We are now less than 24 hours away from election day in Canada. Canadians will head to the polls on Monday, April 28th.
In Provencher, the five candidates whose names will appear on the ballot are:
- Ted Falk (Conservative Party of Canada)
- Noel Gautron (People's Party of Canada)
- Trevor Kirczenow (Liberal Party of Canada)
- Blair Mahaffy (Green Party of Canada)
- Brandy Schmidt (New Democratic Party)
SteinbachOnline hosted a 2025 Provencher Candidates Forum, involving three participants: Noel Gautron, Trevor Kirczenow, and Blair Mahaffy. All five candidates were invited to attend, however, according to Ted Falk's campaign office, his campaign calendar is very full, and he was unable to attend. Falk did however submit his answers to the questions that were asked. And, though we invited Brandy Schmidt through the NDP office, we did not receive a reply.
One of the questions we asked was, with increased attention on immigration, what policies would you like to see in place, and how would those affect Provencher?
Noel Gautron
We would like to see a complete moratorium on immigration, as mentioned previously, until such a time as the housing market has stabilized. In addition, "Visa violators", those who are overstaying either their student Visas, work Visas, etc., immediate deportation. In the last two years, we're looking at about 2.5 million people, where we're only producing about 200 to 250,000 units per annum. This is putting a tremendous amount of strain, both for the immigrants who are seeking to live here and then for our own citizens. I might add as well that housing is such a critical issue. A lot of people aren't aware, we've had a negative birth rate since 1970, meaning we have not had enough people being born in the country to replace those that are currently around. The reason that you need to take this into account, whether you be discussing social services, or taxation in general, most of our services are drawn from general revenue, meaning that those currently paying taxes are the ones directly paying for those services for the entirety. So, we're moving into the next 10 to 15 years a demographic, not quite a collapse, but very close to it, where we're going to have substantially more retirement-age individuals than what the economy was previously accustomed to. Now, some will tell you that immigration is the sure fix on this thing. I would tend to push back, it's kicking the can down the road because ultimately if we don't get those natural birth rates back up to past replacement level, this is just a cyclical thing. Every five to six years we need to bring in a new batch of taxpayers. So, get off the treadmill.
Trevor Kirczenow
I think we have an opportunity right now with everything that's going on in the United States, there are a number of doctors and nurses who have become very uncomfortable with their situation in that country, and they are interested in coming to Canada. At this point, when we have a doctor and nurse shortage, I think we should do everything we can to streamline the process of healthcare professionals being able to immigrate to Canada and practice here and relieve some of that strain on our healthcare system. Similarly, I think this is a time when we could maybe look for a reverse brain drain coming back from the United States of some of those amazing scientists and specialists who are now having a hard time doing their jobs in the U.S. and who have lost funding there. So, I think that's a potential opportunity for Canada right now. Generally, in terms of immigration, the Liberal Party would like to keep the new cap on immigration levels that has been put in place recently while we quickly build affordable housing.
Blair Mahaffy
There's no doubt that we need immigration because of those demographics that Noel pointed out. The rate at which it happened was extreme and we pulled back from that a little bit. And I think it speaks to being prepared to plan when we do various things in the government. In this case, were we ready for infrastructure for the housing? So, we need to invest in trades, in developing housing, a crown corporation perhaps to build housing that stays in government hands, it doesn't end up being sold to corporations, so that they can just make more profit on people. And really plan for those immigration projects that we need to take place. We also do need to take advantage of what's happening in the U.S. and we're in a competitive position. There's scientists in many fields from healthcare to climate science that are going to be looking to Canada and to Europe to immigrate to. Doctors and nurses that will be looking to come here. We need to look at how we can help them certify in their field of expertise more rapidly. And that also means reducing trade barriers here, which is good for us too, all tied together. So how do we encourage that, that immigration to take advantage and not lose out to Europe in what is going to be a competitive market for that immigration.
