Freedom Flyer 12

Elgin riding candidates toast the Sept. 10 election with coffee mugs they received from the St. Thomas Kiwanis Club at a luncheon debate. From Left are New Democrat Gord Campbell; Ray Monteith, Freedom Party; Kiwanian Gord Tilford, chairman of the debate; Liberal Marietta Roberts and Conservative Ron McNeil, member in the last legislature.

By Bob Massecar
St. Thomas Bureau

ST. THOMAS - Party platforms for the Sept. 10 provincial election came away from two Elgin riding all-candidates debates Monday with their political planks virtually sandpaper smooth.

In their first face-to-face meetings of the campaign, the three main party opponents - Conservative Ron McNeil, Liberal Marietta Roberts and New Democrat Gord Campbell - predictably hammered out the same party lines espoused by their leaders in their continuing campaign travels across Ontario.

Only Freedom Party representative Ray Monteith tried to scuff the election proposals of the parties, taking a kick at all forms of government as being too restrictive, too costly and too cosy with each other.

At a one-hour luncheon of the St. Thomas Kiwanis Club and a two - hour late afternoon confrontation sponsored by the St. Thomas Chamber of Commerce, the topics of free trade and public automobile insurance were bounced around by the group.

McNeil, member in the last legislature, stuck by the Conservative view that free trade would mean more jobs and a better local economy in the long run by enhancing "One of the largest trading relationships in the world."

Campbell supported the opposing NDP opinion, noting it could prove costly in Elgin where 65 per cent of jobs were auto industry related.

Roberts maintained that Premier David Peterson has promised a Liberal government would veto the deal if it were to cause harm to Ontario, while Monteith said his party favored free trade, including Sunday shopping.

On auto insurance, Campbell said provincially run programs have been working well in Western Canada.

Roberts said the Liberal government had tried to draft legislation to establish a rate review board to cap insurance rates and provide rebates for some drivers, but opposition MPPs had forced the issue to be placed under study by a committee of the legislature.

McNeil said the Conservatives supported a rate review board, but would leave insurance programs in the hands of private business where it could be more efficiently operated.

A few local issues did come to the fore.

All four candidates, questioned about rumors that a transfer to London was being considered for Elgin courts and local administration of justice, vowed to keep the status quo and fight against any future attempt on those lines.

They also favored promotion of tourism in Elgin to create more local jobs, improved programs for area senior citizens that would help them stay in their homes, better housing and development programs involving group homes in the district for the handicapped, more assistance for family farm operations to keep them from extinction and greater protection of the environment.