Oct 11, 2008 - 04:30 AM

By Parvaneh Pessian

WHITBY -- Canada is not headed for a recession, federal finance minister and Conservative incumbent Jim Flaherty boldly declared to a group of about 300 local high school students Tuesday.

A political forum at Father Leo J. Austin Catholic Secondary School pitted Mr. Flaherty against his three opponents -- Liberal Brent Fullard, the NDP's David Purdy and Green candidate Doug Anderson -- on the school's cafeteria stage Tuesday morning.

The majority of students may not yet be eligible to vote, but they didn't let that stop them from voicing their views before the Whitby-Oshawa candidates. They specifically zeroed in on issues centred around the economy from a local, provincial and national perspective.

When asked what his party would do to avoid or handle Canada falling into a recession, Mr. Flaherty assured the audience it would not occur.

"I'm a pretty straight-talking person and if the evidence were that we were in recession, I would say so, but actually the facts say we're not," he said.

"We have small economic growth, but we have positive economic growth in Canada, which we will have for this fiscal year," he said.

Another student grilled Mr. Flaherty on a statement he made earlier this year while he was encouraging provinces to cut the business tax rate because it discourages investment in Ontario. Mr. Flaherty's comment about Ontario being the "last place" for businesses to invest, has been largely criticized for undermining confidence in the province's economy.

"The corporate taxes in Ontario are not competitive with the business taxes in the rest of the country, which puts Ontario at a disadvantage," Mr. Flaherty said in response. "The Ontario government has to be part of the process if we're going to be successful in getting to a 25 per cent business tax in Canada. Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Manitoba are all going in that direction regardless of political parties. This is just sound economic policy for our country."

Student Kinsie McDonald didn't think Mr. Flaherty managed to effectively convey his support for General Motors workers and said she needed more convincing.

"It's about Canadians supporting Canadians and job loss is never a good thing, and I just don't think he addressed that very well."

The event was primarily intended to focus on student-related issues, but the questions mirrored many of the general concerns expressed by residents during a flurry of debates in the past few weeks.

"I think the students really showed sincere interest in the issues from their questions," said Lisa Ricciuto, law and civics teacher and event organizer. "Hopefully (the debate) will encourage them to get their parents out there to vote."

The information gained will also stay with many of them and have an impact on their own future decisions, student Zach Taylor said.

"I'll definitely remember this. Having someone like the finance minister come to the school is a fairly big deal, and I think all the candidates coming is a very positive thing."