Photo from MacLeans
A recap of week six in Canada’s 42 Federal Election
By Mercedes Deutscher, News Editor
The race for Canada’s next government proved to be closer than ever this week. On September 11, the CBC poll tracker detected the NDP leading with 32 per cent of voter support. Second in the polls was the Liberal Party with 29.8 per cent, and the Conservatives were only a fraction of a per cent behind at 29.7 percent of the popular vote.
The Conservative party recently has received a surge in support with the emergence of the Syrian refugee crisis. According to the Toronto Star, the Conservatives received the warmest reception to their approach on the crisis with 24 per cent of popular support. The aforementioned approach would involve bringing in around 10,000 Syrian refugees within the next two years.
Meanwhile, the NDP wishes to bring in those 10,000 refugees by the end of the year and even more refugees in the future. The Liberal Party expressed their goal of sponsoring 25,000 refugees to come to Canada by January.
When polled by The Forum Poll about the refugee crisis, 30 per cent of Canadians agree with welcoming a 10,000 person total of Syrian refugees, while 41 per cent of Canadians supporting bringing in up to 100,000 refugees.
Week six of the election has also been a week of controversial content, on social media, in particular. Jerry Bance, a Conservative candidate from Scarborough-Rouge Park, has been dropped from the race after a 2012 video of Bance emerged that depicts him, then employed as an appliance service technician, urinating into a coffee mug that belonged to a client. In a similar happening, Tim Dutaud, from Toronto-Danforth, has resigned from his candidacy some videos surfaced that show him conducting prank calls—one of which included him posing as a disabled person.
In response to the candidates’ behavior, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a crowd and CTV that “We expect the highest standards of our candidates, and that’s why these individuals are no longer candidates.”
Meanwhile, both the NDP and the Liberal Party have been pushing a platform that will involve youth employment. The Liberal Party has pledged to spend $1.5 billion to help young people find work, whether by creating new jobs, or providing employment assistance programs. The NDP pledge $200 million to go toward the creation of up to 40,000 jobs for young adults, and to address the issue of unpaid internships.
In other election-related news, Canadians who are looking to vote early can begin doing so immediately. There will now be 400 Elections Canada offices that voters may step into and cast their votes any day of the week. On weekdays, these offices are open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. As for weekends, advanced voters can go vote on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., or on Sundays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Voters must come with personal identification that includes a home address.
