Aspin.
POWASSAN – Conservative candidate Jay Aspin says it was
a scheduling conflict that prevented him from attending the all-candidates
debate in Powassan on Monday night.
Aspin was the only candidate not to address the crowd at the
Powassan Royal Canadian Legion that saw incumbent Liberal Anthony Rota face off
in a collegial debate with Green hopeful Scott Daley and NDP candidate Rona
Eckert.
“My campaign guy got (the invitation) rather late. Our schedule
was already booked and there was nothing we could do,” said Aspin. “We can only
do what we can do.”
Invitations to the event and the April 11 candidates debate
in Burk’s Falls for the Parry Sound/Muskoka riding were sent out on April 4 and
were published in the April 7 and April 14 Almaguin News.
Aspin instead spent Monday night at a meeting with Manitoba
MP Candice Hoeppner who sponsored a private member’s bill in the last
Parliament to scrap the long-gun registry in Canada.
Aspin said the time with Hoeppner taught him that people in
the riding are still upset with the gun registry.
“We need a majority government for more reasons than one. We
need it for the country … and for these side issues like the gun registry,”
said Aspin.
Told that comment was made at the debate that his absence
was showing contempt for rural communities, Aspin replied, “Anybody who knows
me knows that’s a fallacy. I was in two rural communities last night … It was
probably a Liberal who said it.”
The Almaguin News
only discovered that Aspin would not be attending the all-candidates meeting on
Monday, the day of, after a press release was sent out from his team announcing
he would be at the Hoeppner events.
Campaign manager Joseph Dow of Ottawa told this paper he had
no idea there was a debate going on. He invited the News to travel to New Liskeard to hear Aspin speak on
Tuesday evening.
Interviewed after the debate, Aspin said he was too busy to
give a heads up about his absence.
“I was too busy running around looking after Anthony Rota’s
irate constituents.… Somebody has to be there for them. I was there for them
last night,” said Aspin.
He also claimed to be too busy and that his campaign manager
hadn’t told him either.
“He’s literally telling me where to go to the bathroom. That’s
the way life is these days.”