Speaking to the media after a roundtable discussion with the London Chamber of Commerce, Mulcair said his party is getting a good reception from business leaders as he travels across the country.
“In an area like this one, where you’ve seen a hollowing out of the manufacturing sector and lots of good-paying jobs leaving the area, people want to know what the NDP would do differently and that’s what we’re able to talk about,” Mulcair said.
Chamber general manager Gerry Macartney said Mulcair seemed to have “a good grip on the issues” but added he’s concerned about how NDP policies on natural resources would affect manufacturing.
Macartney said Muclair’s visit was an opportunity to get to know the official opposition.
Former London mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best and Conservative MP Ed Holder were among those in attendance.
“The key word in our discussions with the chamber this morning was balance,” Mulcair told reporters.
“We’re losing the balanced economy that Canada had built up since the Second World War. It’s been destabilized by the choices of the Conservatives.”
Long-term, good-paying manufacturing jobs with pensions are being replaced by part-time jobs in the service sector that don’t come with a pension, Mulcair said.
Canada has put “all its economic eggs in the resource basket,” he said, and must include the environmental costs of developments such as the oilsands if it wants to compete internationally.
“That’s had an effect of artificially raising the value of the Canadian dollar, which has made it increasingly difficult for manufacturing companies in this area to export. That’s one of the leading causes of the hollowing out of the manufacturing sector,” Mulcair told reporters.
“We’re not against the development of the oilsands, that would be foolish. We are saying that we’re against the development that’s going on now because it’s not sustainable.”
Original Article
Source: lfpress
Author: Kate Dubinski
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