Questions for Peggy Nash

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Sat, 2011-10-29 12:33

MegB

This thread is for questions specific to Peggy Nash's leadership campaign and all that the success of which would entail. Over the next few weeks and months, we will invite each NDP leadership candidate to answer your questions in a moderated discussion.

Please confine your contributions to the leadership candidate threads to questions directed at the individual candidate named in the thread title. Discussions and comments can be posted in any of the several other federal NDP threads.

Issues Pages:

NDP

Sat, 2011-10-29 12:50

Howard

Thank you Rebecca for starting this thread:

Ms. Nash: What is your view on international trade? Can you give an example of a trade deal you could imagine signing as Prime Minister and an existing trade relationship you could see yourself expanding?

Sat, 2011-10-29 13:08

Unionist

Sister Nash: Conservative and Liberal governments in the 1990s privatized Air Canada, CN Rail, air traffic control (NAV Canada), the St. Lawrence Seaway, airports, etc., besides massively deregulating the transportation industry. What's your verdict on the results? What if anything would you (a) re-regulate, and (b) re-nationalize?

Sat, 2011-10-29 14:29

Howard

Unionist wrote:

Sister Nash: Conservative and Liberal governments in the 1990s privatized Air Canada, CN Rail, air traffic control (NAV Canada), the St. Lawrence Seaway, airports, etc., besides massively deregulating the transportation industry. What's your verdict on the results? What if anything would you (a) re-regulate, and (b) re-nationalize?

If the goal of privatising was to get rid of the unions....they didn't exactly suceed

Mon, 2011-10-31 00:15

jerrym

I want to address the issue of income and tie it to homelessness because I rarely see it addressed from the perspective that I think is becoming fairly common. My father lived through the Depression and then fought in WWII. As a result of this he never had a regular job until he was 31. Despite this and despite never earning even the average salary at any time in his life, he owned and sold three houses as he moved from job to job in different cities. I was able to buy a house in Vancouver 25 years ago in Vancouver during an economic downturn with an above average income that is now worth more than $750,000. My two university-age children are highly unlikely to ever own their own house in this city even with well-above average incomes because of current housing prices. Already, many thirtyish professionals are leaving the city because they cannot ever own a home and the latest survey of immigrants states that one third of them are paying more than 50% of their income for housing. Of course, the number of homeless is also mushrooming exponentially. We need a major housing program that addresses homelessness, housing for young adults and immigrants, even for ones with above average incomes. This is not impossible. Afterall, my father's generation, at least from the 1950s until the 1970s were able to find either rental or cooperative housing or achieve home ownership in a country that had relatively little homelessness in a much smaller economy. What is your plan to overcome these generational trends?

Mon, 2011-10-31 11:33

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Howard wrote:

Ms. Nash: What is your view on international trade? Can you give an example of a trade deal you could imagine signing as Prime Minister and an existing trade relationship you could see yourself expanding?

Supplementary question, Madam Speaker:

Can you give an example of an existing free-trade deal you could imagine tearing up?

Mon, 2011-10-31 12:53

[email protected]

I would like to ask what Ms. Nash's anti poverty program includes.

Mon, 2011-10-31 13:16

Howard

<a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a> wrote:
I would like to ask what Ms. Nash's anti poverty program includes.

Excellent question. All candidates should respond to this.

Wed, 2011-11-02 19:41

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Dear Ms. Nash:

Inasmuch as Omar Khadr was never accorded the protections that domestic law requires for juveniles who face prosecution; was never accorded the protections that international law requires for child soldiers who have been captured; was never accorded the protections of access to consular assistance that civilized norms of diplomacy require, but on the contrary was interrogated by Canadian government officials in collusion with the foreign government that was detaining him; was illegally detained for several years without trial and without access to legal counsel; was tortured during his detention period; was charged with offences that did not exist at the time he allegedly committed them, and still to this day do not exist in international law or in the laws of any country outside of the United States of America, including Canada; was subjected to a sham trial in a sham court in which the outcome was to be determined by U.S. military officers; was coerced into making a highly dubious confession of guilt under the threat of permanent incarceration even if he were acquitted at "trial"; and was in fact guilty of nothing other than self-defence against, and resistance to, foreign military forces engaged in an illegal invasion of the country he was residing in (Afghanistan); will your government grant Omar Khadr a full pardon and set him free?

