Human rights, health care and secular schools were the hottest topics in Morinville Monday as hundreds of county residents gathered for one last grilling of their provincial election candidates.
About 250 people filled Morinville's Community Cultural Centre Monday night for one of the last all-candidates forums for the Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock riding this election. They spent the next three hours grilling the five people hoping to take Ken Kowalski's old seat in the legislature on a variety of topics, including education, the Cardiff overpass and conscience rights.
The crowd saved its closest scrutiny for Wildrose candidate Link Byfield — of the roughly 23 questions asked, eight (or 35 per cent) were specifically directed to him. The rest, with few exceptions, were directed at all candidates generally.
Rights, rights, rights
Many of the night's questions targeted human rights and were directed to Byfield.
When asked why his party seemed to want to settle everything using referendums, Byfield countered that it did not. "We use it for major issues, and only major issues would get enough signatures for a referendum to go ahead."
When asked what his views on gay marriage and abortion were, Byfield said, "My belief is that abortion is wrong and people shouldn't do it … but when you're an MLA, you represent everybody." His party would leave moral issues such as these up to citizens to raise in referendums.
Liberal candidate Leslie Penny said that women have the right to request abortions and that the province should not delist abortion as a funded procedure. "If a procedure can be done, it has to be equal access." As a member of the United Church, she said she had no problem with gay marriage and had attended one herself.
Progressive Conservative candidate Maureen Kubinec said that while she believed in the sanctity of life, any decision on abortion should be "between you and your creator." As for gay marriage, she said, "I know people who are gay, and I love them anyway."
The Liberals would not disband the Alberta Human Rights Commission, Penny said in response to another question. "Do they always do things the way I'd like to see them do it? No, but parole boards don't do that either." Albertans need a place to turn to when their rights are violated, she said, and we don't want to plug up the legal system with such cases.
NDP candidate Trudy Grebenstein said her party would expand the commission's authority and jurisdiction, and would repeal Sect. 11.1 of the Alberta Human Rights Act (which could cause teachers to be hauled before a rights tribunal if they teach materials related to sex and religion without giving parents prior notice).
The commission can be improved, said Kubinec, and her party would ask the public for suggestions as to how.
Evergreen Party candidate Lisa Grant, who frequently read answers directly from her policy booklet, said that while the current commission had too much power, some sort of body like it was necessary.
Byfield, who has previously been before a human rights tribunal, said his party would replace the commission with a special division of the court system.
"No premier and no party should be imposing a uniform belief system on our legislature and on the people of our province," he said in response to a question about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms directed at him. "We should be free to believe what we honestly believe."
We have rights, Penny countered, but we also have responsibilities. "If that speech is hurtful, particularly to a young person … we need to protect them as well."
Local issues
One person asked the question that has dominated Morinville for years: what would they do about secular schooling?
This was a frequent topic people raised when she was out door-knocking, said Grebenstein. She did not support moving to a single school system (as suggested by former education minister Dave King), but offered no specific solutions. "How this problem will be solved I don't know, because I don't know what's on [Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk's] mind."
The rest of the candidates said this issue would require plenty of local consultation to resolve. Byfield said that some sort of formal survey of parents was needed to find out who actually wanted to go to a secular school in town.
Another person asked Byfield if his party would put the Cardiff Corner interchange on hold while it balanced the budget.
Byfield questioned if the bypass would ever be built, arguing that the PCs were good at not following through on their promises. "We're going to go ahead with most of what the current government is already talking about," he said, but he did not specifically say if his party would build the overpass.
The interchange is in the works, Kubinec explained, but has been delayed until the province can finish negotiating rights of way with local landowners.
Health and environment
On health care, Byfield said the system had become too bureaucratized with the creation of a single provincial health board. His party would dismantle Alberta Health Services and restore control to local health boards.
Kubinec defended Alberta Health Services, noting that the provincial board had saved the province about $700 million in administrative fees. "It's not perfect," she said, and the province is constantly improving it.
When it came to carbon capture and sequestration, everyone but Kubinec opposed government support for it.
Carbon capture is more than just shoving gas in the ground, Kubinec said — it creates 400 jobs in the Swan Hills area and helps the province extract more oil without pumping water underground. "It's used in Europe and it's successful. This PC government will stick with it."
Advance polls for the provincial election in Morinville are open this Thursday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Community Cultural Centre. Call 1-877-422-8683 for other poll locations.
