KW election briefs

Crime Rates strike debate between political parties

The crime policy has been taken into deep consideration during this month’s federal election campaign, particularly after a series of assaults, threats and violent acts were recently committed locally.

The Waterloo Region Record is reporting that Peter Braid, the Conservative Party of Canada incumbent for the riding of Kitchener-Waterloo, said that he is aware that voters and constituents are concerned about this. Braid’s suggestion for a solution is a longer criminal sentence, while Andrew Telegdi, his Liberal Party opponent, said that more money should be invested in preventing crime. He claims that the money spent on crime prevention needs to be spent in a more meaningful way than it has been in the past.

Cathy MacLellan of the Green Party is looking at focusing on the root of the cause of the crime and spending more time on the resources as opposed to prevention.

Statistics Canada has reported that since 2003, among the four local ridings, the violent crime rate has increased by 33 per cent compared to the decreasing crime rate in Ontario and Canada.

WCI debate initiates discussion

At Waterloo Collegiate Institute last week, high school students had a chance to participate in a mock election, lining up to vote for each of the seven Kitchener-Waterloo candidates. Andrew Teledgi won the mock election with 38 per cent of the votes while Peter Braid lost with only 17 per cent.

Before students had the chance to vote, a debate was also held, where there was discussion regarding an incident involving Stephen Harper and his rally in London, where a university student was kicked out due to their postings about ties with the Liberal Party on Facebook. It was an incident that Conservative Party candidate Peter Braid called “unfortunate,” according to the Waterloo Chronicle.

It was calculated that 350 of the students attending WCI are over 18 and will be able to cast a vote in the federal election on May 2nd.