SooToday received the following letter from James Fields regarding Hugh Stevenson, the federal Conservative candidate for Sault Ste. Marie-Algoma.
A candidate for political office, much less a former chief of police, shouldn’t need a private investigator to find them during the campaign in order to figure out their policy positions.
Other than lowering the price of booze, we don’t know what Hugh Stevenson stands for, or what he believes, because Stevenson is in hiding.
Stevenson skipped the 2251-organized debate at the Royal Canadian Legion.
Stevenson skipped the Chamber of Commerce debate.
Stevenson skipped the youth debate at the Algoma Youth Wellness Hub.
Stevenson didn’t participate in the environmental survey circulated to candidates.
Stevenson skipped the retiree debate organized by the Retired Teachers of Ontario.
And he skipped the Indigenous engagement session.
Skipping the debates might not come as a surprise, since this seems to be a trend across the country (and here), but to not participate in any media event whatsoever punctuates the complete ineffectiveness Stevenson would exhibit if he were elected.
Skipping the debates might not come as a surprise, since this seems to be a trend across the country (and here), but to not participate in any media event whatsoever punctuates the complete ineffectiveness Stevenson would exhibit if he were elected.
Either he doesn’t respect the voters, or he has no backbone. Perhaps he doesn’t know what his position on the issues should be, or perhaps he’s been avoiding the media and the public so that nobody can ask what he knew, and when he knew, about the $2.5M police budget deficit that we all learned about just this week.
What seems obvious, is that Stevenson doesn’t have the gumption to stand up to the central Conservative command.
If Stevenson can’t stand up to his party on a simple issue like attending a meet-the-candidate event organized during a campaign, how will he stand up to the party brass if they were in government, and if he was an MP.
When Algoma Steel needs help through the tariff war, would he simply kowtow to the party position or would he defend our largest employer and the community’s needs? On passenger rail subsidies, that the Harper government cut in 2014, would he fight for their reinstatement, or, as his recent actions have shown, would he tell the community that it’s too bad we didn’t get them (or perhaps he’d just ignore the media when asked).
Stevenson did an interview with Village Media which aired today, but besides that he's declined nearly all interviews, even the Sault Star’s weekly policy issue write up for the last four weeks, prompting their reporter to ask if the Conservatives were trying to undermine democracy.
If Stevenson dishonours the community by not telling us how he’ll represent us, he doesn’t deserve the honour of doing so.
James Fields
Wawa
What seems obvious, is that Stevenson doesn’t have the gumption to stand up to the central Conservative command.
If Stevenson can’t stand up to his party on a simple issue like attending a meet-the-candidate event organized during a campaign, how will he stand up to the party brass if they were in government, and if he was an MP.
When Algoma Steel needs help through the tariff war, would he simply kowtow to the party position or would he defend our largest employer and the community’s needs? On passenger rail subsidies, that the Harper government cut in 2014, would he fight for their reinstatement, or, as his recent actions have shown, would he tell the community that it’s too bad we didn’t get them (or perhaps he’d just ignore the media when asked).
Stevenson did an interview with Village Media which aired today, but besides that he's declined nearly all interviews, even the Sault Star’s weekly policy issue write up for the last four weeks, prompting their reporter to ask if the Conservatives were trying to undermine democracy.
If Stevenson dishonours the community by not telling us how he’ll represent us, he doesn’t deserve the honour of doing so.
James Fields
Wawa