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Think, Ask, Vote

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Think, Ask, Vote THINK, ASK, VOTE Getting Ready for the Canadian Federal Election Are you registered to vote? Voting is an important civic duty for Canadians. If you are a Canadian citizen and 18 years or older, you are eligible to register to vote for the upcoming federal election on October 21. How to know if you are already registered? - You should receive a voter card in the mail this week or next - You can go to www.elections.ca and enter in your information and it will tell you if you are registered to vote - You can also call Elections Canada at 1-800-463-6868 How to Register In order to vote for the federal election, you must be on the list of electors. If you are not registered yet to be on this list, you can do one of 4 things: 1) Call Elections Canada at 1-800-463-6868 and register 2) Visit the Vancouver Kingsway Elections Canada office at 4898 Main Street (at 33rd Avenue) and register 3) Register online at www.elections.ca 4) Register at your polling station on the day of election. ** Remember, you will need Identification in order to register*** we can help you either after this session or during ___ times on the week before the election What do you need to register? Option 1: one piece of government issued ID (examples: drivers license, Canadian passport, health care card, BC ID) Option 2: two pieces of ID, both must have your name, one must have your current address (examples: bank statement, student id card, utility bill, prescription bottle, see handout) Option 3: If you have no pieces of ID, you can still declare your identity and address in writing and have someone you know who is voting at your polling station vouch for you. What are the 4 ways to vote? 1) Vote on election day - vote at your assigned polling station on Monday October 21, from 7:00am-7:00pm 2) Vote on advance polling days - advance pollings days are Friday October 11, Saturday October 12, Sunday October 13, and Monday October 14 from 9:00am-9:00pm. Advance polling locations are posted on your voter card or can be found online at www.elections.ca 3) Vote at any Elections Canada office - you can visit any Elections Canada office before Tuesday October 15, at 6:00pm and vote. Make sure you know the name of the candidate and their party if you are voting with this option. 4) Vote by mail - apply online or at any Elections Canada office across Canada before Tuesday October 15, at 6:00pm. How does our voting system work? DOWN TO THE BASICS A political party is an organized group of people who have the same ideology, that runs candidates in elections. In Canada, there are more than 16 registered political parties, including one called the Rhinoceros Party. But Canadian federal politics are currently pretty much dominated by five major parties: The New Democratic Party, Leader, Jagmeet Singh The Green Party, Leader, Elizabeth May The Liberal Party, Leader, Justin Trudeau The Bloc Quebecois, Leader, Yves-François Blanchet The Conservative Party, Leader, Andrew Scheer How does our voting system work? In Canada, you vote for an individual candidate running to be a Member of Parliament (MP) for your area. Each area represents around 100,000 people and is known as a “riding” or “constituency.” Each candidate running in your area represents a different political party, or runs as an independent (no party). The candidate that gets the most votes wins. The political party that elects the most MPs normally becomes the government, and their leader becomes the Prime Minister. MPs of each party will vote together on the biggest issues, so it’s important to consider their party AND their leaders, along with who will become your local representative. There are 338 MP seats in the House of Commons, broken out by districts (AKA ridings) within Canada. If a party wins more than 50% of the seats, then it is a majority government. Every party wants this because it makes it much easier to get laws passed. If the winning party wins 169 seats or fewer (less than 50%), it forms a minority government. In order to get laws passed, a minority government has to collaborate with MPs of other parties and adjust policies as necessary. Who are the candidates of Vancouver Kingsway? Don Davies, Kimball Cariou, Donna Petersen Helen Quan, NDP Communist Party Marxist-Leninist Party Conservative Party (Incumbent) of Canada of Canada Tamara Taggart, Lawrence Taylor, Ian Torn, Liberal Party Green Party PPC Platforms To make themselves stand out, parties provide “party platforms,” basically a collection of policies and plans they are pitching, just like a resume and cover letter. Party platforms are promises that parties intend to keep if they are elected as Canada’s next government. Look at party platforms to see if their policies and history matches up to what their leaders and candidates are saying, and reflects what issues matter to you. Resources to find Party Platforms ● Maclean's Federal Election Platform Guide ● CBC Canada Votes Election Platform Comparison ● CTV News Party Platform Comparison ● Party Platform Comparison on Environmental Issues ● ● Green Party Platform ● Liberal Party Platform ● Conservative Party Platform ● NDP Party Platform ● Peoples Party of Canada Platform ● Communist Party of Canada Platform ● Marxist Leninist Party of Canada Platform Major election issues There are many issues that matter to people in the country, but at each election a number of issues tend to stand out. The different parties will take a position on each one of these major issues. 