No knockout punch at first candidates meeting

No one landed that golden knockout punch during the first all candidates meeting at Nipissing University Wednesday night organized by the university’s Student Political Involvement Network.

NDP candidate Dianna Allen, Green Party candidate Craig Bridges, Conservative candidate Joe Sinicrope, Canadian Action Party candidate Andrew Moulden, Liberal incumbent Anthony Rota were all present to take part in the event which was scheduled to take an hour.

All five tackled questions on topics that included the environment, post secondary education fees, Afghanistan, and the economy that were submitted by the student body.

At times there were tense moments as Conservative candidate Joe Sinicrope talked over other candidates and Liberal candidate Anthony Rota challenged the moderator for time to set the record straight. But the true Highlight of the exchange was when Green Party candidate Craig Bridges chastised the Conservative candidate for continuing to go on about how the Liberals sent ill-equipped troops to Afghanistan.

“It is disingenuous for politicians to use our men and women to score points,” he tells Sinicrope.

“It is wrong to hide behind ties … and try to make themselves brave by hiding behind the uniforms of our men and women.”

“I found that most of them were just arguing and pointing fingers at each other although I typically have gone with Liberals I’m now looking more at the Green Party and NDP. I thought they were more peaceful and they weren’t pointing fingers at each other,” says Marina Moore a first year journalism student at Canadore.

For a number of students the forum was not enough to form an opinion and they say they would have liked to see more of a debate.

“This really was just kind of get to know what it’s all about and it’s really just to find out where I belong as far as politics, so it’s completely new for me and it will be my first time voting,” explains William Archer a first year journalism student at Canadore.

“I like the Green Party it’s admirable but there’s other candidates I think have really good points and I think they should be heard,”

However Archer’s fellow classmate Jessie Worovey found the evening to be enlightening.

“It was a lot more intense than I expected, like I thought it was going to be boring but they really got mad at each other and it was good ... I enjoyed it actually.”

“I like the Green Party because of their platform to cut half of the student loans and they did make some really good points that I hadn’t heard before, but the Liberals also swayed me a little bit too because they were very good.”

The candidates square off again in Powassan Monday night before taking part in the repackaged Chamber debate at the Royal Canadian Legion.