping "the rich" and industrial monopolies.
The Greens candidate, Aisha Coghlan, is 21-year-old school teacher who works in the Bridge River area north of Lillooet.
Coghlan does not have a phone or a driver’s licence, but she agrees with the Green Party’s principles and is keen to connect with the people in the communities around her.
THE CANDIDATES:
West Vancouver Sunshine Coast
Conservatives: John Reynolds (MP)
Liberals: Blair Wilson
NDP: Nicholas Simons
Green Party: Andrea Goldsmith
Marxist-Leninist Party: Anne Jamieson
Canadian Action Party: Marc Bombois
Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon
Conservatives: Chuck Strahl (MP)
Liberals: Bob Besner
NDP: Rollie Keith
Green: Aisha Coghlan
Marijuana Party: Norm Siefken
Marxist-Leninist Party: Dorothy Jean O’Donnell
Christian Heritage Party: Ron Gray
