Blake Ellis/The Independent

With incumbent Conservative Candidate Marilyn Gladu campaigning in the cold in Grand Bend, the remaining six would-be MPs for Sarnia-Lambton-Bkewnanong were left to answer questions at a forum put on by the Rotary Club of Sarnia. 

 Gladu sent organizers a statement saying with the riding doubling in geographic size and adding 20,000 more voters “I am devoting my time to introducing myself to the new voters and, as always, listening to people across the community and as a result I will not be attending.”

Interprovincial trade was one of the topics the other candidates tackled. Liberal candidate George Vandenberg said the House of Commons has to reconvene and put an end to the provincial trade barriers. 

Lo-Anne Chan said the NDP’s Canadian food strategy creating more local food manufactures using Canadian products, allowing the nation to have food sovereignty. 

Mark Lamore of the Christian Heritage Party was skeptical the provincial trade barriers will be removed, despite word from the Premiers the work is in progress.“They say they are going to do it, but they never do it,” he said.

“I think the answer to the provincial barriers being lifted is stop treating some provinces with special treatment,” said Brian Everaert of the Peoples’ Party of Canada. Everaert said equalization payments from Alberta support Quebec. It angers the west, he says, and threatens to tear the country apart.

Libertarian Jacques Boudreau says simply there should be no regulations at all.  “Regulation is completely out of control,” said Boudreau noting some of the rules even stipulate what type of toliet seats should be manufactured.

Tony Mitchell of the Rhino Party suggested all of the provincial borders be erased so there would be no more provinces, therefore no interprovincial trade. 

The candidates also tackled the topics of strengthening democracy and stopping the spread of disinformation.. 

“I think our biggest thing for Canadian democracy is our threat to the south right now,” said Vandenberg. President Trump calling Canada the 51st state and the Canadian prime minister governor was a “direct affront to this country,” he said.

Lamore questioned who defines disinformation suggesting the CBC lied about the trucker convoy which occupied Ottawa for a month.

“No one is looking to be the 51st state,” said Lamore, but he would be more concerned about China invading Canada than the United States. 

While he offered no solutions, Everaert said the Peoples’ Party has been the subject of disinformation.as Party Leader Maxine Bernier has been excluded from national debate. Everaert contends that despite winning five per cent of the popular vote, the rules of the debates were changed to exclude Bernier.

“The NDP will always protect CBC and Radio-Canada,” said Chan. “We want to support the growth of made in Canada content.” She also wants to see tech companies are forced to boost Canadian content instead of companies like Meta making it impossible to get Canadian news. 

Boudreau was also concerned about disinformation, saying if you ever read 1984, this is where we are headed now. Disinformation is a code word for something that someone doesn’t like. The Liberals have been at the forefront of this, Bourdeau says calling them anti-freedom.

Mitchell took a more humorous approach, saying the Rhino Party would parachute drag queens into the US to read to children to protect Canadian sovereignty. This would disturb Americans so much they would eliminate tariffs and turn over Alaska to Canada just to keep us quiet.     

The Lambton Federation of Agriculture hosts a debate April 9 at the Plympton-Wyoming Fairgrounds at 7 pm.