Sturgeon River-Parkland Christian Heritage Party candidate Ernest Chauvet

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Morinville News has extended an interview invitation to all six candidates in the 2019 federal election. We will be releasing one article each day in the order candidates replied to us. Visit our election page for all the profiles we have published to date.

by Stephen Dafoe

Ernest Chauvet is the Christian Heritage Party candidate once again this election. Chauvet, a resident of Legal, first ran for the party in the 2015 federal election. In that contest, he received 2.9 per cent of the vote. He ran again in the by-election in 2017 and came in the last place with 2.9 per cent of the vote.

Professionally, Chauvet has spent many years with the French Association, including some time as provincial president and on the federal board. Locally, Chauvet has been instrumental in Legal’s mural project, an initiative that has made the community the French Mural Capital of Canada and the largest concentration in the world. Chauvet was also involved in getting Legal’s community centre built with no tax dollars, the project coming entirely through grant money.

Chauvet over the last year has been involved with some humanitarian work in Haiti, sending containers with 150,000 o 200,000 meals, clothes and other supplies. That work was through the Knights of Columbus, Franciscan Priests and Legal. He has gone to Haiti three times with the campaign.

ABORTION

The Christian Heritage party is well known for their stance on abortion. Chauvet said, it is a party platform item, but that it is not the party’s only issue.

“Our summary is that we are not a one-issue party, but we are the one party that deals with the issue of abortion,” Chauvet said. “We are definitely many issues, but that is one of the core issues.”

Chauvet said the party is clear on its pro-life stance from conception to death, but that he believes that having no law in Canada concerning abortion makes women victims.

“They say it’s a woman’s choice. But on the other hand, how many of those choices in their time of crisis are greatly influenced by the father of the unborn or by the parents?” Chauvet said. “If afterwards the woman has remorse, or needs counselling or something, well these people are not around. They don’t live with the consequences – she does.”

Chauvet said his party would raise the issue because they believe restriction on abortion is needed.

“If there are any restrictions, it’s by the medical profession and not the law of the land,” he said, adding he believes women need to be better informed before having an abortion. “Germany has a way better system. They do have them there. There is a certain term for which they’re allowed, but all the information-the consequences-is provided to the woman, and she has a week to think it over. It is an informed choice. In Canada, it is not.”

CARBON TAX AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Chauvet realizes that the Christian Heritage Party will not form the government; however, he is hopeful that some of their concepts may catch traction with those who do.

He is opposed to carbon taxes but sees people who support them of having a double standard.

“They are in favour of all these taxes, which means for heating switching from natural gas to electricity,” Chauvet said. “If people are so sincere, move to electricity now. Move your house to electricity Vs natural gas. The objection basically is that it’s too costly.

“The role of the taxes is to bring them so high … is to make the price of natural gas so high that people will start to want to look at electricity as an option. Therefore, its the same thing as right now switching to electricity. People don’t look deeper into that question.”

Relying on carbon taxation alone to solve the issues is something he sees as creating a predicament for ordinary families.

“As you increase the demand for electricity, the price of electricity will go up, on the supply and demand market,” he said. “The focus should be the reverse. Bring the price of electricity so much lower that people will want to heat with electricity because it’s cheaper.”

Chauvet said the CHP views environmental solutions by focusing on efficiencies in moving Alberta’s oil sands product and reducing the pollution in extracting.

“Let’s tax the companies who are emitters of pollutants and then let’s really push the research aspect to make it more effective,” he said.

NATIONAL DEBT

Another concern for the Christian Heritage Party is Canada’s debt.

“Spain, France, Germany*, Italy-all those countries-are really struggling with unemployment and huge problems in the countries because they never addressed the debt,” Chauvet said, noting unrestricted spending has caused problems. “Historically, in Canada, we’ve made an effort to control spending. We have to address the deficits and the debt because you can’t keep spending and expecting there are no consequences. We have to address the debt, or we will be like so many countries in the world.”

LOCAL ISSUES

Although the CHP would like to look globally on the environment and the economy, Chauvet said he sees pipelines as key to the local economy.

“Two things I advocated in the first election was having az second rail going to the west coast to ensure the transportation of the grain,” Chauvet said. “Right now, with oil being more economically profitable for the companies, they would rather ship oil than grain. It would really help the agricultural industry and the lumber industry, and right now, oil. But eventually, a pipeline would be built.” Chauvet believes it would help the local economy directly and indirectly.

The candidate hopes voters will look deeper into the issues and platforms. He is tired of the muckraking and name-calling.

“We need to look at policies and go deeper to see how it affects us at a deeper level,” he said.

Chauvet’s website is https://www.chp.ca/candidates/ernest-chauvet.

* Publisher’s Note: Germany’s unemployment is 3.1%, which is currently 2.6 points lower than Canadas at 5.7%.

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