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Dissatisfaction among the public service and Canada’s struggling economy and how best to fix it were hot-button issues Sunday for contenders in the riding of Nepean at one of the region’s first all-candidates meetings.

Conservative Andy Wang, Liberal Chandra Arya, the New Democratic Party’s Sean Devine and Green Party candidate Jean-Luc Cooke took turns answering questions in front of about 85 people at the debate hosted by the Indo-Canadian Community Centre at the Cedarhill Golf and Country Club.

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While a confident Wang stuck tightly to his talking points of lower taxes and maintaining leader Stephen Harper’s plan to keep taxes low, the Conservative candidate took heat from the crowd when asked about the “mixed feelings” held by some in the public service about what the role of government should be in relation to their jobs.

The others seized on the question, with the Green’s Cooke accusing Wang’s former boss Pierre Poilievre, wbo was MP for the riding when it was known as Nepean-Carleton, of a “bald-faced lie” when he said he respected a now demoralized public service. Devine said the public servants he’s talked to were “downright scared” of upsetting the Conservatives while Arya promised the Liberals would “bring respect back” and support collective bargaining.