It started with an email forwarded to one of the Cortes Radio team. Our Member of Parliament was having a ZOOM chat. We asked to broadcast the chat over the radio. While this did not work out, it led to the ZOOM/radio townhall meeting with Rachel Blaney on Sept. 22.
Our MC, Ashley Zabatany, opened with, “Rachel has been our MP since 2015. She is the federal NDP whip, critic for veterans and a strong advocate for a national seniors strategy. She is also committed to ending poverty and food insecurity for seniors in Canada and tackling the rising costs of living. Rachel has lived and worked in coastal communities for over 20 years and is dedicated to protecting our coastlines for future generations.”
Rachel Blaney - submitted photo
Some of the topics discussed:
- Onset of the COVID-19 crisis: Canadian government and NDP party responses.
- Canada’s inequalities and helping lower income mothers, families and others in need.
- Helping small businesses, veterans, students and people with disabilities
- Childcare
- The wage subsidy program
- Pharmacare, dental care
- Canada's top 1 per cent; a universal guaranteed income
- The housing crisis and homelessness
- Food security
- Declining salmon runs, removing salmon farms from the ocean
- Aboriginal rights, title and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
- Immigration issues
- Pension plans
- Climate change
- Internet connectivity for all Canadians
- economic and environmental justice
- Subsidies and support to the oil and gas industry
Setting up the meeting
Manda Aufochs Gillespie was our back up host, introduced the program and selected the questions to be handed on to our MC.
There were other, less visible, people in the Cortes Radio team. You will hear a reference to Ayton Novak in the podcast. Bryan McKinnon, Sean (the radio station’s techie) and Roy Hales also helped set up this meeting, as did Rachel’s assistant Lucas Shuller.
Blaney had just returned to Ottawa, for the throne speech on Sept. 23, and connected to the meeting from her computer.
After a technical glitch, which momentarily disconnected everyone in the ZOOM chatroom from the broadcast, things started rolling quickly.
There were too many questions for Blaney to respond to within the allotted hour. Our apologies to everyone whose questions were not submitted.