Egmont candidates questioning need for federal election

Candidates are getting another shot at the parliamentary seat in Egmont this month, but they are saying the chance is coming too early.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called an election for Sept. 20, two years into his minority government mandate.

"The election never should have been called. I was really hoping the election wouldn't be called," said Conservative candidate Barry Balsom.

"B.C. is burning, there's a drought out west, and now we're facing delta too. We don't know what the ramifications are with that. Some of the reports we get are scary. And it didn't matter for the prime minister, it was an opportunistic election."

Green Party candidate Alex Clark said he found the election call discouraging.

"It's political greed, and it comes down to political greed and one party wanting all the power," he said.

"A lot of people are upset about this election right now, that it's been called two years in. That could certainly be said as one of the main issues at the door. You know, people are confused. They don't understand why we're calling an election."

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But Liberal candidate Bobby Morrissey said it was time to give Canadians the opportunity to choose.

"I feel that a lot of Canadians are looking forward to a stable government," said Morrissey.

"I would like to be part of a majority Liberal government which then allows four years for planning as well as for delivering."

Top issues

Morrissey is concerned about the doctor shortage, and promoting an idea he campaigned on in 2019, a medical school on P.E.I.

"We have to train more family physicians," he said.

"I've been championing the need for a medical school here on Prince Edward Island in collaboration with a university. It is a model that works across the U.S. and Canada, where in small communities they are a satellite of a larger teaching school."

People's Party candidate Wayne Biggar points a finger at bureaucracy as the main cause of the doctor shortage.

"There's too many hurdles to jump for doctors to just come here and be doctors," said Biggar.

Clark is looking for a reversal of the exodus of youth from Egmont to other provinces, a trend that goes back to when he was in school, and earlier.

"I was told to leave when I was young. Go out west. Go get a job somewhere else. There's nothing here for you, Alex," he said.

"We're seeing the effects of it now, that our youth aren't here and they're not building up the community."

Clark believes the federal government should get behind mentorship programs and collaborations with businesses, programs that would entice young people to stay or even return, and give them an opportunity to grow.

Balsom sees a different problem for the economy as the country emerges from the pandemic:a shortage of labour with jobs in some sectors, such as construction, going unfilled.

"We have to get people off CRB and back to work. It's good for them, and it's going to be good for the economy," he said.

The pandemic support programs were necessary, said Balsom, but he pointed to a Conservative plan to subsidize wages as the way to get the country moving forward post-pandemic.

Lisa Bradshaw, NDP candidate for Egmont, sees affordable housing as a big issue in the riding, and is touting the NDP plan to build 500,000 affordable housing units.

Why they're running

Morrissey said he never considered not running again.

"When I decided to come back to politics in 2015 I had an agenda of things that I wanted to accomplish in the riding and I still have some work to do," said Morrissey.

He called Egmont the greenest riding in Canada, and said there are plans in progress for more green energy projects.

Clark is hoping for another minority government, and that this will lead to more collaboration.

"It's about working hard for people, and not working hard for parties," said Clark.

While he has always been interested in politics, Balsom said he has not been political, but he sees running now as his duty in a democratic society.

"I'm concerned in the way the country is going," said Balsom.

"I certainly see two of the mainline parties, the Liberals and the NDP, going more extremely to the left, more Torontoistic. I think P.E.I.'s needs are being left behind."

Bradshaw also felt a call to run.

"I was inspired by Jagmeet Singh's platform," she said.

"I want to help the community and I want to make a difference."

Biggar wants to restore trust in government.

"We have very little time to get back to where we need to be as a country as a whole: united, strong and free," he said.

He calls a move toward mandatory vaccines one of the threats to freedom in the country.