The following email has been sent to the MP candidates listed below. We feel we have given them enough time to answer us on such an important, federal issue. Equalization is a federal program using federal taxation and when the following candidates can not address the problem, we are forced to bring it to the public’s attention. Here is the email that was sent to them today: Dear Mike Kelloway, Anna Manley, Jaime Battiste and Allan MacMaster (PC and Liberal Candidates for Cape Breton and Antigonish). We feel that sufficient time has passed since we sent you the request for some communication with us (NSEF) about your position on equalization fairness for the residents of Cape Breton. We are going to be brutally honest here with our comments to you today. We will not entertain the Liberal vs Tory and left vs right comments on this posting at all as we have seen both your parties in action over the past 3 decades. We know where both the Liberal’s and PC’s both stand on the issue of fairness for the residents of Cape Breton. We met with Mike Kelloway and Jaime Battiste (thank you both for at least meeting with us in the past) but the outcome was not helpful even after we pointed out pertinent information regarding our constitutional rights and the unconditionality of the transfer itself. The one thing you should have followed up on in Ottawa on behalf of the underfunded and overtaxed citizens of the CBRM and Cape Breton, you did not. Allan MacMaster has successfully ignored the equalization situation for a decade straight. He has been emailed and copied hundreds of times (if not thousands) but has never answered one simple email, so we know where you stand Allan. Anna, your comment on stage during the debate was the Federal Government does its part and provides the transfer to Nova Scotia, and they can do what they want with it, and it is up to us to hold the provincial government accountable. That is right out of the mouth of Pierre Poilievre and if you had communicated with us, you would see, especially as a lawyer, where this is incorrect. There is no legal justification for transferring the transfer to a receiving province “unconditionally”. Anna, if the party leader does not want you to speak about equalization, that is not what we need for representation and that goes for all parties. Why has no industry or major investment come to Cape Breton and particularly the CBRM since the closing of the steel plant and coal mines? Why do we have the only Coast Guard training facility in Canada and not one vessel here? Why are the property taxes so high in the CBRM when this province receives $3.465 billion so that does not happen? Why are most government jobs in this province located in downtown Halifax? Why have we been stripped of our trains, via rail, air traffic control, health authority, school boards, provincial divided highway plans for the island, farms, dairies and the list goes on. It is obvious by your silence on this issue, what the provincial government is doing to this island is by design and to generate as much equalization as possible for the province. “We are kept poor…to generate more” and you all know it. A former Nova Scotia Finance Minister, who was a Rhode Scholar, stated in his book that the decisions are not made in the province house but in boardrooms of offices in downtown Halifax. Graham Steele was shocked at what he learned about government in this province. To say we are disappointed in the 4 of you is an understatement. To the followers of the NSEF, the comments on this letter will be Liberal vs. Tory and left vs. right but we are here to tell you that both of their parties have failed you and this island miserably and the NDP has also had their hand in this as well. The simple fact that not one will come to the table from the provincial government and on record to discuss this situation, disgusts our organization. The residents are starting to realize that politicians do not work for the public and the voter turn out will clearly show you that. Equalization is designed to be a helping hand and not a welfare trap. In closing and in our opinion, none of you deserve the privilege of representing us in Ottawa. If you are going to be a follower and not a leader, you are of no use to the people who need a leader. We need a leader. The NSEF