Stephen Makk: A Third Candidacy
By John Swartz
SUNonline/Orillia profiles candidates from each party in the forthcoming federal election. Each candidate was asked the same set of questions. All candidates were invited to participate, however Rebecca Elming, Press Secretary of the New Democratic Party said, Simcoe North candidate Melissa Lloyd, “is not available for an interview.”
Stephen Makk was the People’s Party of Canada candidate in the 2019 and 2021 races. The experience made an impression.
“I found a passion I didn’t know I had in me. I can’t be on camera, but when there’s people there, I was such an introverted person even four years ago, something clicked. I love doing this. When I get people talking, even if they are not agreeing, I find an energy that’s coming from elsewhere. I’m a man on a mission and I love what I’m doing. When I ran in 2019 I made so many friends. I got to know Simcoe North, every corner of it,” Makk said.
One key thing attracted him to the PPC.
“We’re fighting for people’s freedoms. One place where we’re different is we put civil rights ahead of public health, ahead of being popular, ahead of staying the course on things. At the most recent rallies I’m meeting former Greens, former NDP and yes, even some former Liberals who are just disappointed in what the Liberal Party has become. Or Conservatives, what has the Conservative Party become? It’s not that conservative.”
Makk doesn’t think of the party the same way the public does.
“What are we trying to do? We want to have the people tell the government what to do, not the other way around. If we were back in the French parliament, which side of the aisle would we be? We would be on the left side, like hard.”
“I tend towards libertarianism, but if I wanted to be technical most political science people would categorize me as a classical liberal in the British sense because I do believe a man with no food and no clothing is not free, and therefore society, not government, must take care in order to enhance everybody’s freedom for the good of all the individuals. I trust people are good and left to their own devices they will take care of each other”
Makk still lives in Victoria Harbour with his sons. He still owns Makk Design Inc., making consumer electronics too.
“I have a new location in Midland. I have an R&D centre now. My company’s been growing steadily,” Makk said.
Politicians and candidates get asked a lot of questions. It’s almost embarrassing to watch one speak endlessly when it is clear they don’t have an answer instead of saying, “I don’t know,” and promising to find out. Each Candidate was asked how they inform themselves about subjects they are unfamiliar with.
“I can’t stand the bloviating people do and I have a habit of being scared of dead air. When I do encounter questions I don’t have an exact answer to, I try to turn it into a discussion and I start asking. I want to hear from them what they think because a question is rarely a request for information. Often it’s trying to lead somewhere, so I will follow because I’m not scared,” Makk said.
”I subscribe to all the major newspapers in Canada and the U.S. I use Ground News and I have certain bloggers I follow. There’s never enough time. I have social media, maybe a bit. I like to be a force for good online. Those discussions sometimes reveal how people think, but it doesn’t answer how do I get my facts.”
“In the end I decide for myself. I realize other people do the same things and they will come up with a different world view.”
Housing
Housing is the first topic posed to candidates. The feds got out of funding housing. Now they want to get back in to support building lots of homes. SUNonline/Orillia believes this is missing the mark, an expensive home relative to ability to pay is still an expensive home. SUNonline/Orillia Also believes the heart of the matter is corporate Canada, through Real Estate Investment Trusts and Airbnb, are the prime instigators of price increases. What would candidates do to change housing from owning commodities to owning homes again?
“Affordability is expense plus income. People aren’t earning enough, or they are not keeping enough of their earnings. Housing is complicated. It is a multi-dimensional problem and when housing goes wrong it is a sign multiple things have gone wrong in our society. I don’t believe government built and owned housing has ever panned out well. I don’t want to see the projects, that never works. Rent controls, they have unforeseen consequences all around the world. Sometimes the government needs to step back,” Makk said.
But what about the vice-like control venture capital has on rents and the influence Aribnb has on smaller second, or third or fourth homeowners?
“If the units are being rented and there’s people living in them. I’m very reluctant to put investment restrictions. You want everybody treated the same. Simplify. Don’t use the tax system to manipulate behaviour, or reward your cronies. I’m sympathetic to what you are talking about, but that’s not the one silver bullet that’s going to fix housing. Mass immigration is probably the biggest thing that has really wrecked housing markets, especially in the big cities,”
But what about the outsized ability corporations have over buying swaths of homes mom and dad, or young people can’t match?
“You’re talking about large corporate bad actors and I’m talking about small bad people bad actors. I think we should have laws that would serve to deal with bad actors, I’m not disagreeing, but micromanaging markets is not something governments need to do. There’s some regulation we absolutely need. To say regulations in general are bad or god, that’s a hard discussion. I tend toward have as little as possible.”
Immigration
While immigration is a national concern, many economists say we aren’t taking in enough people to sustain the society we created? The CPP and economic growth need working people, but the workforce is getting smaller compared to the retired class. How do candidates think our infrastructure should be rejigged to accommodate immigrants, and will they make sure immigrants are treated fairly by employers?
“We were called racists, xenophobes. We love immigration. Our party’s immigrants were PO’d because they went by the books, they filled the forms, they met the quota and then all this riff raff, maybe from the country they came from, barge in. Often the PPC is shocking, but we are strangely prescient. Now we are the party that represent majority opinion of Canadians on mass immigration.”
