Ottawa Centre debate all about policy
Ottawa Centre Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi defended the provincial government’s commitment to social services, while his challengers charged that those services are not making an impact for vulnerable people at a local level, in a standing-room-only debate at the Glebe Community Centre on Thursday night.
Health care, seniors care and affordability of housing and transit loomed large in the debate, with Naqvi having to defend the government’s record, while the NDP’s Joel Harden and the Green Party ’s Cherie Wong criticized the government and argued that their parties are a viable option for change.
Thursday’s debate, moderated by this newspaper’s David Reevely, was the third in as many days for the Ottawa Centre candidates and was organized by 11 local community associations in the riding, including the Hintonburg Community Association and the Glebe Community Association.
Naqvi’s record as the community’s representative was rarely challenged in the debate, though he defended it early.
“My approach as your MPP,” he told the packed house, has been “to find those pragmatic solutions that will help us build a livable community.”
Harden focused his attacks instead on the provincial government writ large, and said that it was time for the province to have “tough conversations” about its future. “What kind of Ontario do we want? What type of Ottawa do we want?” asked Harden.
“There are too many seniors languishing on a list for longterm care. … There are too many students languishing under free tuition promises, but massive student debt loads.”
Wong, who readily admits that she doesn’t “think I’m a very local issues person,” focused on the bigger picture as well. “All issues can link back to fixing it provincewide,” she said ahead of the debate. “We really have to step back and say, ‘We can look at the bigger picture.’”
The message from Naqvi’s challengers on Thursday was that there was a lack of accountability from the province when it comes to local issues. Case in point: Several of the questions focused on why residents were not consulted about a deal between the Ottawa Catholic School Board and a local soccer organization to build a $2-million artificial turf field at Immaculata High School.
Naqvi deflected the question, saying the provincial government was not aware of the deal.
“We elect local school boards and we elect local school trustees for a reason — so those local decisions can be made by them,” Naqvi said. “I don’t think you want a government that dictates from Queen’s Park what happens in your community.”
For Harden, that wasn’t good enough. “We can imagine that your representative can lament about this later, or your representative can make sure there’s actual accountability,” he said.
“The lamentations of the MPP will not make my kids sleep any better.”
The event was billed as an allcandidates’ debate, but that was a bit of a misnomer because only three of the eight candidates running in Ottawa Centre actually participated.
The debate had previously been limited to the Liberals, the NDP, the Greens and the Progressive Conservatives, but PC candidate Colleen McCleery dropped out on Thursday after initially confirming her attendance.
It’s not the first time this week she’s done that. Organizers with the City for All Women Initiative, which put on a debate Wednesday focusing on poverty and women’s issues, said that McCleery also turned down their invitation. (McCleery’s team did not respond to this newspaper’s request for an interview.)
All-candidates debates are not mandatory, and there’s nothing compelling McCleery to show up, but it speaks to a larger reality of the race in Ottawa Centre, which is that it is functionally being contested on the left between Naqvi and Harden.
And that race is, judging by the debate, at least, shaping up to be a civil one focused on policy rather than on personal.
“We can argue up here,” said Harden, near the end of the debate, “but in the end we have to fight for people in this riding to get things done.”