Local candidates debate Israel

A debate between three of the Pierrefonds/Dollard candidates for the federal elections at Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Dollard des Ormeaux Thursday night largely turned toward which of the two parties likeliest to form a government, the Liberals or Conservatives, are better friends of Israel.

"We will not tolerate any external threat (to Israel)," said Conservative candidate Pierre-Olivier Brunelle, who is running in Pierrefonds/Dollard for the first time but is a long-time resident of the area. Over the course of the evening, he repeated several times that Stephen Harper's government cut off all funding to Hamas, the paramilitary organization on several terrorist group lists worldwide that is also a political party holding majority seats in Palestine.

Brunelle also accused his opponent, Liberal incumbent Bernard Patry, of having chaired a parliamentary foreign policy committee which, in 2003, published a study equivocating Israel to some of its terrorist neighbours.

However, that did not sit well with some supporters of Patry. Steven Pinkus, the vice-president of the Quebec wing's anglophone section, took to the podium without identifying himself, asking Brunelle a series of questions before supporters of the latter in the crowd identified him and asked him to get to the point. "Are you aware that (the report you mentioned) is co-chaired and co-authored by Stockwell Day?" He asked.

The committee in question, called the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, was chaired by Bernard Patry and did have Stockwell Day as co-chair, according to the House of Commons official website. However, reports dealing with Israel were only published in 2004 and 2005. One reaffirmed Canada's commitment to a two-state solution, and the other asked the government to reaffirm "Israel be afforded the same right as any other member nation to participate in the deliberations of all United Nations bodies."

Pinkus was not the only partisan audience member to take to the microphone with questions. Moments after him, Brunelle's brother, Patrick Brunelle, asked Patry why he should vote for him after 10 years of voting Liberal. "I never see you in this riding," Patrick Brunelle said. "What have you really done for the past 10 years in this riding?" He asked.

"I truly believe we have the better platform," Patry responded, adding he is frequently present at various events in his riding during the weekends, since weekdays usually find him busy in Ottawa.

"It's the Liberal government that (first) listed 38 terrorist groups," Patry said, adding organizations such as Al Quaida, Hamas and Hezbollah were among those.

There was relatively little room for local issue discussion, although public transit and family care came up when one audience member asked what each party would do to help women stay at home with their young children. "I particularly ask the Green Party," she said, since the party puts so much emphasis on public transit and the current system does not necessarily make it easy for mothers and children to commute together.

"Our party does support income splitting as part of our platform," Young answered. Income splitting, a tax declaration allowing the superior income earner in a family to shift some of their income to his partner so that the family falls into a lower tax bracket and thus pays less income tax, is practised in some industrialized nations such as the U.S.A., France, or Germany.

As for difficulties in getting around in public transit, Young said current city and suburb infrastructure is not public transit-friendly. "We are also for a massive investment into public transit," he added.

"What was done in the last 15 years under the opposition MP?" Brunelle asked. As a resident of the riding, he said he was well aware of public transit problems and looking forward to bringing everyone around the negotiating table to fix them.

Patry said the Liberal Party would not abolish the current Conservative initiative of sending $100 a month to parents of children six years of age or younger. He added public transit funding for cities had started under cities when a Liberal government was in power and Paul Martin was finance minister.

In a telephone interview later on with The Chronicle, Young said he regretted the debate had not focused more on local issues.