Published Friday, September 24, 2010 2:30PM EDT
Where Vijay Sarma stands on the big issues facing Toronto:
1. Transit City is an important and controversial part of Toronto. What are your thoughts on the proposed plan?
"I think that large infrastructure problems are not something we need right now when we already have problems with existing transit lines. We should fix those first, otherwise taking on a new project might just weaken our ability to facilitate the current TTC projects."
2. Bike lanes have become a topic in the last few weeks. Do you plan on implementing them on Jarvis, University and the other locations?
"Definitely for it, but it has to be done with the participation of the community where those bike lanes are going to be. If people in the community want bike lanes, great. If they don't, then they shouldn't have them and so it would take community involvement to approve a bike lane."
3. How do you feel about the idea of charging road tolls?
"I'm against road tolls. With our budgets right now, and our tax rates sky rocketing over the last couple years, I think the last thing we need is toll roads slowing down the pace of the business in this city and make life more inconvenient for the people of Toronto."
4. How do you feel about the crime level in Toronto? How do you plan on addressing it?
"If there is persistent corruption or crime that is something our government and media, should deal with. Men should deal with it on behalf of women and children just how men have defended their culture for thousands of years before this."
5. How do you plan on cleaning up the city?
"First of all the pollution in the environment on a daily basis is something I want to deal with. The CBC had a story called The Disappearing Male, talking about how the male sperm count is going down. So I think there are things that affect our daily lives in terms of pollution that we have to deal with as well. Garbage pickup I would double to triple a week, as oppose to once a week to make it more convenient for businesses to operate in this city."
6. How do you plan on bringing "new life" to the city? (ex: people, business, events, parades etc.)
"I think we should have a strong cultural funding but I think that it should be community based. So the communities themselves is where the artists develop from, should chose whom they wish to find as opposed to the centralized process we currently have now where the city, provincial, or even the federal government does it. I'd like to see the people do it and chose which artists they would like their tax dollars to support."
7. How important is accountability while you are in office and how do you plan on monitoring this?
"I'd like the citizens of Toronto to communicate with the city employees, city bureaucracies and our elected officials for one hour a week to make that conversation continue. We're not part of one political party so we don't take any direction directly from them. We only take direction from the people or from the people who talk to us which are often corporate lobbies, special interest groups and so on. I'd like to make sure that we have a transparent system and let the people work for an hour a week to help maintain that."
8. What are your plans for the city's budget including taxes?
"I'd like to borrow from the Bank of Canada which any municipal, provincial, or federal government can do if the right people are in charge of each of the governments. I plan to cut taxes. No more extra taxes, eco fees, property taxes. We pay approx 60% of our income in total taxes and I think that the government has enough money. They're just not using it as well as they should."
9. What "big idea" do you have that will be part of your platform?
"I think that millions of people online are looking for the truth and I think that the media does a great job of covering issues rarely once in a while. I think that it would be a great idea if we were open to the work of whistle blowers, scientists, doctors, and others who questioned the main stream orthodox issues like fluoride and vaccines which are two keys for me. And so I'd like to see those re-visited by our city. So if we have the campaign like the H1N1 campaign, where we promote the vaccine, we also promote the risk of the vaccine and where you can get legal vaccines and exemption forms. It's part of the 1997 Immunization of School People's Act."