Thursday night Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) candidate John Sagman sent out a live-streamed video presentation on the internet via social media and on his campaign website.
It was anchored by his campaign manager, Cheryl Fort who's also the Mayor of the Township of Hornepayne. She fed him a number of questions of her own and also a few which had been submitted online.
Naturally, the internet-streamed production was produced in hopes of convincing voters to support the Conservative candidate in Monday's Canadian general election.
Sagman is a veteran of the Canadian mining industry, a Mining Engineer and he readily acknowledges he brings an engineer's approach to his campaign for a seat in the House of Commons.
He lives with his family near Espanola. This is his first foray into the political arena.
Sagman told viewers he made the decision to enter the political arena when he realized the governing coalition in Ottawa has not served the interests of Canadians, especially those living and working in the riding.
The Tory candidate's reference to "the coalition" relates to the perceived link between the Liberals and New Democrats in the last parliament.
"The NDP Liberal coalition give up billions of dollars to China, not putting it toward First Nations issues. I just don't understand how all this money can be going overseas and all this wasteful spending, and it's not put to good use in our riding," he explained.
As photos were posted during the video presentation, Sagman had a story for each stop he's made in the past couple of weeks while campaigning in the giant riding, including one in Elliot Lake.
He responded to questions about how he envisions a CPC government would improve the lives of people in the riding.
One of the issues he's been hearing most about at the door is infrastructure.
We have to get housing going. Conservatives have a firm platform.
We want to build one million houses. Obviously, we have to get our fair share. We've got to fix our roads up and get some housing going so that we can get the workforce into isolated communities and support our businesses out there.
What happens is we have a resource-rich riding but we're forced to be flying in. You know, personnel that can work at a site and then they fly them out.
That's not good for the company. Companies don't want to do that, because it's a high turnover rate with employees.
We're far better off with having employees from the local area. When we build all these homes we also promote investment in rental units and things like that. It also generates much better education and medical systems.
The conservatives want to double the federal transfer payments to the provincial governments as well as putting up some firm plans for tackling the opioid crisis.
You know 500,000 people a week miss work because of mental health issues. We need a seat at the front of the Ottawa table, not at the back. We've got to change that up.
By all means, we have to start attracting more people to this area and get our employment numbers back up. We need a larger workforce for sure.
In addition, we have to look at the child care credit. What we want to do is put money back into the pockets of the parents. The parents have to decide what's best for them.
We have to get women back in the workforce. Because of COVID, everything has been shut out for the lack of childcare. How does someone get daycare in the evening and there are not enough spaces open in the evening?
On top of that, it closes at 4 O'Clock and the woman works until 5. Then if she wants to work overtime that's completely impossible. It's just not acceptable in this day and age. We really need change.
As for seniors, Fort recalled door knocking on doors this week in Elliot Lake on behalf of the Sagman candidacy.
They were talking about how they get more money but because that increased their tax bracket, actually at the end of the month, they had less.
One woman said she was $241 shorter than she was before and because of this 'Do I keep my vehicle?' She's still really active and expressed these concerns.
Who do the seniors want to represent them in Ottawa? Is it Jagmeet Singh and Mr. Trudeau or is it John Sagman and Erin O'Toole?
As conservatives, we have a plan. We want to put a billion dollars into long-term care homes. These are firm numbers that you can measure. Tax credits to our pensioners, etcetera.
Firm investments into First Nations. That's what I like about the Conservative party, we're measurable.
If elected, I will open up an office up in Kapuskasing, the Northern Corridor, and also up in Wawa so we can chat with people up at Foleyet.
Then another office down here so we can get caught up on what's going on in Espanola and on Manitoulin Island.
A week earlier, Sagman took part in a traditional candidate's debate held live and presented by MOOSE FM in Espanola.
Electoral debates are an integral part of elections as they are the venue that gives the electorate opportunity to see how the candidates behave and represent in public. A right and an indicator of the passion and concern the candidates have about the issues faced by people in the riding.
Many electors make decisions based on how their elected officials react at the debate and how their potential choices for other candidates score as well.
The people of this riding were robbed of that opportunity to view their current NDP Member, Carol Hughes.
She did not turn out for the debate which was held live in Espanola. Disappointing that the member was a no-show, which did not give us the opportunity to discuss important issues that are facing the riding; in particular, hunting rights, gun ownership, housing and labour shortages.
Carol Hughes is the most well-connected in the riding and has no excuse for not being there. It shows a disconnect with the electorate. We need change now in this riding.
In response, Ms. Hughes told ElliotLakeToday
There was a miscommunication there.
She (MOOSE FM-Espanola) had mentioned to me that they wanted to put one on so I suggested, 'Can you do something around this date?' And then I heard, 'We'll get back to you.' But for whatever reason, I don't know where that email went, and we've been looking for it.
I didn't get the information about the actual event so I couldn't be there.
Besides NDP incumbent Hughes, also in the riding race for the most votes in the Sept. 20 election are Green Party standard-bearer Stephen Zimmermann, Liberal Duke Peltier, People's Party of Canada (PPC) rep Harry Jaaskelainen and Canadian Heritage Party (CHP) candidate Clarence Baarda.
Polls open at 9:30 a.m. and close at 9:30 Monday night. Professional polling organizations have predicted a close race nationally between the incumbent Liberals (LPC) and the Conservative Party (CPC).
