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'What, me worry?' Bryan says

Bryan Hayes, Conservative candidate for Sault Ste. Marie for the October 19 federal election, is not worried about possible voter backlash against Stephen Harper's calling an election over the Civic Holiday Weekend.

Bryan Hayes, Conservative candidate for Sault Ste. Marie for the October 19 federal election, is not worried about possible voter backlash against Stephen Harper's calling an election over the Civic Holiday Weekend.

Harper's move led to a much longer than usual federal election campaign, at a time when Canadians are enjoying summer activities.      

"I clearly understand it's still summer but I'll be doing door-knocking for the month of August and doing my very best to catch people at home and tell the Conservative story," Hayes told SooToday.

Hayes has welcomed the early election call.

"As a member of parliament, I try to be much more non-partisan and I don't really go around criticizing the policies of the Liberals and the NDP, I go about doing my business as a member of parliament."

"(However) with the early election call it's nice for me to put on my Conservative logo and tell the Conservative story," Hayes said.

Under new election rules, the longer than usual election campaign gives candidates the opportunity to spend much more on their individual campaigns, but Hayes said "I won't spend any more this time than I did last time (in 2011)."

Hayes said his campaign office will be opening in the beginning of September.

As the campaign heads into the post-Labour Day Weekend phase in September, voters will become more engaged and more issues will come to light.

Jobs will be one of those issues.  

Numbers released by Stats Canada this month show the unemployment rate in Sault Ste. Marie for the month of July 2015 was at 10.3 percent, compared to 5.9 percent in July 2014.

A large part of that is linked to layoffs at Tenaris Algoma Tubes, but clearly there are many 'non-tube mill' people out of work in the Sault.

The NDP and the Liberals have their own job creation strategies, and the Conservatives are putting much of their faith in tax cuts to maintain and create new jobs.

"Quite frankly it's the private sector who has to get people back to work and the government has to provide the private sector with tools to do so, and I think our government has been very effective in providing those tools and the biggest, obviously, is keeping corporate taxes low," Hayes said.

"When we formed government in 2006 the corporate tax rate was 21 percent, it's now sitting at 15 percent."

"The small business tax rate is at 11 percent and we will move it to nine percent by 2019, so there are those types of incentives," Hayes said.

Hayes pointed to the federal government's recent announcement of a $30 million loan (combined with a provincial government grant of $30 million) toward Essar Steel Algoma's $240 million modernization plan, to be carried out over the next seven years, as a prime example of government help for industry.

The federal loan for the modernization plan is expected to protect 2,500 Essar Steel Algoma jobs.

"I'm proud to say that was a loan, not a grant, which means we will get that money back and reuse that money…we need to give businesses tools," Hayes said.

"Even though the job situation in the Sault is difficult right now, we've still helped create over 1.2 million new jobs since the end of the recession in 2009, and the majority of those are full time private sector jobs, not government jobs."

Hayes is facing NDP candidate Skip Morrison and Liberal candidate Terry Sheehan.

The Greens have yet to announce their candidate.

 


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Darren Taylor

About the Author: Darren Taylor

Darren Taylor is a news reporter and photographer in Sault Ste Marie. He regularly covers community events, political announcements and numerous board meetings. With a background in broadcast journalism, Darren has worked in the media since 1996.
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