1) First, think about the issues and decide where you stand on them 2) Then, research the different party platforms to see who is most in line with your beliefs Carbon Tax ● Taxing carbon emitters in order to reduce climate change ● If so: ○ How much to tax? ○ Which carbon emitters? ○ Where the income from taxing will go? Child Care ● The Canada Child Benefit, Parental Benefits ● Child Care Facilities ● A National School Nutrition Program Climate Change ● The Paris Agreement Carbon Emission ● Renewable energy/clean technology Reduction Targets ● Pipelines ● Fossil Fuel Subsidies ● Fracking ● Coal power ● Natural disaster preparation ● Single-use plastics ● Whether or not they even acknowledge ● Retrofitting buildings that climate change is real Deficits ● How important is balancing the budgets ● How? By taxation? By cutting spending? By ending subsidies? Education ● Tuition rates (putting a cap on their growth, allowing them to increase etc…) ● Student loans (interest rates, amount available etc..) ● Free post-secondary education ● Student debt forgiveness Guns ● National handgun ban, assault rifle ban ● Firearm background checks ● Gun and gang violence - different ways to respond (eg. Policing, rehabilitation programs, youth programs) ● Illegal guns and gun smuggling ● Gun registry Healthcare ● National pharmacare program (govenment ● The opioid crisis pays for drugs) ● Private vs. public healthcare ● Health transfer payments ● Retrofitting hospitals and health services ● Disability Tax Credit ● What should be included in national healthcare model: eg. dental, vision, mental health, addictions Housing ● Building affordable housing (how much, ● Rental subsidies how soon?) ● Housing co-ops ● First-time homebuyer subsidies ● Housing as a human right? ● Absentee foreign owners ● A national housing strategy ● Retrofitting houses ● Green homes tax credit ● Mortgages, loans Immigration ● How many new immigrants to accept to Canada? How many refugees? ● Border crossings ● Sponsorship ● Family reunification ● The Safe Third Country agreement (keep it or scrap it) ● Climate refugees Indigenous ● The Indigenous Languages Act ● The Indian Act ● Trans-Mountain Pipeline ● Land claims and negotiations ● Reconciliation ● Drinking water advisories on reserves ● Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry Jobs ● How many new jobs will be created? ● Unpaid internships ● Minimum wage ● Tax credits for moving to rural areas for ● Employment Insurance jobs ● Canada Training Benefit ● The temporary foreign worker program ● Credential Recognition for immigrants ● Robot tax ● Oil and gas industry jobs Manufacturing ● What industries to support with subsidies ● Zero emissions manufacturing ● Investment in green industries ● Auto sector investment NAFTA ● The Liberals struck a new NAFTA deal, and the different parties have different opinions on it ● Softwood lumber, dairy, eggs, drug costs Pipelines ● Line 3, Keystone XL, Trans-Mountain Extension, Northern Gateway, Energy East ● Should they be built/expanded or not? If so, how will they be pushed through despite political pushback? Using constitutional powers to impose? ● Oil tankers in Northern BC ● Diluted bitumen, fracking, the future of energy industry in Canada Seniors ● Old age security benefits ● Canada Pension Plan ● Elder abuse ● The age tax credit ● A national seniors strategy ● Caregiver Tax Credit Small Business ● The small business tax rate ● Tax cuts for zero emission businesses ● Credit card company fees ● Green Venture Capital Fund Taxes ● Tax cuts (universal, or more for some? The super ritch?) ● EI benefits tax free ● Corporate tax rates (increase or decrease them, specific ones for online corporations) ● Creating a federal tax commission Technology ● Cellphone bills ● Digital privacy ● Social Media and hate speech ● Internet availability Transportation ● Zero-emission vehicles ● Public transit (cost, new fleets, etc..) ● Zero-Emission Infrastructure Fund ● Bicycles What election issues are important to me? - What election issues make you feel fired up? Concerned? Passionate? - What changes would help you and the people you care about the most? - Was there anything missing in the major election issues that matters a lot to you? - If I could change one political issue, what would it be? - Is there an election issue that I don’t understand or would like to know more about? How can I learn more? Guidelines for discussion: Remember, this isn’t a place to change someone’s mind if they are different from your own. We are here to clarify what matters to each one of us! What election issues are important to me? Here is a tool developed by political scientists for exploring how your views align with those of the parties.
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