LFK TV DEBATE COVERS A LOT OF GROUND

No one in the room was feeling any love for Highway 413.

While it may be more than 370 kilometres away, the proposed 52-kilometre highway connecting York, Peel and Halton regions north and west of Toronto was not winning any rave reviews at the LanarkFrontenac-Kingston candidates debate at the YourTV studios in Smiths Falls on Wednesday, May 11.

"The Greens are opposed to paving over farmland," said Dr. Marlene Spruyt, who was joined on stage and on air by Liberal candidate Amand PulkerMok and New Democrat candidate Drew Cumpson. Spruyt said her party would cut the highway. Pulker-Mok said that $10 billion was being "wasted" on the highway that would only benefit one part of the province.

The debate was sponsored by the Lanark Federation of Agriculture and the Carleton Place and District Chamber of Commerce. Progressive Conservative candidate John Jordan was unable to attend due to illness. Craig Rogers was also not in attendance.

Thomas Mulder of the Ontario Party and Marcin Lewandowski of the New Blue Party of Ontario held their own debate out on the front lawn, as they weren't invited.

Bruce Nolan, the federation's director, and Jackie Kavanagh, the chamber's general manager, were well aware of the alternate debate happening across the parking lot.

"We all got their emails," said Nolan. The criteria was set that "you had to have more than four per cent of participation" in public opinion polls.

"And a seat in Parliament" at Queen's Park,

added Kavanagh. "We decided to follow that (criteria)."

"They were provided all of the details," said Nolan. "It's not that we don't want them involved."RURAL SCHOOLSThe debate fluctuated between agricultural and business issues to more general questions, but one issue that has been a concern for voters locally in the recent past has been the threat of rural school closings.

Cumpson said that he attended a rural school, having to take a long bus ride there, and "that school is no longer open." It would be a priority for him to "make sure that rural schools stay open."

"As a supply teacher," Pulker-Mok said she has worked all over the riding, including in rural schools. She called the funding formula "outdated." Again, the issue of Highway 413 came up, and she said that that money could be better spent on retrofitting and renovating existing schools.

Spruyt agreed with Pulker-Mok that the funding formula needed to change, as did teacher/student ratios at smaller schools. Primary school students "absolutely need to stay close to home," but

high school students may be "willing to travel a little further" to get the specific classes they may need, which could be done via online learning, but not from home — from a school setting. HOUSINGThe Greens promised to build 100,000 affordable rental units, as well as 60,000 supportive housing units with "wraparound services," said Spruyt. She also wanted to see densification in urban areas to avoid urban sprawl.

"I know a lot of friends who cannot afford to live in the riding," said Cumpson. His party would finance and build at least 250,000 affordable and nonmarket rental homes over the next 10 years. "People are being pushed out of their communities," he said. "Seniors are needing that accessibility" with the aging population.

Pulker-Mok promised that her party would "put back in rent control" and create an Ontario Home Building Corporation designed to tackle municipal affordable housing wait lists and build up 1.5 million new homes.