Wed, 2011-11-02 22:50

#10

Fidel

Omar Khadr should be free in 2002 but our then corrupt Libranos Government of Canada were simply not interested in standing up to Uncle Sam and the U.S. Military dictatorship.

OTOH, extremely dangerous Al-CIA'da terrorists, like this guy, should have been arrested and imprisoned long before 9.11.01. Our corrupt stooges in Canada are notorious for sending children to US Military prisons on the quiet while protecting actual al-Qa'eda terrorists from the law after receiving instructions from their U.S. taskmasters to do so. We should ask the NDP whether they intend to restore law and order full stop. We should ask NDP leadership candidates whether they intend to initiate some leadership in general in Ottawa.

Thu, 2011-11-03 01:52

#11

NDPP

Why did you support the bombing of Libya?

Sun, 2011-11-06 06:19

#12

autoworker autoworker's picture

How would you navigate the next four years in Opposition?

Sun, 2011-11-06 13:15

#13

theleftyinvestor

One question I did ask Peggy in Vancouver:

How soon do you think you can get an invitation to "Tout le monde en parle"?

She said she would love to go on there, but the timing has to be right, not too soon. She says she will be all over Quebec in December and January. I reminded her to bring Sorel boots.

For anyone who doubts (or touts) her French-language skills, this would be the ultimate proof.

Wed, 2011-11-09 04:11

#14

Ryan1812

I have a question for Peggy: I'm an expat Canadian grad, who at the age of 27 has been forced to go overseas for the last three years now to find work. The work I've done is definitely not my idea work but I don't have many options (I'm teaching English). While I do enjoy the work I'd much rather be back in Canada contributing to my local economy and building a life for myself. I'm not one of those "entitled brats" you always here Ezra Levant and Charles Adler raving about. I got my first job at the age of 13 and have worked ever since. But it's impossible to find work in Canada unless I want to work a forced minimum wage job at Subway (which I've done mind you), MacDonald's, etc. You cannot make a living working in these jobs.
How does Ms. Nash plan to deal with the rising number of unemployed youth? As a supplementary: with the increasing feeling that their votes don't matter, how do you plan to address the feeling of voter apathy?
Thank you.
Ryan L. Painter

Tue, 2011-12-06 01:35

#15

Howard

Given that you joined the NDP caucus in supporting the Libya mission, what do you see as the role for the Canadian military, particularly in Canada's foreign affairs?

Tue, 2011-12-13 21:33

#16

Wilf Day

I have rather different questions for Peggy, more along the line of the question asked in the Vancouver Forum: what drives you? My question is, tell us more about your life before you became an MP in 2006.

I don’t know as much about Peggy Nash, the person, as I should.

I know she was born in Toronto June 28, 1951, and lived in Toronto all her life.

Her mother Anne is a Glaswegian who came to Canada at 3. Peggy grew up with her parents and siblings in Rexdale. Growing up in Toronto in the 60s? That should be worth an anecdote or two? And did she go to Expo to celebrate her 16th birthday? She turned 17 three days after Trudeau’s first winning election campaign; how was she affected by Trudeaumania? The first in her family to go to university, and she chose French for her degree; why?

She got an Honours BA in French language and literature from the University of Toronto in 1974(?), and perfected her French while working as an au pair in France; why?

She then became an Air Canada ticket agent, instead of whatever it was she had dreamed of. "She was grateful to have a job that offered good pay, a good pension and other union-achieved benefits and gradually immersed herself in unionism."

By 1980 she had partnered with Carl Kaufman. Peggy's roots go generations deep in the Parkdale-High Park community. Along with her partner Carl, they have raised their 3 sons here, living for many years at their home on Garden and then Parkside Drive. Peggy's youngest son graduated from Western Tech where his grandfather graduated 60 years ago. She was active in local community groups in Toronto. Was she active in Elaine Ziemba’s campaigns in High Park-Swansea in 1985, 1987 and 1990?

