{"id":26939,"date":"2020-07-09T19:32:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T23:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26939"},"modified":"2020-07-16T17:37:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T21:37:28","slug":"experience-will-help-steer-canada-through-economic-recovery-mackay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/experience-will-help-steer-canada-through-economic-recovery-mackay\/","title":{"rendered":"Experience will help steer Canada through economic recovery: MacKay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the country looks toward a new normal, an experienced\nvoice is needed to ensure Canada is best positioned to come out the other side,\naccording to Conservative leadership hopeful Peter MacKay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot has changed at home and abroad since the former\nCabinet Minister launched his bid this past January to replace Andrew Scheer as\nthe permanent leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, but experience in crisis\nrecovery has helped the Nova Scotia native stay on track in new ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a socially-distanced local campaign stop this\nweek, Mr. MacKay said his time at the Cabinet table, particularly through the recession\nof 2008 and 2009, has made him the right person to steer the national ship\nthrough uncharted waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was in government for close to 10 years across major\nportfolios of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Defence, and I had an economic\nportfolio with responsibilities regionally for Atlantic Canada, and that\nexperience, particularly through the recession, albeit a different kind of\ncrisis not nearly on the magnitude of what we\u2019re facing due to COVID-19, [has\ngiven me a background] in economic management and crisis recovery,\u201d said Mr.\nMacKay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe entered that period with a balanced budget in 2008\nand emerged much stronger than other G8 countries at that time and\u2026that\nexperience in that era, in those portfolios, does set me apart from other\ncandidates \u2013 and the positions I have taken, I believe, portray a broader, more\ninclusive vision for our party and our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canadians, he said, are looking for \u201csound judgement,\nfiscal prudence\u201d and a plan for \u201chow we manage our way through what is going to\nbe a very difficult time in the economy. Those difficulties are already evident\nwith figures related to job losses and, to that extent, Mr. MacKay has been\nbuilding an eight-point jobs plan for Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These points include support for small business, getting\nnatural resources to market, making Canada \u201ca technology powerhouse for the\nnorth\u201d, restoring consumer and business confidence, making the country\u2019s tax\nsystem \u201ca driver of jobs and growth\u201d, bringing advanced manufacturing jobs to\nCanada, deploying \u201cpro-employment trade policies\u201d, and getting government finances\nunder control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur campaign will get Canadians back to work, make\nnecessary adjustments in our economy, particularly around our energy sector and\nour natural resource sector, manufacturing, technology and small business; it\nis looking at the way government manages itself as well as the economy, and\nrestoring consumer confidence for both the businesses and individuals [while]\nrestoring a sense that our tax system is fair, is inviting for new\nentrepreneurs, and those who might want to come back to Canada, as opposed to\ncreating barriers,\u201d said Mr. MacKay. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to give the impression to\nthe world that we\u2019re not open for business and we can\u2019t build things. We have\nto change that impression rapidly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do so will take a coordinated effort between all three\nlevels of government, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here in the GTA, issues that need to be tackled\ncollectively include housing, transportation infrastructure, and getting people\nback into the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On housing and transportation infrastructure, it is about\nbuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat could include things like high-speed rail,\u201d he\nsaid. \u201cFor housing, it is a complex issue, but there are adjustments that could\nbe made by the Federal government to work with contractors to help streamline\nthe process for construction of new housing. It\u2019s also looking at things like\nmoney laundering and organized crime because this is also an issue in terms of\nexternal forces that are impacting housing in big cities like Toronto and\nVancouver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut we also have to recognize that, as a party, we have\nto overcome some of the stigma, perhaps, of not having sufficiently addressed\nquestions around the environment. That\u2019s another issue I know is particularly\nprevalent amongst millennials, amongst young people, but also in big cities.\nThey want to know that we have a very real plan to address climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the campaign continues, Mr. MacKay says he is looking\nforward to connecting with Conservative Party members, and Canadians more\nbroadly, through social media channels such as Facebook Live as well as Zoom\ncalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a seasoned campaigner, it is a new way to reach\nsupporters, but it is also a new way to connect with new people, some of whom,\nthanks to the global pandemic, also have new and different expectations of what\nthey want from a leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think when COVID fully descended upon our country,\nthere was a major priority shift, obviously dealing with human health and a lot\nof talk about the lack of preparedness,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the aftermath of SARS and\nH1N1, people were correctly asking of the government, why weren\u2019t we prepared?\nWhy were we missing critical pieces of protective equipment, ventilators,\nrespirators, the necessities? That question has yet to be answered,\nparticularly when we know the Federal government sent 16 tons of medical equipment\nto China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there will be a reckoning for that and I truly believe there will be an opportunity to look at those circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the country looks toward a new normal, an experienced voice is needed to ensure Canada is best positioned to come out the other side, according to Conservative leadership hopeful Peter MacKay. A lot has changed at home and abroad since the former Cabinet Minister launched his bid this past January to replace Andrew Scheer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-70v","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-03 20:38:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2020-07-09-03.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}