Federal Election 2025: Scarborough Southwest Green Party candidate Amanda Cain answers our questions

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Beach Metro Community News sent these questions to the federal candidates in Scarborough Southwest. Not all candidates responded by our deadline. Candidates were asked to keep their responses to approximately 300 words. Please visit our website at www.beachmetro.com for more information on the candidates.)

QUESTION 1: Please tell our readers a little bit about yourself and why you are running in this election?

I am a Scarborough resident, born and raised here in Scarborough Southwest.

With an education in Corporate Communications, I managed Youth Economic Development Programs in Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs) for the past 20 years before resuming my Communications consultancy. I worked in the arts and entertainment industry prior to my work in the non-profit sector.

As an active community advocate, I have been addressing issues of education and training, economic development and civic engagement for the past 30 years.

I believe in building strong communities that support our most vulnerable citizens and have focused much of my attention on building policy on poverty reduction. Notable highlights of my community involvement include: The Youth Employment Managers Network and Children’s Services Advisory Committee with the City of Toronto, Board of Directors for Jessie’s – the June Callwood Centre, and the Ontario Campaign 2000 for Poverty Reduction. I also volunteer in various Toronto food banks delivering groceries to those who are housebound.

My experience in the environmental sector includes volunteering with the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, Ocean Wise clean ups, The David Suzuki Foundation Guildwood Butterfly Rangers, and The Malvern Food Security Committee. I love serving my community.

This is my third bid for Scarborough Southwest with the Green Party. I am providing an option to those concerned the government isn’t doing enough to reduce our Greenhouse gas emissions. We should be leading the cause on the international stage.

I’m running for our future generations. Your children and grandchildren deserve to grow on a healthy planet – not one challenged by massive changes in climate and extreme weather events. I’m running for low-income earners who struggle to put food on the table and pay their basic bills. I represent the common person in Scarborough Southwest fighting to be heard.

QUESTION 2: Why is your party and your party leader the best one to deal with the threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, and how will your party support Canadians impacted by tariffs and other American policies towards Canada?

Our Green party co-leader Elizabeth May has stated “Counter-tariffs and retaliation are not enough to protect Canadian jobs, but we could better protect all regions of Canada by creating strategic reserves of Canadian raw resources—such as forest products, aluminum, potash, bitumen, and uranium—to increase our economic leverage and clout while ensuring Canadian producers can sell their products. Canadian Crown corporations operating strategic reserves will buttress our economy and allow us to better weather the storms Trump imagines will bring us down.”

Last month the Green Party of Canada released the “Protecting Canada” plan which addresses the threat landscape emerging from the hostile Trump administration, border issues, building stronger ties with the international community, protecting funding for national public media and defence of our sovereignty.

In regards to supporting our labour market workers, the Green Party will expand the Employment Insurance (EI) benefit by adding to the number of weeks one can receive assistance and the weekly amount provided. Sector staff will also see gains in how quickly they will be able to access EI support for those directly affected by President Trump’s trade war. Greens are committed to offering retraining funds if the individual would like to change sectors.

As your Member of Parliament, I stand for investments in the manufacturing sector for clean, ethical tech and Electric Vehicles produced here for Canadians as well as exploring new export markets and leading a new economic alliance away from the U.S. with stronger bonds between democracies and smaller states. In each challenge there is a place for innovation, bold new ideas and opportunities to be seized with the right political will.

QUESTION 3: Beyond Canada’s relationship with the United States, what do you see as the next most important issue in this election and how will you and your party address it?

Canada is in a serious affordable housing crisis due to government inaction and poor policies.

Housing is being treated as a commodity rather than a basic need. The Green Party will tackle this crisis by investing in new, low-cost housing and the renewal of existing government-owned or funded housing. We will increase CMHC support for Cooperative Housing Federation of Canada members and their provincial associations to access education on how to apply for new development funds and ensure current co-op mortgages are renewed.

I will fight alongside the Green caucus to make sure that housing that the federal government funds with your tax dollars is truly affordable – priced at no more than 30 per cent of the person actually in need of that housing.

We must also ensure that new housing construction does not increase Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions and invest in methods to reduce emissions from existing homes. As a soon-to-be Grandmother, I am deeply concerned about the future and the world my children and grandchildren will live in.

I aim to ensure a world where there is a balance between our economic and social needs and the natural environment. The Green Party of Canada has the vision and plan to address this. The economic turmoil caused by actions from the United States means Canada must create a new economic model. The Green Party offers a pathway to a new economy that will create employment in a fiscally responsible and environmentally sustainable manner.

As your Member of Parliament for Scarborough Southwest, I will work towards creating this new environmentally sustainable economy, that balances economic and environmental actions to ensure no one is left behind and everyone benefits from living in this great country – Canada!