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South Okanagan--West Kootenay candidate interviews, Part V: Ken Robertson

The federal election is Monday, but there's a good chance some of you still aren’t 100% sure of your decision.

With that in mind, PentictonNow chatted with all five South Okanagan--West Kootenay candidates over the past 48 hours for this, our last-minute candidate wrap-up.

We asked the same five questions of each candidate and they offered their replies. Note that we approached them with little advanced warning and conducted our Q&As verbally, giving them no chance to prepare scripted responses.

Here in Part V, it's the Liberal Party's Ken Robertson.

Ken Robertson

<who>Photo Credit: Ken Robertson</who>

Tell our readers about yourself, where you live, your accomplishments, and why you're the best candidate.

I am from the Secwepemcúl’ecw nation from the Neskonlith people, located near Chase, BC. My spirit name is “Skylux,” meaning twin bear cubs.

I have four beautiful children, two of them diagnosed with autism and a third currently being assessed. With these diagnoses and not even sure what autism was as a father, I realized I'd have to leave the reservation, which is my home, to access health care. There are no doctors on reservations. There are only nurses. So most children and even seniors have to leave the reservation to access health care.

My wife had family in Toronto, so we moved there because they had more support, charities, education.

While going through this, I discovered there were not enough Indigenous voices at the table in regards to autism awareness and acceptance. So I began my journey of advocating for my non-verbal daughter in regards to future support because we are not immortals and we all breathe the same air and we all cherish our children's future.

During the process, I was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal by the governor general of Canada. I also became part of another working group for a national strategy that was actually set up by the Liberal government. And with the election call, I stepped up to the plate to make sure those voices are heard in the Indigenous community, especially those having autistic children.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

Between soaring temperatures, wildfires, and choking, lingering wildfire smoke, summers are becoming increasingly difficult in the region. How will a vote for you and your party help change this?

This is a short term/long term solution. The short term is that we have to better equip our provinces and territories by hiring and training more firefighters. A part of that will be Indigenous-led because in my community we have traditional burns around our villages and families so we don’t have fires coming near us. This goes back 30,000 years.

Long term is our climate change plan, which has been endorsed by the Suzuki Foundation and examined by independent experts to be one of the highest grades, from lowering emissions, to our Paris Accord agreement, to accelerating electric cars to having a solid plan on how to get there. For instance, creating our own batteries -- have the factories here so we're not importing them any longer.

Home prices and rents in the region were already onerous, then along came the pandemic to drive them into the stratosphere. How will the situation improve for folks who currently can barely afford rent, never mind a downpayment, with you as the MP?

You compare and contrast to other platforms and you'll find they're very different. We have a fully costed, vetted platform.

Our plan reduces house flipping by different charges and requiring properties to be held for 12 months. We're also introducing options in regards to rent to own programs, so people who are renting to own can accumulate that toward the downpayment.

More importantly, we want to build 1.4 million homes. When we build more capacity, home prices go down because there's more for sale. Period.

And there'll be no more blind bidding and more transparency when it comes making the most important purchase of one's life.

<who>Photo Credit: NowMedia</who>

How would you and your government deal with the pandemic going forward? Where are your priorities? (Mask mandates, vaccination passports, economic recovery, etc?)

The number one thing is that we all have to come together. We have to beat it together. Provinces have to make their own mandates, but as the federal government we have to, for example, provide more funds. The virus doesn’t move by itself. It moves through people and their behavior.

We're also trying to help the health care system, which is already at critical mass. We want to support it as much as possible to beat this so we can move on from the pandemic. We're helping with subsidies in regards to hiring people, rents so they can keep their doors open, and of course helping individuals with up to $2,000 a month.

Is there anything we didn’t cover (Indigenous issues, crime, opioid crisis, homelessness, etc) that you feel is critically important and would like to discuss?

I'd like to address Indigenous issues.

The bottom line is that we all have to walk this road of reconciliation together, side by side, as equals. My grandmother attended Kamloops Indian Residential School and survived it for two years. Six of her 13 children attended and survived it miraculously, but the trauma is still there.

Canada has to do a better job because the evidence is in the ground. A lot of people don’t fully understand it because it’s not taught in the history books. But we have to do better in regards to supporting education. It is the key for future generations to understand the history.

It has to be taught in grade 7, grade 8 social studies. There are a lot of things that are already taught, like apartheid in South Africa. But we should do better in terms of Canada's own history so that there's less discrimination and more acceptance and a better way in the future for everyone.



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