She became a union activist with the Canadian Airline Employees Association. When that union merged with the CAW in 1985, Nash was still a ticket agent and union activist; she had begun (when?) her union career as an organizer (?) with the Canadian Airline Employees Association. Was she president of her local? By 1988 (that was fast?) she was a Canadian Auto Workers point-person in the fight against the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

She became an assistant to national president Bob White in 1990, when she was turning 39. What was her involvement with the Rae government? When Bob White stepped down in 1992, she continued in that same capacity with his successor Buzz Hargrove.

Did she take a lead in the fight against Rae’s social contract? Was she at the famous Provincial Council meeting in Gananoque in June 1993 when the party disowned it? If she and Bob Rae face off across the floor of the House of Commons and even in the 2015 election, will it be round two? Round three? How many battles have they had?

She worked her way up to senior negotiator with the Canadian Auto Workers. Along the way, by 1994 she was already a "long-time human rights activist" – activist in what, exactly?

In 1994 she had a good year: she became an executive member of the Canadian Labour Congress along with Hargrove (as a General Vice-President, really? that was fast.) She was, along with Nycole Turmel and others, part of a wave of women taking senior positions in the labour movement. (Turmel was, as First Executive Vice-President of PSAC from 1994 to 1997, responsible for women's equality issues within that union.) The same year Peggy helped to found Equal Voice. Also in 1994, Peggy represented Canada as an Official Observer in the first post-apartheid elections in South Africa.

Fast forward to the New Politics Initiative founded in June 2001 by, among others, her fellow CAW staffer Jim Stanford, and supported by Peggy. It proposed "with or without the NDP, a new party is needed." I missed the Winnipeg Convention in November 2001. Did Peggy play a major role there?

In 2001? 2002? 2003? she attended the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Why?

She negotiated (when?) with Ford Canada as the first union woman responsible for major auto negotiations in North America.

Jack Layton asked Peggy to run for the NDP shortly after he became the leader in 2003, although the nomination in February 2004 for Parkdale—High Park was contested by Gregory Hamara. She lost in Parkdale—High Park, but later that year she served as a monitor for the Ukrainian election.

In 2005 she was very busy: in March she attended the UN conference Beijing +10 (her bio says + 12, but that was in 2007) on the status of women; and in November led a delegation to Mar del Plata, Argentina to oppose the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.

Tue, 2011-12-13 22:53

#17

Mr.Tea

I don't need to bother Peggy, herself, with this question as I'm sure someone on here can answer it for me: How's her French?

I like her a lot and would likely make her my first choice but fluent bilingualism is a pre-requisite for me. Anyone know?

Tue, 2011-12-13 23:54

#18

Boom Boom

Peggy's French has been discussed many times in the leadership thread. She has at least one university degree in French, and has a bit of an accent, probably from her familial roots.

ETA: from post #15 above: She got an Honours BA in French language and literature from the University of Toronto in 1974(?), and perfected her French while working as an au pair in France;

ETA: I'm two years older than Peggy, and got my Master's degree at U of T in 1980 after I returned to academia from a job with the feds. I have a one-year college credit in French, but I haven't used it much.

Wed, 2011-12-14 02:38

#19

Wilf Day

ottawaobserver in another thread wrote:
Nash is also surprisingly weak in her knowledge of the country outside Toronto the couple of times I've heard her. This is also of concern.

Looking at my post #15 above, have I left out some significant Canadian experience outside Toronto? If not, OO may be dead on.

Fri, 2011-12-30 13:04

#20

American Leftis...

What would you do, as NDP leader, to appeal to those who didn't vote in the last election, seeing as 4 in 10 eligible voters did not go to the polls (thus leaving a massive potential group of NDP voters?). And as an American, I'd also like to ask if you would get rid of NAFTA, seeing as it only has only benefited rich American corporations and has severely hurt the working class both in Canada and the US, not to mention the environmental degradation it has resulted in in both of our countries?

Fri, 2011-12-30 17:58

#21

Fidel

American Leftist Nerd wrote:

What would you do, as NDP leader, to appeal to those who didn't vote in the last election, seeing as 4 in 10 eligible voters did not go to the polls (thus leaving a massive potential group of NDP voters?).

This is a very good question.

Pollster says online voting and PR could dramatically increase voter turnout. 2009

Apparently our two oldest political parties are fearful of technology as well as being democrophobes.

