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B. Wrzesnewskyj: “Our priority should be people”

Jul 7, 2015 | Newpathway, Canada, Featured

On Tuesday, June 30, the Liberal candidate for Etobicoke Centre, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, held a Canada Day picnic for his supporters. We interviewed Mr. Wrzesnewskyj who represented the riding in Parliament from 2004-2011.

NP: What is your platform for these elections?

BW: There have been a number of announcements made by the Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau. And the centre piece of that platform focuses on middle class Canadians and working families. That’s why the very first announcement was about an income tax break of 7% for middle class Canadians and working families groups, coupled with a child tax benefit for the same groups; this will be balanced by an incremental tax increase for the highest income Canadians, the top 1%. This strengthens the progressive nature of our taxation system.

But it’s also just the first part of our platform. Our platform also deals with the fact that there are many children in Canada, who will not have equal life opportunities and our platform lays the groundwork for early learning and childcare in a universal way.

There will also be parts of the program that deal with urban infrastructure. We’ve had a decade where there’s been no significant investment from the federal level of government into urban infrastructure. We almost have permanent gridlock in cities like Toronto, this affects quality of life, it affects the economy, it has significant costs for local businesses. It causes personal frustration for people on daily basis. And we need the federal government to come to the table so that we can invest in significant public transit projects. Ten years ago, we had the agreement signed with all the provinces and cities. And Mr. Harper unfortunately threw that “New Deal for Cities” out the window. It was a deal that was signed with all the provinces. We plan to reintroduce those ideas.

And there will be a real focus on sustainability and the environment. We live in a country that’s blessed with natural resources and we have 100 billion dollar corporations, with billion dollar profits, which every year receive billions of dollars of tax benefits and tax breaks while extracting resources at a significant cost to environment, often in non-sustainable ways which will diminish the quality of life of future generations. All of those issues will be addressed in our platform.

NP: What do you think about the current Toronto plans, in terms of the railways and the Gardiner?

BW: The federal government has come to the table with too little, too late, they’ve done it just months before the election. And let's not forget, it was Mr. Harper that tore up and threw out an agreement on municipal infrastructure funding signed with all of the provinces. Paul Martin, the previous Liberal Prime Minister, had put into place a ministry that never existed before, a Ministry for Cities and Communities. The minister was John Godfrey, who spent a year traveling, signing agreements with all the provinces, and under that agreement, billions of dollars was to flow into urban infrastructure. It's all a matter of priorities. Over the past decade, every year billions of dollars have flown in the oil sands industry in Alberta. We need a re-prioritization of our government. Our priority should be people, not corporate entities, not the top one percent. We should be focusing on the needs of our middle class and working families.

NP: What do you think the government should be doing in the environmental sphere?

BW: Canada, along with China, is seen as a laggard internationally. And all you need to do is look at the satellite pictures of what is going on in Alberta. We not only can do better, we must do better. All the scientific evidence is showing that future generations will have diminished opportunities and quality of life if we do not address these environmental issues. Its reaching a tipping point. When the Pope issues an encyclical on this issue, that should give people a wakeup call. What’s happened with Mr. Harper, he has muzzled the scientists, that’s never happened in Canadian history, that scientists, their work is being shut down, not just the research, but the data. This is a democracy, and transparency is the life blood of a democracy. And it’s all interconnected, we see it over and over. Access to information was shut down earlier under Mr. Harper’s tenure, and at some point it becomes untenable. I think that point has arrived. People, after a decade of Harper rule, are realizing, it's time for a change.

NP: In your previous times as an MP, you were involved heavily in international relations. What would you like to change in this sphere?

BW: It’s a huge concern, not just for the Ukrainian Canadian community, because the most important geopolitical crisis now is Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. We need people in parliament who know the situation on the ground, and also have a track record of getting things done. You know we all like what Mr. Harper has been saying, but there are words, and there are deeds. When Canada announced that we would be sending military advisors, that was done after the Americans and the British sent military advisors. And when asked, will Canada lead on this fight, in areas that Ukraine has requested, at that point Mr. Harper always says, “well we have to wait on our allies.”

It didn’t use to be like that, and I can give concrete examples in the past where Canada has led. I was a Member of Parliament who introduced a resolution to put sanctions against President Kuchma, and his clan, and Yanukovych who was a candidate, should there not be a re-run of the presidential election. And these were proactive steps. We did this before any of our allies, European or the Americans. And how did it happen? And how did it manage to pass unanimously, with the support of every single MP of every party? Because I was able to work with other parties, explain the situation, have the understanding, and I was able to convince the Prime Minister to take on a policy that the Foreign Affairs department was advising against. So, at this critical juncture, we don’t just need people that show respect to the community by showing up and saying all the right things, you need people that can work hard to make Canada make a difference in deeds. We have a special relationship with Ukraine, let's give it substance by showing leadership at this critical time.

NP: If elected, which areas would you like to focus on in the parliament?

BW: I divide things amongst three levels. Local issues, which include the GTAA airport, to limit airport noise and night flights, and I’ve previously had bills to do that. There are local issues that have that federal component: back in 2004, I talked about a subway line along Eglington (not a light rail) that was part of the new deal for cities, and a line that went along Bloor and Dundas through to Sherway Gardens and then interconnected with a line overtop the 427 that would go out to the airport. Unfortunately, as I said, that all went out the window.

Then there are national issues. A priority for me will be the state of our democracy and reform of our electoral laws because of what happened in our last election, and the way the conservatives here in Etobicoke centre conducted themselves. The situation at St. Demetrius seniors residence, where Mr. Opitz's top campaign officials including his campaign manager came in and bullied the seniors, yelling at them, and bullied the Elections Canada officials to the point where the vote was shut down. So clearly, the laws, when they come to vote suppression, need to be re-written so that there are heavy penalties. A year ago Mr. Opitz was found by Elections Canada to have broken the financing rules in one of his campaigns. And he got a slap on the wrist and was fined, it was published, he admitted his guilt. You know, we have to be able to trust our elected representatives. If we can’t trust them, in election campaigns, to respect financing rules, to respect the vote of every individual, that’s a pretty serious problem. We send observers to other countries, like Ukraine. We never thought that we would see these sorts of things taking place here in Canada, and especially here in Etobicoke.

And then of course there are international issues. Ukraine should not just be a preoccupation of Ukrainian Canadians. It should be a world preoccupation. The first time in the history of the EU that people were shot and killed for carrying the EU flag, and the values and principles that they stand for, it happened in Kyiv. Those volunteer battalions, those soldiers on the front in eastern Ukraine are not just shielding Ukraine, they’re shielding the West. Those young men gave their lives, I spoke with many of them, on the barricades and men at the front. And they all, in different ways say the same thing, “I’d rather die a free man then live the life of a slave”.

NP: What’s your position on future coalitions with other parties like NDP?

BW: Well, first let’s see what the results of the elections will be.

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