Black Press sent the same five questions to the five candidates seeking to become the Member of Parliament for the new riding of Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola. Frank Caputo is the Conservative Party candidate in the riding.
In addition to general voting day on April 28, voters can cast their ballots in advance, with some polling stations open from Friday, April 18 to Monday, April 21 inclusive. Advance voting hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day; on April 28, polling stations will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Check your voter registration card for the location of your polling station, for both advance voting and for election day. Please note that if you go to vote at a different location to the one shown on your voter registration card, you will not be able to cast your vote there, and will instead be directed to the correct location. If you have not received a voter registration card, or for more information, go to www.elections.ca.
1. What qualities or experience make you the best candidate for voters in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola to cast their ballot for? As a former Crown prosecutor of child sex offenders, a father of three, a devoted husband whose wife is also a lawyer, and an MP, I have many accomplishments I am proud of.
This includes passing a Private Member’s Bill that changed accepted language from “child porn,” which implies consent, to calling it what it is: Child Sexual Abuse Material. I’ve helped 8,000 constituents through my offices, spoke in the House of Commons 1,200 times, and have more attainable goals. Among those: three more Private Member’s Bills, and I want to continue bringing doctors here.
I value integrity, am approachable, and try to be a good listener to help understand people’s concerns. I care about this area, having been born and raised in Kamloops by parents who immigrated from Italy.
2. What concrete plans does your party have to make housing more affordable and available for Canadians who are currently unable to find housing or afford it? We have [to] cut the sales tax on new homes, and we have to increase supply. But we’re not just going to throw money at municipalities, rather we are going to incentivize municipalities to build the infrastructure.
The other part is to ensure that permitting processes happen much more rapidly for municipalities that exceed their goals; they’ll get more infrastructure housing funding the following year.
I want to ensure we have the necessary infrastructure in the form of sewer and natural gas. Lastly, we must recognize that immigration levels at this time are incompatible with the amount of housing we have.
3. Does your party believe that human-caused climate change is real, and if so, what concrete plans does your party have to tackle it? It’s incumbent on us to leave the Earth in a better place. I drive an electric car. Dirty oil and coal are fuelling much of the growth around the world. That dirty energy is coming from places like Russia and Qatar and we want to displace that with clean Canadian energy that is ethically extracted, and provides Canadian jobs while we ween off carbon. Conservatives believe in boosting incentives for businesses that reduce emissions and promote clean energy technologies.
4. How is your party planning to strengthen and grow the Canadian economy? The Conservative Party will build pipelines from east to west, put in place a “reinvestment tax cut” so any person or business selling an asset will pay no capital gains if they reinvest the proceeds in Canada, and remove the GST from vehicles made in Canada and from new housing up to $1.3 million.
We will repeal Liberal laws that denied permitting to energy products, especially projects that are critical to Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola in the mining and resource industries. We want environmental reviews to be measured in months, rather than years.
5. How is your party planning to deal with the trade threats coming from the U.S. administration, and/or the president’s talk of annexing Canada? Conservatives will never, EVER, allow Canada to be annexed. In terms of trade threats, we have to look at goods coming into Canada. We have to focus on products and services we can generate ourselves, evaluate those we don’t need, and explore what we can get from elsewhere.
We need to strengthen our economy so it is no longer dependent on the U.S. economy. This is why repealing Bill C-69 is so important. We need to develop an economy in which our partners will be dependent on Canadian energy and Canadians will no longer be dependent on others.
