The NDP's Lois Boone may not be the incumbent in the riding of Prince George-Peace River, but nobody can dispute her political history. She was elected to the B.C. Legislature from 1986 through to 2001, serving in four cabinet portfolios and was the deputy premier of the province from August 1999 to February 2000.
Before she was elected to the provincial government she was a school trustee, joining her first board of education in 1981. She was then reelected as a trustee in 2005, and has been voted back to that table since then.
Boone has made her home in Prince George for the past 40-plus years. She and her husband live in a rural neighbourhood north of the city and she joked with The Citizen during Wednesday's visit by federal party leader Jack Layton that there was too much snow to golf, too much snow to garden, so why not fight an election to keep busy?
Layton would likely not be in Prince George, during a cross-Canada election campaign snugged into only a month's window, were he not confident in the party's chances in the region. The NDP has come second, albeit a distant second, the past three elections (2008, '06 and '04) in Prince George-Peace River. Between 2000 and the '08 run-offs, their percentage of the popular vote in the riding has gone from about five per cent to somewhere between 17 and 20 per cent.
Boone said she has always been a Jack Layton fan and he admitted Wednesday it was mutual admiration. He said her strong electoral background combined with the record of the current government was exciting for the party. She said this election was very important especially for health-care decisions at a critical time in the demographic history of Canada, so she felt an impulse to do as much as she could at this time.
"People are tired of leaders in Ottawa who don't work on their behalf, who are out of touch," she said. "Jack can fix that. He's the only one who can."
Your priorities...
1. Harmonized Sales Tax
As I knock on doors, everybody, no matter who they are, tell me that they don't like the HST. Even small business owners who admit the HST is helping their bottom line confide in me that it is hard on their family, it is hard on other families, so their business is bound to suffer.
2. Affording quality of life
Making life affordable for Canadians has to be addressed. That includes the HST, home care of loved ones with medical needs, taking some of the burdens off the 'sandwich generation' that has to pay for childcare on one hand and pay to look after aging parents on the other hand. Canadians deserve a government that will do something about helping you live affordably.
3. Personal communication
A big priority for me is listening to the average person, hearing the average person, representing the average person in Ottawa, not just seeking out the opinions that agree with the government's agenda. I have, for my entire political career, spoken up for the people of the North, and that is sadly needed now. When I'm on people's doorsteps, they tell me 'what's the point?' They feel alienated from government. I will be that voice that isn't there today.
The Issues...
1. Do you support Enbridge's $5.5-billion Northern Gateway oil pipeline?
We do not support the Enbridge pipeline. It is a terrible gamble for very little gain. It is exporting jobs that could be for Canadians - I compare it to exporting raw logs - and it is putting major waterways at terrible risk. The few jobs it creates won't offset the jobs it costs us, or the environmental damage.
2. Do you think Ottawa should provide more funding support to municipalities, for example, to help fix roads?
Yes I do. There are millions of dollars of infrastructure needs in every community - sewers, water systems, roads - all of them are falling into disrepair and need to be fixed somehow. Economic studies tell us that for every dollar you invest in municipal infrastructure, the community gets six times that amount back in jobs and spinoff economic activity, and that is money that stays in your local community. It makes more sense than subsidies to big banks and oil and gas companies that are already doing well.
3. A 10-year federal health-care transfer deal to the provinces ends in 2014. Should the provinces get more money in a renewed deal?
You need to have that new deal negotiated by someone you can trust will keep our health-care system a public one. I have no doubt that if Stephen Harper had his way, he would create pressures via the federal government so that provinces would be forced to consider more profiteer healthcare than is already underway. That is not in the best interests of Canadians.
