Layton focuses on affordable housing, environment

NDP Leader Jack Layton addresses his supporters at a ralley in Toronto Sept. 13, 2008.

By Andrew Serba
Toronto-Danforth incumbent MP and NDP Leader Jack Layton says he’s running again to bring Canadians’ “kitchen table” issues to the front and centre of the House of Commons on a daily basis.

“I think Canadians in the middle class are feeling very squeezed right now,” he said. “They don’t feel that the concerns of their families for education, environment, healthcare and their future employment are being adequately represented.”

He said his service in federal politics has allowed him to continue, on a national basis, much of the work he started as a city councillor, and as head of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. He said the need for a national housing policy and environmental concerns are two such issues.

Building more affordable housing is a “key area for federal investment,” according to Layton.
He also praised his constituents as leaders on environmental issues, citing the Riverdale Initiative for Solar Energy as the type of project his party would like to foster.

“The folks in the east end have always been very concerned about how energy is produced and the pollution from it,” he said. “We’re trying to encourage policies that would facilitate that kind of renewable energy.”

Canada’s environmental and economic well-being are intertwined, in Layton’s view. He has promised to spend $8 billion over four years to create “green collar jobs.”

“I think the way to secure a more stable economic future has to do with investing in a kind of business development that takes us towards a reduced environmental impact and a 21st century energy economy,” he said.

Layton said working closely with his constituents in his community has been a rewarding experience.
“There’s a long list of issues that come up and that you work away on,” he said. “They don’t all hit the headlines, but I just haul out the bike and head down the Danforth and, believe me, my constituents are not at all shy about coming and raising the issues with me.”
Layton said Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cuts to the arts and the film sector have hurt Toronto-Danforth, which has a high concentration of film industry workers. He pledged “not only to restore that funding, but to make [further investments] in supporting that sector.”
“We want those studios buzzing with activity,” he added.
An NDP government would also spend $1 billion over five years to train more doctors and nurses, in addition to creating incentives for recently graduated doctors to practice as family physicians. These measures would address the need for more family doctors and reduce hospital wait times — two issues that Layton described as pressing priorities, “especially for our seniors.”
Good-quality, affordable transit is another need faced by Canada’s cities, Layton added. He said he would set aside one cent per litre of the federal gas tax, plus revenue from his proposed cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions, to provide “a major infusion of guaranteed cash” for municipal transit systems. Toronto would see roughly $800 million in the first four years.
Layton said it has been his pleasure to serve as MP for Toronto-Danforth and that he would be “thrilled and honoured to have the opportunity to serve once again if the voters of the community are willing to support me.”

**Originally Published in the East York Observer as a candidate profile**