Steven Stairs, Green Kildonan-St. Paul

Why do you want this job?

I want Canadians to have an opportunity to have theiropinions heard and understood. I want to create effective change. I want theiropinions to be heard in Ottawa. Wehaven't had the vocal presence lately. Why is it that Manitoba is not creating change? I feel like we don't get our voices heard.

We need to stop electing people people in their 50s and 60s because they don't have to worry about paying phone bills. We need to have people that have to worry about those things. Elect real people, people that survive under legislation.

What's the biggest issue for the country and in your riding?

I think our health care is personally my biggest concern in the country. Our economichealthisdraining and our physicalhealth is not good. Security and economics arecorrelated. We need more national policies instead of provincial. If we don't take care of our health now, as our aging population grows we are going to create a big chaos.There are a lot of people in this riding that are the baby boomers.People want to make sure that they will live longer. We need to take care of each other.

What would you do with the Senate?

I would be very interested in having an open discussion regarding reform and if we have a Senate, I would like to have a Senate that is made up of elected officials rather than appointed ones. That's not very democratic, as far as I'm concerned, so if we are going to have a Senate, then yes, it does have to be an elected group of officials that represents the issues and wishes of Canadians.

Winnipeg was described as the most racist city in Canada. What would you do to combat racism?

I don't think that there's necessarily one thing that I could do to combat racism. I think our city as a whole needs to be more inclusive towards each other, and I think that the federal government could do some things like implementingawareness programs and things like that. This is an everybody issue. This is a civic issue, this is a provincial issue, a federal issue, and this is also a mom and poppa, you know, kitchen table, you know,roommate kind of conversation, where everybody really needs to take a look at themselves and have an introspection and ask"Why do we feel this racial divide amongst us?"

As much as I might not agree that we are the most racist city, but if this city has an issue with racism, the only way we are going to discuss that is by having open conversations, and we really need to start treating each other better. I really don't think politics can mandate this.

What role should the federal government play in dealing with climate change?

I believe the federal government should have the biggest role in climate change, think the federal government should play its responsibility as the"big guy" and say,"Hey, we are going to implement these policies" to ensure our environment safety and sustainability. Federal government has to take upon themselves to implement those kind of programs. They need to make sure provinces are doing what's responsible.

If there was one government policy you think is done better in another country, what is it?

I really think that the idea of legalization of marijuana has so many social and economic benefits. I think marijuana as a whole is a great example of progressive legislation that really has anoverall benefit towardssociety, so definitely, legalization of marijuana, whether or not you want to reference a state like Colorado or a country like Portugal.

Under what circumstances is deficit spending a good choice?

The idea that deficit spending is needed in order to create growth, I believe, is afallacy. We do need to spend a little money to make money, and I dothink sometimes deficit is necessary;however, I don'tthink deficit is necessary at this point. And again, legalization of marijuana would create so much money, just from tax revenues, one, the savings on health care, two, and then the exponential growth from spin-off businesses, three.

What do you believe is the single most effective way to fight crime?

Ending poverty. That's the simplest way of putting it.I mean,there's a reason why people ended up into crime. People don't end up into crime because they want to be a criminal. They have the life situation that just ends up them having no other choice than to become a criminal, because they need money to surviveor they end up having a drug dependency.

No one wants to steal food if they have food in the fridge. No one wants to go buy drugs if they have drugs in their homes. If we ended the poverty that causes people to have such desperate thoughts and feelings and actions, maybe we could stop some of this violence.

What should be done about homegrown terrorism?

I don't think the government has the right to interfere into culture. If there's a problem of something like radical fundamentalist, whether that is Christian or Muslims or anything in between, I think that needs to be guided community-level. I don't think it's fair for a government to say,"No, you can't say this because it might be seen as terrorism,"when really allyou're doing is expressing your religious faiths.

You really have to care about your whole community. Ifyou're Christian and you see some Christianfanaticism and they want to go burn down a mosque, you've got to tell somebody. And don'tjust tell your friend, tell somebody like a community leader or a lawyer. The idea that you have to hurt someone that's where I draw the line.

If there was a gay pride parade in your riding, would you go? Why or why not?

For sure I'd go. I went to the Winnipeg Pride here. My wife is a bisexual LGBTT advocate. I wear a gay rainbow ribbon wrist band on my wrist. I am very supportive of the LGBTTQ community.

Have either you or your family had a frustrating experience with the health-care system, and whatwould you do to fix the problem?

I am legally blind, so when I was a kid, I went through a lot of tests, a lot of tests. A lot of tests that were trying to figure out what was wrong with my eyes, how come, what could they do to fix itand all that stuff. It was just a reallyarduousprocess when I was a kid. I think I would have better vision today if there were morepediatric optometristspecialists. When I was a kid there was one. There's two now. When I was a kid, I used to see the same doctor my daughter sees. We need to be encouraging more specialists in this province.

What would you do to get more people to vote?

I think the easiest way to get people to vote is to give them a reason. As much as this might not be the greatest solution, I find that issues that make people really want to talk, polarizing issues are great ways to get people out to vote. You can [get] people to come out whether they are against something or for it.

What's a better use of federal dollars: fixing roads or building rapid transit infrastructure?

I think they are both equally relevant and sustainable as projects, but the key isthat they have to have economic growth built into them. So if you want to build rapid transit, build rapid transit for green buses, or stuff like that. There needs to be a balance between the two. They are bothequallyimportant, I just think they needto be done in an ethical, sustainable way. So personally, as a pedestrian thatdoesn't drive, I'd say rapid transit on that one.

Would you support legalizing a small amount of marijuana? Have you ever tried it?

For sure, and yes, I'vetried it.