Our recent Canadian Chamber Conference hosted a Pollsters and Pundits panel with our pollster providing an in-depth analysis of the opinion polls and our pundit providing expert political analysis on what is impacting the voting decisions of Canadians.
Polls showed that Canadians increasingly believe that the country is off on the wrong track with a large percentage of people wanting change. However, even considering the need for change, public ratings amongst the leaders is not promising, with most leaders holding a negative net impression amongst voters. We also see that this will be a tight race between two parties and that our country is fairly divided in where their political alignment falls between east and west. The top election issues driving political campaigns are focused on affordability, health care, taxes and climate change.
As a non-partisan organization, our Chamber of Commerce has an opportunity weigh in on these issues and provide a more balanced approach moving forward. This is because we are focused on having government and political parties adopt policy recommendations and changes that we, as chambers, are asking for across the country, providing a balanced perspective on the changes and leadership direction needed, along with a focus on solutions and convergence of opinions on these key areas.
As such, we are encouraging everyone to engage in the conversation to become well informed about all parties and all policy positions, making sure votes aren’t cast solely on one program or one issue. It is up to each of us to circumvent all the misinformation, weigh all the campaign promises and ask questions of your candidates.
We encourage you to look at the platforms to become informed about party policies and view our Vote Prosperity campaign at platformforprosperity.com. You can also attend election forums and candidate events in our community in order to make an informed vote on Oct. 21.
We are calling on all of the federal parties to support Canada’s job creators by including our Vote Prosperity policy priorities in their election platforms and we encourage you to do the same. Together we can build a brighter, more innovative future for Canadians because in order to have prosperity, our economy as a whole must thrive.
Attend our Chamber federal election forum tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Medicine Hat College Eresman Theatre and view election information through our website: medicinehatchamber.com/pages/vote-prosperity.
Lisa Kowalchuk is the executive director of the Medicine Hat & District Chamber of Commerce. For more information on this column or the Chamber, contact 403-527-5214.
