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Penticton Chamber hosts virtual all candidates forum

First the first time in the BC election campaign, candidates in the Penticton riding were on the hot seat.

The Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce, along with JCI Penticton and HEK Yeah Media, held an all-candidates forum Thursday via Zoom and Facebook Live.

<who> Photo Credit: Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce </who> Thursday's all-candidates forum through Zoom.

All four candidates – incumbent Dan Ashton representing the Liberal party, Toni Boot from the NDP, Libertarian candidate Keith MacIntyre and Ted Shumaker of the BC Green party took part.

Shumaker, the last to join the campaign, was first to speak.

“I’ve been a politician for seven days. I can listen. I've proven I can learn. I retired after 20 years with Interior Health as a hospital pharmacist. I’ve owned two retail drug stores so I have a feel for what small business people go through just to survive,” said Shumaker. “I put my name forward for the Green party because I feel that to make good, long-term decisions we need a diverse group of people in our parliament. The NDP’s snap election is a request for a four-year blank cheque. That’s not healthy for BC, to have one man making all the decisions with next to no oversight.”

</who> Green party candidate Ted Shumaker.

Incumbent Dan Ashton was next to speak.

“I’m a small business person like many of you are. I fully understand the needs and desires that a small business has today. I think I’ve really proven myself here in the Penticton, Peachland, Summerland and Naramata areas by delivering, and I’ll continue to do that,” he offered to viewers. “These are uncertain times for everybody and what you need is a steady hand on the tiller and over the years I’ve proven I can do that.”

Toni Boot was recently selected as the NDP candidate, and has stepped away from her role as mayor of Summerland.

“I’ve very honoured to be part of John Horgan’s team – a team that has a plan to keep BC moving forward in a way that’s best for all of us,” she said. “Because I grew up in Summerland, I have a good understanding of this area, and have founded and operated two successful businesses in Summerland.”

</who> NDP candidate Toni Boot.

The final candidate to address the group was Keith MacIntyre, who represents the Libertarian party.

“I’m running for MLA because I think we need a new direction in Canadian politics. I’ve become disillusioned over the years and I find the polarized politics we have in Canada right now to be very ineffective. You’re either right wing or left wing, and there's no in between. What if there was a party that wasn’t on a wing, and focused on freedom,” he offered. “What I learned about the Libertarian party is that I found their concepts of less tax and smaller government and more personal freedom really resonated with me. We’re the only party that truly wants to reduce taxes and the bureaucracy. What many people don’t realize is that it’s not the governing parties that are the government. It’s made up of 30 thousand employees and they’re mismanaging 60 billion dollars that we give them each year. I realized that no major party has the ability to do what’s right.”

Given the event was hosted by the Chamber, the first question of candidates centered around helping small business.

Boot was first up.

“People are the economy, and helping people succeed is the best way to build a recovery that works for all British Columbians. The BC NDP government worked with stakeholders, including the BC Chamber of Commerce on developing the recovery plan, which includes several pieces that will benefit small businesses,” offered Boot. “A couple of examples are 100% PST refund on purchases of machinery and equipment, the creation of a tourism task force, a 15% tax credit for businesses that are hiring new employees, the re-establishment of the government film sector task force and of course the $660 million in new tax incentives for small business. Under our plan workers and small business are our priority.”

The battle for the seat is likely to come down to the governing NDP and the Liberals, who previously held power for 16 years.

</who> Liberal party candidate Dan Ashton.

Ashton was next to talk small business.

“As you’ve seen and heard, the Liberal party is stepping forward by removing the PST for a one-year period and taking it down to 3% for the second year, and then re-examining where it is going. Unfortunately, and I’m not going to blame it on the hard working individuals in the civil service because there are a lot of incredibly good people there, but unfortunately, there have been more and more bureaucratic issues being put in front by the current government. It’s an absolute shame. And there’s also the 23 new or increased taxes that have been put on in the last three years. Businesses and citizens in this province are floundering under the weight of taxation and underneath the bureaucracy that's been created for no need whatsoever. We need to re-adjust that, get back to zero, and do our best to get people back to work. That’s what will help the economy.”

</who> Libertarian party candidate Keith MacIntyre.

Keith MacIntyre spoke on the Libertarian approach to dealing with small businesses.

“I’m actually running small businesses so I actively know what’s happening. What I would do to help small businesses, is first of all, the government needs to get out of the way. We don’t need to be doing political stunts to help small businesses,” he said. “We need to ask for more data from the government. We need to understand what’s going on with this pandemic, and we need to open our businesses so they can thrive and succeed. In Penticton we’ve had nine cases and in Summerland we’ve had four, but we’re not allowed to have a beer after 10 o’clock. We’re restricting small businesses. What we need to do is open the economy.”

Finally, Shumaker had his say on dealing with small business.

“Green has promised to allocate $300 million to create six month rent subsidies. I know for myself, getting rid of red tape makes such a difference,” he said. “I’m a little disappointed in the NDP because the three parties actually agree to release large amounts of money, and now that’s being held up for the month the election’s on and another month, so we’re two-plus months delay over an election that we don’t need to have.”

The entire candidates forum hosted by the Chamber can be viewed here.



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