Ask yourself what the other parties stand for? The election was called on one of the worst days for forest fires in our history and at the beginning of the fourth wave of the pandemic, not because any of us want an election, but only because the Liberals want more power.
A: Forest fires are inevitable and natural, but as temperatures rise and extremes become more common, we will continue to see more of the large, catastrophic fires which put lives and property at risk and reduce air quality and our general quality of life.
The Green Party has proposed a billion dollar per year fund to allow communities to hire young people to work on environmental issues like forest fire mitigation.
A: The first thing to do is to stop, immediately, wilfully making the problem worse.
The question of how to prevent the next one does have an important political component because the government of Canada can and should direct our tax dollars to maximize the long-term health and prosperity of Canadians.
The best way I can think to do this is to make a significant investment in higher education, to train the next generation of epidemiologists, researchers, infectious disease doctors, etc.
But our public institutions will need to accommodate those who are unable for health reasons to be vaccinated and I see no reason why they should not also make accommodations, where it is possible, for those who are unwilling to be vaccinated.
Obviously, vaccine-hesitancy is irrational and undesirable, but it is also real and resistant to reasoned argument.
The question asks for the first step, so I have picked something that can be accomplished immediately — stop all appeals and litigation in the Jordan’s Principle cases.
But on the Friday before the election was called, I looked out my window and saw the blue skies of my hometown turn to smoke grey and realized that giving up on my children’s future is not an option for me.
That means a wealth tax, closing tax loopholes, and establishing a non-partisan tax commission with a goal of simplifying the system in a way consistent with Canadian values.
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