Dufferin–Caledon MP Kyle Seeback shares focus of campaign

Written By Sam Odrowski

The federal election is fast approaching and Dufferin¬–Caledon MP Kyle Seeback recently shared his top priorities if re-elected to serve another term.

Affordability is the main one, he noted that it's the number one topic he's hearing about from his constituents each day. 

“Whether it's inflation that's making the cost of everything go up or the unaffordability of housing, these are the biggest issues I'm hearing right now. Whether that's in the riding or across the country,” said Seeback. 

He told the Citizen that the Conservative Party is working to address this issue through its recently released plan on housing, which pledges to build 1 million homes in the next three years.

For immediate relief, the plan also reviews the federal government's real estate portfolio, which has over 37,000 buildings, and reallocates 15 per cent of them for housing. The plan also entails incentives for bringing about housing developments.

With respect to inflation, Seeback says all of the money printing that's been happening through the Bank of Canada has to stop, as it's increasing the price of everything, making life harder for the average Canadian.

“That's making the cost of living much higher for everyone all across the country, including here in Dufferin–Caledon and we got to fix it,” said Seeback.

He told the Citizen that borrowing instead of money printing through the pandemic would have been a better option when dealing with monetary supply. Seeback also made note of the several hedge funds and wealthy money managers that received the Emergency Wage Subsidy during the pandemic and said loopholes allowing them to get funds should have been closed immediately. 

When looking at economic recovery, he said he's confident in his party's platform.

“We actually have a fantastic plan to make sure that the economy hits the ground running that is going to create one million jobs,” said Seeback. “We can't just keep going along with, giving away money, we actually have to get to the point where we can get the economy back firing on all cylinders.”

With respect to vaccine passports, Seeback said he 100 per cent agrees with Erin O'Toole's stance, which is to reverse the Liberal government's decision to introduce a country-wide vaccine passport for domestic travel and federal employees. 

While O'Toole is vaccinated and encourages everyone to get the shot, he also recognizes that it's a personal decision.

Although, he has said that his party would work with the provinces on an individual basis to introduce a vaccine passport if they wish to do so, instead of mandating one federally.

O'Toole noted that there are alternatives to mandating COVID-19 vaccines, which Seeback supports.

“There's lots of ways to deal with testing, rapid testing, all that kind of stuff, and I think that's the much more moderate Canadian approach,” Seeback noted.

On the topic of gun control, Seeback said he's focused on dealing with the 93 per cent of illegal guns that are used in the commission of crimes across Canada.

Instead of making plans to spend nearly $1 billion on buying back firearms from legal gun owners and cracking down further on the legal gun market in Canada, as the Liberals are doing, he suggests stricter sentences for people who commit gun crimes. Seeback added that stronger border controls to stop the flow of weapons coming from the United States is key and where federal funding should be allocated. 

When looking at free speech and internet censorship, he made clear that he's against hate speech and all Canadians should be, but there's already criminal code sanctions to prosecute it. He noted that he doesn't trust legislation like Bill C-10 or Bill C-36, which were brought forward by the Liberals and provides an independent government agency with the ability to regulate and censor Canadians' social media posts.

On the topic of climate change, Seeback said he fully supports the Conservative Party's plan to address the issue.

The Border carbon adjustments aspect of the plan could be key in cutting emissions, he noted. This aspect of the plan involves ensuring products that are made using high levels of CO2, particularly in coal fired power plants, have a carbon tax associated with them.

“Our businesses are paying taxes for carbon emissions and then they [China] get to bring their goods in here without a similar thing,” Seeback explained. “I think this is a great way to reset the playing field for our Canadian companies while tackling climate change.”

When looking at the Conservative Party's values, Seeback said they're the party of lower taxes, spurring economic growth, freedom of expression, and removing government-imposed barriers that make it difficult for small businesses to succeed. 

Going forward he said he'll continue his work on the campaign trail to reach as many people as he can before the election takes place on Sept. 20.

“I'm going to be out campaigning, talking to people in Dufferin–Caledon, making sure that I know what the issues are that are important to them, so that I can go to Ottawa and fight for those issues,” said Seeback. “That is my number one job, know what's important to the residents at Dufferin–Caledon and then fight for that in Ottawa.”