How do you win elections? One of the ways is to get out there and pound the pavement, knock on doors and allow people to see you and talk with you. 28,375. That is how many doors Scarborough-Guildwood Conservative candidate Chuck Konkel has knocked on so far during his campaign speaking to 14,558 residents, over 20% of the electors in Scarborough-Guildwood and he has burnt through 3 pairs of shoes doing it! We met with Chuck to discuss Scarborough-Guildwood and pose your questions.
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We asked our readers to submit questions for the candidates for Scarborough Guildwood. Two questions stood out.
“Will your Party commit to implementing a National Transportation Policy? A National Daycare Policy?” submitted by Paul Ainslie, Guildwood’s City Councillor
“What is the most important issue that is unique to Scarborough-Guildwood, and how would you handle it?” Submitted by James N
In response to the first question Chuck mentioned that the current Government has already put a significant portion of money towards transportation. Chuck himself, if elected, would fully support the planned Scarborough Subway as a Subway line rather than a Rapid Transit Line, Chuck also strongly supports John Tory’s SmartTrack plan as it uses existing infrastructure He also mentioned that the current Conservative government has committed funding and would continue to support the plan if re-elected.
In terms of the national daycare policy Chuck believes that money is better off staying in the family because “....Families make the best decisions….”, so there would be no plan for a National Daycare Policy rather families would be able to chose how they want to spend their money, whether it be on daycare, after school activities etc.
As for James’ question Chuck says that there is a lack of identity for the community and the riding. He says “The ward itself is Guildwood but there is no identity, you go downtown and you have Fort York and the riding is Fort York, Toronto Centre-Rosedale there is Rosedale but Scarborough-Guildwood is in the planned community of Guildwood, but is not connected to the rest of the riding.” He says that the thing that would connect it is a “....viable Guild….”. This would allow for not just events like Guild Alive with Culture and Shakespeare but also events such as Tamil festivals, African festivals etc. That way the park isn't seen as something that is for exclusive use of those in Guildwood but something that the entire community could enjoy. He would also work with Heritage Canada to make the park a National Historic site to protect the Guild. Overall Chuck would like the Guild to be better connected to the overall community of Scarborough-Guildwood, as he puts it, “ It is the defining (trait) of this riding, it wasn’t called Scarborough-Bendale or Scarborough-West Hill, it was called Scarborough-Guildwood and there is a reason for that.”
There was also a question from Peggy Merit regarding Rouge Park asking “Will a Conservative government work with the provincial government to complete the creation of The Rouge National Urban Park?” Chuck says that the current Conservative Government had an understanding with the Provincial Government and that the Province has reneged on its promises and said they had some concerns, just right around election time. Chuck also mentions that the park is a good thing for those in Ontario.
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We also had our own questions to ask Chuck, here are the highlights of our discussion.
We discussed the refugee crisis in Europe and what can the federal government do to assist. Chuck mentioned that he had been working on sponsoring 3 families even before the media event shone a light on the issue. Overall he said that the idea is to protect those that are most vulnerable.
On paying back debt, Chuck said that the best way to pay back debt is to just simply stop spending money and have a “frugal” government that continues to have surpluses and use some of that surplus to pay back the debt.
I asked about how a Conservative government would assist young first time home buyers and Chuck said that currently the Conservative government has raised the limit on the amount that can be placed in a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) to help people save where as other parties want to cut the TFSA. The TFSA allows people of all ages to save up to a certain amount that is tax free. Overall it is about having faith that people can spend their own money intelligently.
When it comes to youth engagement Chuck says that he wants to commit to have a Youth Council in the community. He also worked with students at Sir Wilfrid Laurier CI to create a brief to send to Heritage Canada to propose that the Guild become a National Historic Site.
When a single party, such as the Conservatives, have been in government so long, why should people continue voting for that party? Chuck's answer was “Simple! Why would you change when you are running a budget surplus during an economic downturn, when you act with principal and integrity on the world stage and I believe we have…. Its really a case of why would you move away from someone who has been a good shepherd with your funding and acted with integrity and has given you good governance.”
Chuck also brings it back to Scarborough-Guildwood by saying “In this riding you have a choice between someone who had been here for 5 terms and with respect I can see very little that he has done that is unique to this riding…. and with Laura, I think that she is a good person and I can respect someone who gets involved in the world of politics, young people should be involved…. but you also have to have a measure of experience, without experience you are a backbencher taking orders from the leader and I've never followed orders that way, my life experience tells me not too…. My integrity is the most important thing for me and always has been…. I believe that integrity matters more than partisanship.”