Cambridge candidates on how they'll address health care, homelessness and tariffs

Health care, homelessness and the threat of U.S. tariffs were among the top issues addressed by Cambridge candidates as part of a panel discussion on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition on Tuesday.

Three candidates joined host Craig Norris for the panel discussion. CBC K-W invited the candidates from the four parties with MPPs currently sitting at Queen's Park.

There are five candidates in Cambridge:

Three candidates — Deutschmann, Knight, and Johnson — attended the panel. Riddell declined the invitation to participate. More information about Karahalios can be found below.

LISTEN | Provincial election candidates from Cambridge address some of your top issues:

In CBC K-W's voter survey, people in the Cambridge riding identified health care as their top concern.

Candidates were asked what they believe the challenges are for health care in Cambridge specifically, and how they plan to address it.

Knight said the number one issue she's hearing is the lack of family doctors. She described a personal experience of being treated on an emergency room cot for days due to bed shortages after experiencing a heart attack.

"The nurses and the doctors were fantastic and they looked after me, but you're giving somebody a basket to carry water," she said.

As a solution, Knight said there are foreign trained doctors who are living in the city that she would like to see trained under Canadian certified doctors so they, too, can practice, which would add to the supply of doctors.

Johnson agreed with what Knight laid out and criticized the current Progressive Conservative government for what she called "terrible, neglectful decisions."

"What breaks my heart is we have a province who overwhelmingly continues to vote for a government that refuses to do anything to even try to solve the problems," she said.

Deutschmann said the issue of access to primary care is as dire in Cambridge and North Dumfries as it is across the province.

He also mentioned that when visiting his father at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, he saw multiple people laying in beds in the hallway.