Sat, 2011-12-31 02:11

#22

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Fidel wrote:

Pollster says online voting and PR could dramatically increase voter turnout. 2009

If you read the actual poll report, 36% of respondents said they were either "not very likely" or "not at all likely" to vote online or said they don't use the internet. To me, that looks like a 64% voter turnout for online voting - hardly a "dramatic increase" over recent election figures.

Sat, 2011-12-31 03:54

#23

Fidel

On which page of the report does it say that? Because national results said that 49% were very likely and 15% somewhat likely for a total of 64% overall indicating a likelihood for liking on-line voting.

And that's just making things easier on E-day. If we give Canadians a reason to vote with the greatest of ease, we should be in fabulous shape democratically.

If we can have increasing surveillance with CCTV cameras in public places and the Feds handing our European and Cuban travel itineraries over to Homeland Stupidity for safe keeping, why is U.S.-style e-voting not a good idea as well? Are they afraid that Canadians will show up at the polls and vote against them or something? What about greening the environment and leaving the car in the driveway on E-day? Shouldn't E-day be green and easy at the same time? I think it's a wonderful opportunity for our [s]rotten bastards[/s] elected officials to actually do something positive for democracy in this country.

Sat, 2011-12-31 13:38

#24

Michael Moriarity

Fidel, I have been a professional software developer for over 30 years, and I do not believe that it is possible to make an online voting system that is not subject to very severe risk of fraud. It would take a long, technical discussion to explain how I've come to this conclusion, but suffice it to say that I will never have confidence in an election result again, if some online voting scheme is implemented.

It is not so bad for the NDP leadership, because I doubt that any of the candidates would have the inclination or means to cheat. On the other hand, I feel absolutely certain that the Harper government would have both the inclination and means, and would be very likely to use those means. If they are even semi-competent technically, they can even cover their tracks quite effectively.

Also, as I said in another thread, online voting also means no more secret ballot, because, for example, an abusive husband could insist on watching to be sure that his wife votes according to his command or else.

Despite its convenience, I will always be opposed to online voting, and I will probably not bother voting any more if it is ever implemented.

Sat, 2011-12-31 17:48

#25

Fidel

Well then we'd better stop thinking that banking is secure and all. Bankwire and CHIPS and U.S. Military networks are surely hackable with their flimsy multimillion dollar ATM switches designed and manufactured in Canada. Surely it represents a national security threat to America the most technically advanced country in the world.

I don't know why we should trust telecommunications the way governments, the banks, the military and corporations do, because it's all futile in the end, really.

And the rich who wire their money out of the country to safe tax havens in the Bahamas and Switzerland at near light speed are only fooling themselves. It shouldn't be long before the Feds are able to foil technology with technology. There has to be a political will for it to happen, though.

Sat, 2011-12-31 17:49

#26

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Fidel wrote:

On which page of the report does it say that?

The front page, under "Highlights".

Quote:
Because national results said that 49% were very likely and 15% somewhat likely for a total of 64% overall indicating a likelihood for liking on-line voting.

Isn't that exactly what I said?

Sat, 2011-12-31 18:09

#27

Michael Moriarity

Fidel wrote:

Well then we'd better stop thinking that banking is secure and all. Bankwire and CHIPS and U.S. Military networks are surely hackable with their flimsy multimillion dollar ATM switches designed and manufactured in Canada. Surely it represents a national security threat to America the most technically advanced country in the world.

I don't know why we should trust telecommunications the way governments, the banks, the military and corporations do, because it's all futile in the end, really.

And the rich who wire their money out of the country to safe tax havens in the Bahamas and Switzerland at near light speed are only fooling themselves. It shouldn't be long before the Feds are able to foil technology with technology. There has to be a political will for it to happen, though.

Banks and government servers are hacked all the time. Usually the banks just swallow the losses and don't tell anyone about it. Plus, the issues are different in voting than in finance, but I don't want to get into a long, boring lecture. I'm just saying that I have spent my life studying computers and software, and in my opinion online voting will be corrupt from the get-go. If you think I'm an alarmist fool, that's fine with me, but it won't change the reality of things.

