Federal Election 2025: Beaches-East York voters hear from Liberal, NDP and Green Party candidates at meeting
By MATTHEW STEPHENS
Local residents filled the pews of the Kingston Road United Church earlier this week for the Beaches-East York federal candidates meeting.
The meeting took place on Wednesday, April 23, and was hosted by the Balmy Beach Residents Association, Beach Interfaith Group, and Beach Metro Community News. The moderator for the meeting was Beach resident and City News reporter Alan Carter.
Among the candidates were Shannon Devine (New Democratic Party), Nathaniel-Erskine Smith (Liberal Party of Canada), and Jack Pennings (Green Party of Canada). Jocelyne Poirier of the Conservative Party declined the invitation to attend the meeting. Prior to the meeting, organizers had set the criteria for candidate attendance to those who represented a party that held a seat in the House of Commons.
Communist Party of Canada candidate for Beaches-East York, Elizabeth Rowley, made a point from the audience at the meeting’s start that she felt it was unfair she had not been invited to participate. However, the meeting went ahead with the invited candidates taking part.
Topics discussed during the meeting focused on housing, affordability, food security, Canada/United States relations, the Israel/Palestine conflict and peaceful protest, environmental preservation, and more.
The meeting kicked off with statements regarding Canada/U.S. relations.
Liberal Erskine-Smith acknowledged the significant “consequential” impact of that issue on the upcoming April 28 federal election in his opening speech prior to the topic being discussed.
“Just an hour ago, Donald Trump yet again said he might increase auto tariffs on Canada. It’s every other day, we’re subjected to a new threat from our otherwise longstanding ally. The most important country to Canada now suddenly can no longer be relied upon,” said Smith in his opening statement.
Devine highlighted the two million potential job losses in Canada due to U.S. tariffs, and that 80 per cent of Canada’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) does not cross Canadian borders.
To address Canada’s precarious relationship with the United States, Devine said the NDP plans to invest its focus on infrastructure, social services, healthcare, and housing to stabilize the Canadian economy.
She said the NDP plans to make significant changes to Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) system, which currently requires between 420 and 700 hours of insurable employment during the qualifying period to qualify for regular benefits, and a minimum of 14 weeks and a maximum of 45 weeks of coverage.
“We need to make major changes to the EI program. This has been a longstanding issue. We need to lower the qualifying hours to 360 hours, and then also extend it to 50 weeks, and set the minimum weekly amount to $450 so that people can survive on EI. This is a longstanding problem, one that the Liberals did nothing about over the last 10 years,” said Devine.
Erskine-Smith highlighted the Liberal Party’s “successful” response to President Trump during his first term as president (from 2016 to 2020) and underscored his party’s “right approach” of instating retaliatory tariffs.
He said the Liberals will continue to support Canadian workers impacted by tariffs and work to build more housing and infrastructure in the coming years.
“You also have to make sure that you protect workers and we have to make sure that the revenue from tariffs that we levy are put towards supporting those who are impacted in the most acute way by the crisis,” said Erskine-Smith. “It’s about building infrastructure, housing, and getting this country building things in a much more serious way.”
Erskine-Smith also praised Liberal leader Mark Carney for his qualifying credentials in light of Canada’s trade war with the U.S.
“Under Carney, you have someone who was the Bank of Canada governor when we went through the great recession and the then Conservative Jim Flaherty called him an invaluable support. Someone who helped Britain manage through Brexit, (and) warn about the consequences of Brexit,” he said.
“When it comes to who’s best placed to manage through a crisis, I would say, let’s look to someone who’s got experience in helping countries manage their crises.”
Green Party candidate Pennings agreed with his competitor’s plans to flow counter tariff revenue back to support workers impacted by the trade war. The Green Party also plans to make changes to the country’s EI benefits program.
“It sounds like the parties are in basic agreement that we want to flow through counter tariff money directly to workers for joblessness support. We also have it in our platform to expand EI eligibility, raising the minimum floor and also raising the maximum amount,” said Pennings.
Affordability was the second topic discussed by the candidates – specifically, how each respective party will help Canadians afford essential products.
Devine opened her response with a personal story of a local retiree who has been forced to spend large portions of her pension to meet cost of living demands in the city.
In response to affordability concerns, Devine and the NDP plan to put a price cap on essentials and groceries, remove the GST from groceries, heating, and cell phone bills, and regulate the ways prices are set at grocers and retailers across the country.
The NDP also plans to invest in more affordable housing and extend dental care services to those within age brackets outside of the 60 and up and 18 and under margins, she said.
“Food bank users right now are paying more than half of their overall income towards their housing, and that is creating such a crunch for people, and it’s especially bad in Beaches-East York. So, that is why this issue is very, very important to me, and I would be committed to doing something about it,” said Devine.
