Castanet is running a series of candidate profiles in the run-up to the federal election on Monday, April 28. Between now and election day, we will publish Q&As with each of the candidates. Today, Castanet sits down with Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola NDP candidate Miguel Godau to see where he stands on key issues.

Castanet: U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war and annexation threats have dominated a lot of the discussion early in the campaign. What is your take on the situation and what would you do to address it if elected?

Godau: President Trump and the idea of bullying is so prominent right now, and there's so much fear being created. This is an opportunity for Canadians to recognize that we need to band together and we need to stay together, despite whatever political following we have or political leanings. Canada is a sovereign country, and bullying that's trying to scare us and trying to tank our economy is not OK.

This is an opportunity for us to shift and not be reliant on our neighbour. I also want to highlight that they're still our neighbours, we still have to work with them and my hope is that the American people will also see that we've been neighbours for a long time and worked together for a long time.

If I were elected, one of my key pieces would be to advocate for continued relationships, while also using this as an amazing learning opportunity to shift our practice so we're not so reliant on the U.S. economy.

I think one of the biggest pieces we can look towards is developing more regional manufacturing and also more infrastructure that allows for transfer of any sort of manufacturing across the province, which would include advocating for reduction of trade barriers within Canada. As the MP, my job would be to advocate for bringing regional manufacturing here and to look at the infrastructure that would support the transfer of goods from here to the rest of our province and the rest of our country.

Castanet: If elected, how would you make life more affordable for people, specifically in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola?

Godau: Since the last election, the NDP has been able to use their few seats in Parliament to help lower monthly bills. They were able to deliver a national dental care program, which saves families $1,700 a year and has given over 3.3 million people access to a dentist. They've been able to deliver on the national pharmacare program, which will make birth control and diabetes medication free for everyone, and then delivered on a $500 Canada housing benefit that's helped over 1.8 million people put money towards their rent or their mortgage.

But costs keep going up and people keep getting richer, while people who are working are not so people are losing hope, and I believe that the NDP offers a stance that brings hope to the people.

When I think of the NDP we’re putting forward for our area, we have a responsibility to support creative and new, innovative strategies to bring in non-market homes, to support holding grocery conglomerates accountable. The Liberals haven't stood up to the grocery CEOs that are gouging people, so the NDP and my job as the elected MP for Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola would be to look at those creative strategies to find ways to fund new non-market homes, to have rental caps and to hold grocery conglomerates accountable.

Castanet: What do you think needs to be done to address the housing crisis, and what's your party's take on how to solve it?

Godau: People are working hard, people have been able to afford houses in the past. People have been able to afford rent, and we can't right now, and rental markets are being driven up super high. Corporate purchasing or investment companies purchasing homes is making it not affordable for people to purchase or rent homes.

As an MP, my job would be looking at getting non-market homes within our area that provide accessible housing for working families, for seniors [and] for people who are income struggling, so that we have more houses that people can get into, easier, within their price range, and then still be able to afford food, still be able to afford medication and still be able to afford their daily lives.

One of the amazing things with non-market homes is we have the opportunity to get people into homes and they're capped — so they're not able to be purchased at exorbitant market rates — and then go back to working families in the future.

I think this is a really exciting program that we can we can support, and I would love to see something like that within our area. I would also say the NDP have put forward the idea of getting into a first time buyers loan that is a government loan that is low interest, that gives people the opportunity to afford a down payment to get into a home easier.

Castanet: How would your party balance economic interests with environmental and First Nations concerns when it comes to potentially fast tracking major projects?

Godau: One of the things that the NDP could do, and that I as an MP could do in advocating for our area, would be reducing red tape around infrastructure projects. We have so much red tape that limits people's ability to develop infrastructure, and if we are able to provide grant opportunities or reduced barriers to getting into building projects or to getting infrastructure into different communities, all of a sudden we have communities being able to develop more projects that are supported federally. When we look at Indigenous communities, they're our best partners.

One of the things the NDP would be looking to do is to support the sovereignty of individual Indigenous communities across the country, removing red tape or barriers that would limit increases to infrastructure. If we were reducing those barriers and allowing for more freedom to develop infrastructure, that brings more jobs in the communities, that brings more development economically to the region and I think the Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola is an area that has a lot of space to expand. If we are removing barriers and allowing more support for Indigenous communities to have increased infrastructure, all of a sudden we're creating huge economic movement or development within our communities.

Castanet: What would you do as MP to make sure small businesses here in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola are positioned to succeed?

Godau: This is a question that excites me, being a member of Chamber of Commerce, and I think that we, with the fears from the south and impacts to our current economy, have the opportunity now to explore supporting different innovative practices.

Whether that's through finding more startup grants for small businesses and ways for new business mentorship, looking at programs that are pre-existing in community, and looking at ways that we can support other education towards business development, coaching for more business success, or grants to support startup.

As an MP for this area, one of my responsibilities would be to look at how to support innovative business practice and then make startup easier.

Learn more before you vote

Get ready to cast your ballot by finding out about all the Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola election candidates here.

Castanet is also partnering with the Kamloops & District Chamber of Commerce and community business improvement associations to host an online election forum on Tuesday, April 22, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Viewers can submit questions for candidates during the event, which will be live streamed on Castanet. Voters will be able to go back and watch after the forum has concluded.

All candidates in the Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola and Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies ridings have been invited to attend.