Etobicoke Centre Survey Response

As our readers know, we sent the same question to the different candidates in our home ridings, primarilly to ensure that, whomever was the victor was in an individual riding, that they had become more aware of the energy issue.
The question forwarded to each candidate was as below.

Question : Surprisingly, even though Canada is a net oil exporter, Canada imports almost half our daily oil needs from Iraq, Algeria and other far away countries. World production of oil is expected to stop growing soon and no alternatives are ready on the scale and timeframe needed. The design of our pipeline and refinery system means that millions of Eastern Canadians cannot gain access Canadian oil no matter what the circumstances. This leaves millions of Canadians exposed to disruptions on the world oil market.
What would your party do to erase these infrastructure deficits and ensure Canadian energy security?

In Etobicoke Centre, the only response revceived was from the Liberal candidate Borys Wrzesnewskyj; the Conservative candidate Alex Kuhn did not respond to the hand delivered letter, nor did the NDP candidate Joseph Schwartz to a mailed question (he appeared to be running his campaign out of a downtown office). The Green Party candidate proved to be virtually invisible, and appeared not to have an office, with phone calls going to a residential line somewhere in the ‘905.’

Borys Wrzesnewskyj was quick off the mark, appearing to be well informed; he indicated he felt the Harper government was going in the wrong direction (no surprise there) and he was quick to cite the feds involvement in importation of liquid natural gas. He didn’t object to the imports (knowing that Canada’s own supply was becoming increasingly questionable) but he considered signing long term supply contracts with the Russians to be a mistake.

He considered that Ontario should become the major destination for Quebec’s hydroelectric power, and wanted extensive windmill development on Lake Superior. He also listed the deep lake water for cooling project currently in use in Toronto as an example of ways to get off fossil fuel energy. He closed by speaking about the use of geothermal energy for heating and cooling, and how more government subsidies to assist with conversion costs would be an avenue worth exploring.

During the conversation, the term peak oil never came up, but Mr Wrzesnewskyj seemed aware of the problem and focussed on practical solutions.