Pennings acknowledged housing as the most prominent issue surrounding the affordability crisis in the country. Although he said the Green Party “does not have specific interventions in pricing in its platform,” he said the party will challenge other aspects surrounding affordability, such as adjustments to the Canada Child Benefit program, more funding and extended eligibility for the Canada Disability Benefit, automatic tax filing, raising federal minimum wage to $21 per hour, and piloting a “guaranteed liveable income project.”
Erskine-Smith reflected on his previous work with the Liberal government to criminalize wage fixing and his advocacy to increase funding for the Canada Workers Benefit from $700 million to more than $3 billion per year, as well as other affordability projects at the federal level.
He agreed with Pennings’ sentiment that housing should be the top priority in mitigating the affordability crisis.
“When it comes to affordability, the grocery store matters, but housing is at the forefront,” said Erskine-Smith.
On the topic of housing, Erskine-Smith said the government needs to “get out of the way,” of the private sector so more homes can be built in a timely manner. This would involve reducing taxes, cutting development charges on multi-unit residential buildings, ending “exclusionary zoning,” and promoting “gentle density.”
“There’s a $26 billion fund on the table for innovative home building to empower the market. But if we just did that, we wouldn’t succeed, because the market alone isn’t going to deliver the affordability that we need.”
He also emphasized that the federal government needs to get back into the business of building affordable housing.
For renters, Erskine-Smith said the Liberals will be working to establish affordable rental units to ensure more rental units in the city are government owned and rent controlled.
Devine highlighted that housing costs have increased significantly over the last 10 years. She said the NDP plans to commit to “20 per cent non-market housing,” to ensure housing remains better matched to Canadian incomes.
“It’s important to note that the cost of housing has increased by 89 per cent. Whose income here increased by 89 per cent?” said Devine. “Our income went up by 21 per cent in that same period. And 76 per cent of Canadians don’t even own their homes, including half of the residents here in Beaches-East York.”
“When we’re talking about housing, we’re talking about building affordable housing, we’re talking about building more rentals. In the NDP plan, we would commit to 20 per cent non-market housing, so that means co-ops, that means housing run by not-for-profits, that means supporting housing,” she said.
Devine said the NDP also plans to waive GST for first time home buyers.
Pennings agreed with his competitors on the issue of wages straying further from cost of living in the country. He and the Green Party propose the reduction of “red tape” and hindrances to project development, as well as working with the CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) to help build and provide housing.
“I remember we were taught that no more than 30 per cent of your income should be spent on shelter. I don’t think anybody is doing that now and has not been for a long time,” said Pennings.
Pennings said the Green Party plans to waive HST for first time home buyers and build more modular homes to ensure housing is being built quickly and efficiently.
The issue of the war in Gaza, which was the focus of a lot of questions sent in by community members for the moderator to ask, was also discussed by the candidates. The question was presented as how would the candidates and their parties confront growing antisemitism in Canada and do they also uphold the right to peacefully advocate on behalf of the Palestinian people.
Pennings said that he “of course” upheld the right to peaceful protest and advocacy. “As long as it remains peaceful,” he said.
He agreed the current situation has given rise to more antisemitism in Canada, and that it is a “major” problem. He referenced that a Hebrew school in Toronto had had shots fired at it on a number of occasions.
“What the party would do would be to strengthen hate laws, though this is not specifically mentioned in the party platform,” said Pennings.
Erskine-Smith said “all kinds of hate” have to be called out. “Especially when you’ve seen an increase in antisemitism, and you can point to examples of graffiti we’ve seen locally,” he said.
“It’s important to be incredibly vocal and stand with the Jewish community. I will say also (to the protest question) we have to make sure that when we have that conversation it’s a thoughtful one and we are not calling people out for human rights based advocacy and trying to silence them.”
Erskine-Smith said the Oct. 7 attacks and the war in Gaza has led to “two traumas” for both the Jewish and Palestinian communities. “You have Oct. 7 and people feeling that trauma, and you have people feeling an incredible trauma from continued violence, indiscriminate violence against the Palestinian people by the Netanyahu government.”
He said people are talking past “each other” on the issue. “I don’t know why it is so hard in this country that we say we are going to call out hate and we’re going to make sure people feel safe and protected here at home, and we’re also going to stand up for human rights and we’re going to stand up for Palestinian human rights and all human rights abroad. We should be able to do both.”
Devine said that in addressing hate and antisemitism no one “should feel fearful” to walk on the streets or send their children to religious schools.
“This is a very challenging moment that we’re living through, and there are many communities that are feeling this deeply,” she said. “The NDP will always stand against hate.”
She said she fully supports the right to peaceful assembly and protest. “As Canadians we do have that right, and that is very important and we need to hold that dear.”
Devine said the NDP has been leading Parliamentary work in support of the rights of Palestine and “it is the party who has called what is happening in Gaza a genocide.”
To watch the full meeting, head to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvVqvSx7XC8.
