PPC candidate for GPR
People’s Party of Canada candidate Jean-Jacques Desgranges has a passionate platform that includes maintaining Canadians’ rights to free speech and balancing the budget in the small time frame of two years. Glover photo

GPR – Jean-Jacques Desgranges wants to be the next MP of the Glengarry-Prescott-Russell riding under the People’s Party of Canada (PPC).

“The PPC is the only party that has clearly identified the issues Canadians face today and that has proposed real, concrete solutions to address them,” he said. “The other parties’ proposed solutions vaguely address the actual and long-term needs of Canadians. The PPC provides an alternative vote for a truthful and forthright party that chooses not to capitalize on collective hysteria but rather to remain calm and consider all the facts before providing a diktat.”

Desgranges stated that honesty and forthrightness is a large part of the PPC’s values, which include personal responsibility, individual freedom, respect and fairness. He stressed he will welcome views and discussion on topics pertinent to the federal government, considering all sides “before making a decision based on common sense instead of ideological possession and progression if elected.”

One of the major planks of the Desgranges’ platform is freedom of expression, or free speech and keeping this freedom available to all Canadians.

“When a person or groups are shut down, stopped or limited from providing their ideas or points of view, all Canadians suffer from not having had the possibility of debate,” he said. “For example, the mainstream media including the CBC, CTV and printed media have refused to cover the PPC’s campaign depriving the electorate of our alternative view. Debate is what allows proponents of certain points of view to question their convictions and re-adjust them in light of the new information they are presented with.”

Another plank on Desgranges’ platform is an issue the PPC has been very vocal about, public finances. He wants to bring control to what he views as the unneeded spending that the Liberal government has been doing.

“Spending profusely as the Liberals have been doing, claiming it is being done because of a false state of emergency, will only mortgage our children and grand-children,” he said. “Returning them to a state of serfdom as they continue to pay interest – presently at $50,000 per day – on the debt our generations have contracted. This is totally irresponsible.”

The environment is also a large part of Desgranges’ platform, stating that the country has been neglecting to take care of the issues and remitting tax dollars to other countries to address climate change.

“Meanwhile, in Canada, 215 billion litres of sewage is being dumped, untreated, in the St-Lawrence and some communities don’t even have access to potable water,” he said. “This is also totally irresponsible. Canadians deserve to have a sustainable environment and clean water.”

Desgranges also went on to comment that the Carbon Tax, which was implemented this past April 1, is nothing more than a tax grab to, “pay for a suspicious United Nations program, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).”

“Canadians are expected to finance an international program that goes against their interests,” he said. “Mr. Trudeau comforts Canadians by giving tax credits; however, by way of illustration, this is the same as taking $100 from a taxpayer and returning $80, $10 of the remaining $20 being kept to hire more public servants to manage the program and the other $10 remitted to the IPCC.”

As an alternative, the PPC plans to allow the market to dictate the price of petroleum products in a market where the petroleum industry is not financially supported by the government.

“In other words, the PPC will put an end to corporate welfare, which not only support large failing corporations (which should be allowed to fail in their own right) but also provide tax dollars to existing successful companies,” he said. “The true price of the commodity, including money expended for possible environmental disasters, is to be paid at the pump or meter.”

Lastly, Desgranges touched on agriculture in the area, stating that, while it’s a very important part of the very rural Glengarry-Prescott-Russell riding, the high cost of the quotas causes an inflation in the price of products for the consumer, in turn negatively impacting the less fortunates’ food budget. The PPC party hopes to phase out supply management to help producers do what they do best.

“The PPC’s Agriculture platform rests on the fact that Canada has excellent agricultural product producers and that their quality products need to reach the markets where they are in demand,” he said. “For instance, Canada’s wheat producers freely sell their product in Canada and can also export it to countries that are willing to buy it for a good price. We have a number of excellent producers in GPR who do the same, except for producers of dairy products, eggs and poultry. This is because they are caught in the supply management system.”

Be sure to cast your vote on Mon., Oct. 21.