A good crowd turned out for the ‘Meet the Candidates’ event for the upcoming Ontario election Thursday evening at Ecole secondaire Odyssee. The political event, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, provides voters the opportunity for a closer look at the four candidates vying for the seat in the Nipissing riding.
A booklet with details about the individual candidates and their parties was provided and the evening began with each candidate making introductory speeches to break the proverbial ice.
The candidates, Scott Haig (Green Party), Henri Giroux (NDP), Vic Fedeli (PC Party), and Dr. Catherine Whiting (Liberal Party) took to the stage as the cameras rolled and were sometimes jokingly referred to as documentation in case any of them might be tempted to stretch the truth.
But it's always a political dimension that one can promise the moon with a pittance and some charm. Still, the audience was lucky as the night was full of lively debate and the candidates put on a good show.
The well-known basics of each party were presented and all of the hopefuls spoke well, each with their own strong personalities that seemed to draw the largest crowd in recent memory.
Preceding the introductions, the two hour event began with questions from the Chamber of Commerce panel, with Vice-President Derek Shogren asking how they plan to improve tourism in Nipissing.
Answers that came back included Giroux's proposed cap on gas prices, Haig's plan for ecological preservation, Whiting's vision for a ‘green and keen’ community and Fedeli's promises to financially support wildlife in the region.
Next were queries about business development and a debate over regulation levels versus service cuts soon became a theme.
Things cooled off with the next question being how their career paths suited Nipissing's voters in terms of leadership and experience. Qualifications spilled over with Fedeli's business savvy, Giroux's experience in Labour Relations, Whiting's extensive credentials in health care and Haig's knowledge in environmental issues.
But soon, the debate heated up again, delving into subjects of funding shortcomings being bounced back and forth between municipal and provincial levels and before long, everyone's numbers and budgets were being put on a skewer and roasted but far from being overdone.
The issue of voting for the people or the party was the priority in their beliefs arose to which it seems that Nipissing has all of its candidates promising to represent its people first; this lead to some debate into individual candidate's dedication and involvement in the crafting of their party's platform.
As the night progressed, people seemed to see things get a little more spirited at the candidate table with them calling each other as a bluff on everything from the way their economics added up to their ability to implement their own ideas.
Income inequality between private and public employment was also brought forth but in general, the tough issues, such as the lost ONTC refurbishment contract, the teacher's assistant strike and raising taxes never really got a head on debate at the table.
Some of the more strange but true things that came up during the evening were the Green Party's desire to put bike trails along Ontario's highways. Giroux spoke of the inadequacies of a public old age system that provides less money for meals for the elderly than for prison inmates. Fedeli stated that millions of dollars are simply uploaded and clawed back daily in a municipal/provincial juggling act. Finally, Whiting surprised everyone by saying that she was all for detailed procedures and extensive red tape in government.
Even a landing's turtle was mentioned as political fodder.
Whether it be the PC ‘change-book’ not adding up (according to Giroux) or concerns about the prospects of increased taxes to ensure education and health spending, it seems as though Ontario voters will have their scorecards full come election day, trying to pick just what party is telling the truth of how it's really going to be, especially in an economy that's as tenuous as ours.