Ted Falk (via email)
Canada once had an immigration system that was the envy of the world. I can tell you my constituency office helps hundreds of people with immigration issues every year. The system is so broken. I can't even begin in two minutes to describe how broken it is, but the reality would shock a lot of folks. The Liberals have a million plus people coming into Canada every year. That's just not sustainable. Many are just waved in without proper background checks. That's irresponsible. Canada needs immigrants but we need the right kind of people coming here and they need to come here the right way. Folks who will benefit Canada. So, in terms of policies, we need to significantly reduce the number of people who are coming each year. A million people a year is just not sustainable. It's one of the numerous factors contributing to our housing crisis. It's not fair to Canadians or to those newcomers. We need to prioritize immigrants who have skills that will help Canada's economy. One of the things our party has been advocating for years is providing a path to credential recognition for doctors and nurses. We have huge shortages in healthcare; there's no reason a trained doctor or nurse should be driving a cab or working in fast food. We also need a dedicated stream for economic immigration. Those folks who want to invest in and start businesses in Canada. On the refugee side, first, we need to enforce the Safe Third Country Agreement. There's no such thing as a "refugee" or someone claiming "asylum" from the U.S. It's a safe country; we have an agreement. We need to enforce it and have CBSA turn these folks trying to come here illegally back at the border. We also need to make it easier for private sponsorship of genuine refugees. We have a lot of organizations and churches who do this or try to, and they've been hindered by the Liberals. We also need to clean up IRCC (immigration Canada). It's taking years for folks to get something as simple as an interview. These people and their families are stuck in limbo. It's wrong. Immigration needs to be fair, and it needs to be safe. Both for Canadians and for those who are coming here. We need to have policies in place that ensure Canada is benefiting from those coming here and that we are also setting them up for success in Canada.
We also asked the candidates what they are hearing when going door to door, what are the residents of Provencher most concerned about, and how they respond.
Noel Gautron
As with I guess most of the other candidates, I've been hearing mostly about the cost of living. So, this is in terms of people being worried about their children and their ability to afford houses now or into the future. A great deal of concern on housing. As well, the trade relationship with the United States. As outlined, we'd like to see something move in a more positive direction without all the name-calling the other leaders have tended to do. That would be the main bunch.
Trevor Kirczenow
The number one issue that I keep hearing about has to do with the economy and Canada's relationship with the United States. People are very worried about the tariffs and that's affecting them, how it will affect Canada. And again, I think Liberal Leader Mark Carney being an experienced economist is the best position to lead us through this and that's also definitely what I'm hearing at the doors. But another issue that is coming up quite frequently has to do with protecting our democracy. Voters are noticing that in the United States, they are seeing a serious erosion of their democratic rights right now. And what I'm hearing is that people are scared, they don't want that to happen in Canada. Provencher riding has a very diverse population, including a number of French language speakers, people who practice many different religions in our area, Indigenous voters. And people are also saying they are concerned about women's rights. And again, that we're seeing the erosion of those rights in the United States and that the Conservative Party in Canada has been parroting a lot of Donald Trump's language on those issues of individual rights and freedoms. And, what I'm hearing is people are concerned about everything that's happening there, and they don't want that to be part of Canada. They want to protect our Canadian culture, what is unique for us here and to protect our democracy.
Blair Mahaffy
Absolutely a lot of people are concerned about the cost of living and the situation with the United States, that's a fairly common theme. But there's lots of different things popping up all over the place. I've heard a lot of people worried about the hyper-partisanship, also in Canadian politics between the two major parties. And some people saying why are we always forced to choose to vote against who we don't want. This harkens back to us really needing some electoral reform, that we were promised in 2015 and didn't get. And the Green Party is still a strong proponent of proportional representation. So that the number of seats represent the number of votes. That helps bring us together to cooperate to build better solutions when we can bring many voices to the table. It's a diverse riding, it's a diverse country and we need those voices to work together. I've also, up in Anola and Vivian area, the sio sands silica extraction project is back in the news because they are wanting to get that going again, mostly under provincial control, but I think that from an environmental sustainability point of view, that has to be something the federal government is ready to look at. Removing restrictions on mineral extraction processes when your very water source is at threat, that's not a great idea. So, we need to be watching that. I've been talking to some local farmers about concerns about family farms and how we protect them and that's something, I admit I'm not an expert on, but I would love to have more engagement in that process and understand how we do that. In the Whiteshell, the twinning of Highway 1, I guess to build that transportation corridor, but we're concerned about what's this going to do to the wilderness, what is it going to do to the tourism industry. So, there's lots of things going on and we need to all be coming to the table to work through this stuff.
Ted Falk (via email)
Over the past few weeks, my team and I have knocked on thousands of doors in communities all around Provencher. Everywhere we go we hear the same thing. "We have to get rid of these Liberals," "they're so corrupt," "you guys have to win," "Canada is done if we get another four years of these guys," That pretty well sums it up. Over and over again, that's what I'm hearing. My response: "I agree."