'I'm a uniter. Harper is not' - Ignatieff (20 photos)

Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff hosted a town hall meeting at Algoma's Water Tower Inn last night, following visits to the Prince Township volunteer fire hall and Essar Steel Algoma.

During his opening remarks, Ignatieff expressed his appreciation for the warm welcome he received in Sault Ste. Marie and opened the floor to questions from anyone on any topic.

"I like to be in a room listening to Canadians. I don't think you can lead unless you listen," he remarked. "There are people in this room from many parties and I respect and welcome that. I welcome you to the gathering."

National unity, said Ignatieff, is his greatest concern and he stressed the importance of party cooperation.

The divide between northern and southern, rural and urban communities - including access to medical care, essential services, eduction, broadband internet, infrastructure and transportation - is a national issue.

"When I think of Canada, it's a place where hope and opportunity are distributed right across the country. Where you were born is where you can stand and have a good life. That's not true everywhere," the Liberal leader said. "A lot of people feel they've got to go down the road to get anywhere. So we as a party have begun to think hard about that. I'm in politics to unite Canadians, not divide them. I think we've got a prime minister who's a divider, not a uniter."

Attendees asked Ignatieff about subjects including the long gun registry, child poverty, student debt, Supreme Court justice bilingualism, access to safe drinking water in rural communities, gender balance in government, the environment, and crime prevention.

Representing the Sault Youth Association, Tiffany Thompson asked about northern youth out-migration and how the Liberal Party proposes to create and sustain permanent jobs for youth in Northern Ontario and rural communities.

"I've had this question across the country. which is why I started tonight by talking about the rural-urban divide," Ignatieff began. "The chief example of this is youth out-migration."

Access to doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners allow families to stay within their community.

Without this, families are forced to move to larger communities where essential medical care is more readily available.

"Our proposal is we'd forgive student debt for people who commit to the North and commit to rural communities. That will provide jobs and relieve the student debt burden," said Ignatieff.

He continued by stating that Canada needs a government that believes in economic development in the North.

"That's why FedNor matters," he said. "That's why you want to have a government that sits down with big employers and says, 'Fix the bottleneck that you need removed in order to make your business grow.'"

Infrastructure investment such as dredging the waterway to allow more imports/ exports allowing businesses to hire more people is a simple and feasible solution to youth out-migration, he said.

Ignatieff also stressed the importance of post-secondary education opportunities, as education creates employment, encourages entrepreneurship and creates small businesses.

"We don't want a Canada where there's a generational gap in which only older people are in one region and all the younger people have gone somewhere else," said Ignatieff. "That's not my idea of a good country."