Sat, 2011-12-31 18:09

#28

Fidel

M. Spector wrote:
Isn't that exactly what I said?

Okay sorry, I'm a fast reader not a good one. I think we can not say that 64% represents the sum total of national intent to vote. The question was simply: Are you likely or unlikely to use on-line voting? The question was not phrased in the form of: How likely are you to vote using any method?

They are just looking at ways to increase the likelihood that Canadians will vote. And I think it's a good thing, M?

ETA: I think young people would be more typical of the would-be e-voter, and they are in the general age group of Canadians not voting by the standard method apparently.

In my opinion, democracy is all about choices. And the more choices there are the better. I certainly will admit that there would be security issues as in the States, Estonia etc. But there are security issues with the paper ballot method as well. Apparently there are systems that produce an analog/paper record of votes in cases where re-counts etc are necessary.

Sat, 2011-12-31 20:00

#29

Michael Moriarity

Babblers, I promise this is my last off-topic post.

Fidel, to get a better idea of the sorts of concerns I have, you could read this essay by Bruce Schneier. It was written in December, 2000, and refers to the recent Bush/Gore/Nader election. None of the problems Schneier points out have been solved in the 11 years since then. Excerpt:

Bruce Schneier wrote:

Online voting schemes have even more potential for failure and abuse. We know we can't protect Internet computers from viruses and worms, and that all the operating systems are vulnerable to attack. What recourse is there if the voting system is hacked, or simply gets overloaded and fails? There would be no means of recovery, no way to do a recount. Imagine if someone hacked the vote in Florida; redoing the election would be the only possible solution. A secure Internet voting system is theoretically possible, but it would be the first secure networked application ever created in the history of computers.

There are other, less serious, problems with online voting. First, the privacy of the voting booth cannot be imitated online. Second, in any system where the voter is not present, the ballot must be delivered tagged in some unique way so that people know it comes from a registered voter who has not voted before. Remote authentication is something we've not gotten right yet. (And no, biometrics don't solve this problem.) These problems also exist in absentee ballots and mail-in elections, and many states have decided that the increased voter participation is more than worth the risks. But because online systems have a central point to attack, the risks are greater.

Edited to add Schneier's Wikipedia entry, for those who may not have heard of him.

Sat, 2011-12-31 23:17

#30

Fidel

Oh I won't call anyone an alarmist fool.

Sat, 2011-12-31 23:18

#31

Fidel

I know, Michael. And what would you say to scrapping private enterprise involvement in nuclear power and the military in general after an apparent breach of security at Mitsubishi, Japan? Perhaps nuclear power and all things military should be sole responsiblities of federal governments employing only bondable unionized workers certified in their fields of expertise the world over in order to contain security issues?

While e-voting is not available for federal elections in Canada, it is happening in some municipal elections already and for some time.

As I was saying before, there are security risks with paper ballot voting equivalent to DOS attacks and outright election fraud in general. We live in a complex world. The genie is out of the bottle for a long time.

Wed, 2012-01-04 15:40

#32

Uncle John

I agree with Fidel that such measures which would get more people out to vote would be a good thing.

Still you can't talk about this without talking about FPTP and what people see as the futility of voting in a riding which overwhelmingly votes for one party which is not your favorite. Most are reluctant to play a game they are almost certain they are going to lose, except the lottery. But it is unpatriotic to suggest that playing the lottery is stupidity and a tax on those least able to afford it.

Maybe if we made elections more like the lottery (where someone wins and nobody loses) more people would buy tickets -er - cast votes. We have to inculcate in the minds of the voting population that it is unpatriotic to suggest that like playing the lottery, voting is futile.

Tue, 2012-02-21 17:28

#33

Unionist

[Peggy hasn't been on live yet ... has she?? Hope I didn't miss her...]

Sister Nash:

On April 27, 2010, the Speaker of the House held the Harper government in contempt of Parliament for refusing to hand over all the Afghan detainee documents.

As in the case of many other such scandalous actions, Harper emerged unscathed, and the issue disappeared from the radar.

What is at stake is Canada's possible complicity in torture and other war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Are you prepared to demand that all the documents be released to Parliament now - failing which, that you will publish them immediately when the NDP forms the government?

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