North Bay’s mayoral candidates continued their road to the election last night by attending the first official event held by the Nipissing/Canadore Coalition for Political Awareness.
“Personally I just want this sort of event to inform the student body and get people out and interested in politics.” Jordan Drummond, one of the organizing members and moderators from the NCCPA told BayToday.
The aim of the debate was to get students involved in the election process and to make an informed decision when voting. The student body of Canadore College and Nipissing University were given the opportunity to record questions that were moderated to the four mayoral candidates.
Mayoral candidates Gary Gardiner, Al McDonald, Sheldon Forgette, and Will Boissoin debated in front of the nearly packed auditorium of university and college students joined by members of the public. They addressed issues of improvements to city transit, creating more affordable housing, priority investment in the city, community safety, perceived limited long-term employment options, and creating further collaboration with the Federal and Provincial government.
North Bay’s declining population was brought up and all four of the candidates delivered messages of change to varying degrees. They met student issues head-on with answers of attracting more interest to North Bay through advertising and rebuilding infrastructure. Candidates also share an interest in collaborating with the Federal and Provincial government to create more long-term employment options in North Bay as well as bring new resources into the city.Expanding on current resources such and the Capitol Centre and Public Library to make them more appealing to students, and transit alternatives to bring them there such as Uber and self-driving busses were also on the forefront of some candidates to do list.
All candidates remained mostly genial in their rebuttals to the competition, though couldn't help slipping a few barbed comments in now and again in true debate spirit.
It’s clear that the students of Nipissing and Canadore are looking for a change and a city with its sights set on the future. The successful candidate will need to follow through with the promise of a North Bay that isn’t passed over and forgotten in the sands of time.
