Federal election: Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing candidates face off in debate

The would-be MPs for Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing met in a debate Wednesday nightin front of 50 voters in Elliot Lake and the incumbent New Democrat was once again grilled over an infamous flip-flop from five years ago.

It wasn't long into the evening at the Moose Lodge that Conservative Andre Robichaud reminded the crowd that their MP Carol Hughes changed her vote on scrapping the gun registry in 2010.

"Let me remind you folks, Carol Hughes and the NDP turned their backs on Northern Ontario. She promised to scrap the registry, then decided to toethe party line, now promises to revive it," said Robichaud.

Hughes responded quickly and warned of what she sees as a much greater intrusion into the rights of Canadians: anti-terrorism bill C-51.

"I have to tell you, we are not going to bring back the gun registry, but if people were afraid that the police would know about who had their guns or whoever had their guns, you should see what you're going to see under C-51," she said.

"You can say what you like about the gun registry," said Liberal candidate Heather Wilson, grabbing the microphone from Hughes."But your leader stood up and said he'd be bringing back the gun registry, Carol."

Many thought this issue would hurt Hughes and other northern Ontario NDPersin the last election, but her vote count in 2011 actually went up by several thousand votes.

Hughes trumpeted her record of representing the riding in Ottawa, in particular, her work on First Nations issues.

But her opponents took every opportunity to challenge her performance over her seven years in office and her party's plans for the economy.

Elliot Lake is one of four towns in this riding that is still being considering for a permanent nuclear waste storage facility, which some welcome as an economic boost and others fear as an environmental threat.

Wilson and Robichaud both said that it's up to the individual communities whether they welcome this.

Hughes said she agreed, but went on to list the negative aspects of the project.

"There is a process in place and politicians shouldn't be influencing the outcome of that project," answered robichaud.

Other questions from the Elliot Lake crowd coveredthe Liberal pledge to only run candidates in favour of keeping abortion legal, the impact of cuts to Greyhound bus service on the retirement community andthe importance of moving to a proportional representation electoral system.