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Amy Collard

Party: Green Party of Canada

Biography: Collard is a full-time volunteer with numerous environmental and community groups. She also has 15 years of experience in the financial services/IT sector. She lives in Burlington with her husband and two children.

Key platform points/positions on major issues:

• Create a green economy that’s not based on fossil fuels, such as by investing in research for more efficient vehicles or ones that run on alternative fuels

• Use preventative health care to improve the health-care system and promote healthier lifestyles

• Put more funding into training doctors and nurses and to upgrade diagnostic equipment

• Create uniform standards of childcare, in addition to expanded child tax credits and benefits for families and subsidies for childcare spaces

• Help ensure municipalities are treated fairly and receive their fair share of resources.

Contact info: (647) 210-2524, campaign@haltongreens.ca and www.haltongreens.ca .

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Lisa Raitt

Party: Conservative Party of Canada

Biography: Raitt, a north Oakville resident, was the president and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority until she recently took an unpaid leave last month to run in the election. In the community, the married mother of two has been an active Halton canvasser and fundraiser for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and her children’s sports organizations.

Key platform points/positions on major issues:

• Keep family-oriented government programs intact, such as the $1,200 per year universal childcare benefit, and help develop new ones

• Build a coalition with the Province and local municipalities to make sure Halton, and specifically Milton, gets its fair share of hospital funding

• Give tax cuts to families so that they can better withstand hard economic times

• Provide a strong voice in Ottawa to get the infrastructure that Milton and Halton needs

• Force industry to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 and cut air pollution in half by 2015.

Contact info: (905) 864-4716, info@LisaRaitt.ca , www.LisaRaitt.ca and 13 Charles St., suite 104, Milton.

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Tony Rodrigues

Party: Christian Heritage Party

Biography: Rodrigues was born in Portugal and came to Canada to start a better life. He worked in construction until a work place accident in 1999 left him unable to perform heavy labour. The married father of four currently works for First Student Canada.

Key platform points/positions on major issues:

• Eliminate income tax and implement a ‘Fair Tax’ — a progressive national retail sales tax — to boost the economy and put Canadians in charge of the taxes they pay

• Promote adoption, not abortion

• Defend marriage and the family by calling for a Royal Commission to study the issue of same-sex marriage

• Introduce a family-friendly childcare allowance of $1,000 a month for families where one parents stays home to raise the children

• Encourage an immediate shift to newer and healthier hospitals using its Infrastructure Renewal Policy to fund the projects.

Contact info: (905) 875-0607, tf_rodrigues@yahoo.com and www.chpelection.ca/on_halton.html .

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Garth Turner, incumbent

Party: Liberal

Biography: Turner is the incumbent for the Halton riding. The former business journalist and author was first elected to the House of Commons in 1988 and served until 1993. In January 2006, he was re-elected to parliament. His volunteer work has included serving as a national director of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund and a national spokesperson for the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

Key platform points/positions on major issues:

• Implement the Green Shift plan to lower taxes on individuals and shift taxes to polluters

• Maintain the universal childcare benefit and double it for low-income families, as well as add a $350 per year annual tax credit for each child

• Give more money to municipalities — $70 billion over 10 years — to help meet infrastructure needs

• Maintain his commitment to engaging local residents through his daily blogs and Town Hall meetings

• Implement a $1 billion green technology fund to help companies build next-generation vehicles and provide assistance for consumers to buy hybrid and alternative energy cars.

Contact info: (905) 484-2784, (905) 636-0779, garth@garth.ca , www.garthturner.com and 310 Main St., Milton.

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Rob Wagner

Party: NDP

Biography: Wagner is an Oakville resident and parks coordinator with the City of Hamilton. Prior to that, he held the title of election officer for Hamilton. He ran for Oakville council in 2003 but missed being elected by fewer than 1,000 votes.

Key platform points/positions on major issues:

• Implement a cap-and-trade system to lower pollution by law. A cap would be placed on emissions and industry would be allowed to sell pollution credits as they reduce their emissions

• Invest $8 billion over four years to train displaced workers, re-tool automotive plants and fund research for more environmentally-friendly manufacturing

• Institute an ombudsman to look into the skyrocketing gas prices

• Either end the mission in Afghanistan now or make it one that’s solely for peacekeeping and re-constructive purposes

• Institute a program where doctors and nurses who practise family medicine for 10 years have their debts forgiven.

Contact info: (416) 951-9508, robwagner@ndp.ca and www.robwagner.ca .