There have been reports of immigrants being exploited by their employers, and by landlords. Why isn’t anything being done about those issues? And Provincial governments take advantage of immigrants as a means to fund colleges and universities since non-resident tuition is higher.
“I don’t want Canada exploiting labour. The is no magic number of people. A lot of our planning has been we’re always going to have growth. They baked in BS. You can’t grow forever. You have to make a system that has as steady state. We can set the steady state anywhere. I would argue Canada does not need a higher population. Our economy does not need a higher population. The only thing that needs more suckers to come in and fund the Ponzi scheme that is our welfare state. I believe immigrants are being exploited. Quality is more important than quantity. We’re advocating for a full moratorium on immigration until the housing market and the economy stabilizes and we don’t subject our Canadian culture to this influx of stress, confusion and unassimilated people. The basis of what our civilization is rests on is good and not all cultures are the same and everybody is welcome, but you can’t take in a million people a year and assimilate them effectively,” Makk said.
Makk believes industry is going to solve the immigration need anyway.
“You are going to see a robotic revolution starting in about 5 years, so the argument we need labour all over the place isn’t necessarily the same as it used to be. Also, why is there a fixed retirement age. There is no magic age. I understand you’ve been riveting boilers all your life and you bones are shot, I get that. That’s how it started, but I don’t believe there’s a one size fits all retirement age. I also totally have respect for people who were prudent through their life, invested and took care of their own retirement, if anyone gets a tax break it should be those people who took care of themselves without being a burden on others. That to me is the ideal answer. I know everyone can’t do it. A mess has been left for young people and it’s not fair. We need to rejig things to give young people more opportunity,”
Climate Change
Many national and provincial politicians, and industries want to back away from climate change measures, motivated by ridiculous deregulation and jettisoning of environment professionals in the United States. Is this a good idea? Or a bad idea?
“The PPC is totally against all forms of corporate welfare. Maybe there’s some transitions. You don’t want to do it in a way that leaves a bunch of abandoned wells,” he said about subsidies to oil companies.
Even while most think doing something about fossil fuel use, and pumping from the ground, is needed, supplying our own oil to all of Canada has been PPC policy.
“East/West energy corridor, we’ve been from day one pushing for that. I’m very proud of that.”
Americanization Of Canadian Politics
Many people complain about the Americanization of Canadian political discourse. Some politicians have adopted the tactics, the issues and the phrases. Do we not have enough of our own problems without importing them? How much responsibility does media bear for amplifying this?
“I’m really tired about hearing and talking Trump all time. I think it’s really bad for our election. It’s turning the stupid popularity referendum on Donald J. Trump. We have real Canadian problems. I’m energized, yet disappointed that so many Canadians, the ones who say the media isn’t brainwashing us; the spillover from the U.S. is affecting Canadians. Don’t feed the trolls,” Makk said.
“Obviously they (media) are trying to identify wedge issues. It also polarizes and makes it interesting.”
Some media are reckless in giving voice to people and groups who argue in bad faith, they create dichotomies on issues that are largely made up or don’t have two sides, and in some cases lie about events and facts. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters used to have an ethical code about truthfulness, but you won’t find one on their website now. The Canadian Association of Journalists also have one, but it is largely ignored. The CRTC regulates broadcast and cable licenses and news was required to be truthful in order to keep a license, but one hasn’t seen a report of a CRTC investigation into irresponsible news dissemination in a long time. It can also be argued our media, largely owned by American venture capitalists is part of the problem. Should there be regulation of ownership and enforcement of what is on the books?
“I absolutely don’t like the idea of any government being the arbiter of truth and if you are trying to regulate truthfulness I would rely on our libel and slander laws and the public will punish liars, eventually,” Makk said.
“You could be angry at them from both the left and the right wing standpoint. I think what might have happened is Canadian media had already died and these are vultures picking up at fire sale prices. Maybe these dinosaurs have had their day.”
“Canadian’s should be able to own media enterprises. I also would not prohibit foreigners from owning businesses. To say controlling the ownership will control the net result, I don’t buy that.”
“The fact the National Post takes a government grant is rather hypocritical, I don’t respect that. Newspapers and media are a business. You’ve got to earn your keep, you’ve got to sell subscriptions, you’ve got to give the people the product they want and the government should stay out of it, other than making sure nobody is oppressing someone”
The Last Word
Candidates usually have a burning issue not anticipated by the questions posed to all. This is their chance to speak on it.
“I am confident if people meet me, speak with me and I listen to them, you’d be surprised. We won’t have whipped votes. A PPC MP will truly be able to represent their riding,” Makk said.
“You won’t believe the war the PPC is having with white nationalists right now. Those guys are angry with us because we won’t take the bait. We don’t pander to ethnic groups. We’re about individuals. Group identify or politics are something that does not belong as anything the government deals with. It should be just merit, open mindedness, free people, living in a free market, trading freely,”
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia) Main: Stephen Makk is the People’s Party of Canada candidate in Simcoe North.
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