Ramona Pache, People’s Party of Canada candidate for Scarborough Southwest, answers four questions from Beach Metro Community News regarding this month’s federal election.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Candidates were instructed to keep their answers to approximately 150 words, and some of the responses have been edited to keep them as close as possible to the agreed word count. Beach Metro News sent these questions to all six candidates running in Scarborough Southwest. The only ones to respond by the stated deadline were Mohsin Bhuiyan, Conservative Party candidate; Amanda Cain, Green Party candidate; and Ramona Pache, People’s Party of Canada.)
QUESTION 1: Please tell our readers a little bit about yourself and why you decided to run in this election?
My name is Ramona Pache, I’ve lived in Scarborough Southwest for the past 12 years. I earned my B.Sc. in psychology at U of T Scarborough and currently I’m a licensed customs broker. I decided to run because I’ve watched my community and country change drastically over the past 1.5 years. When I meet people directly I don’t notice much difference. Our core Canadian values are on full display, but the framework around us is breaking us down.
Lockdowns have caused immense harm that is not being reported on. Vaccine mandates and impending passports are causing more devastation. People are making medical choices just to ‘get back to normal’ but the goalposts keep moving. My motivation is to get the word out about the PPC and let people know that of all the other parties, the PPC is the only option to lift us out of this mess.
QUESTION 2: What will you and your party do to reach justice with Canada’s Indigenous Peoples regarding the past abuses of the Residential School system, and will you commit to fulfilling the calls to action made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015?
The PPC is committed to building a new relationship with Indigenous Peoples based on respect, freedom, fairness and responsibility. The current system is broken and a bold reform is needed.
The PPC is the only party that will try to implement property rights on reserves and establish a new relationship based on self-reliance. The new system must be built working together with the Indigenous Peoples. The PPC will prioritize seeking options to replace the Indian Act which currently allows the federal government unacceptable control. We will explore further avenues to promote the establishment of individual property rights on reserves so the residents are empowered and have more control over their lives. We will ensure that Indigenous communities can take more ownership of the services they receive in partnership with government and review federal spending to ensure programs are better targeted to benefit them.
QUESTION 3: Given the high numbers of seniors who died in long-term care facilities from COVID-19 and the deplorable conditions many of them were found to be living in by Canadian Forces personnel called in to help, what steps will you and your party be taking to help protect seniors in the future?
Our health care system is too rigid and bureaucratized to quickly adapt to a crisis situation such as what happened during the COVID pandemic. This overwhelmingly affected seniors living in nursing homes and is unacceptable.
Seniors have complied with the draconian COVID measures and most are still prevented from going back to the ‘normal’ they had been promised, as with the rest of us. The amount of death in nursing homes was unacceptable and could have been avoided with proper focused protection of those most vulnerable.
Furthermore, the deplorable conditions of nursing homes is not a new issue. It has been a problem for many years pre-pandemic, never resolved by the provincial governments. The PPC identifies the current funding structure from Ottawa to the provinces as one reason for the lack of action and innovation by the provinces to fix the issues. The PPC will implement these changes.
QUESTION 4: What do you think is the issue in your riding that you can have the most impact on if you are elected MP?
I believe that lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccine passports and the threats to free speech make this one of the most important elections. I will be fighting to restore the Charter rights for all residents of Scarborough Southwest and to prevent further threats to those rights.
I am passionate that we should remain united and the people I meet everyday show me that we still respect and care deeply for one another. However, our PM has decided he is only the PM of certain Canadians. Many people legally expressing their rights are being vilified directly by the PM. He is sowing distrust, anger and possibly even violence. He is governing by instilling fear and suppressing scientific debate by experts when it doesn’t fit his COVID ‘narrative’. I will not stand for this and will fight for a return to the Canada we never imagined we could ever stray from.
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