Council candidates forum at Farmers Market Oct. 18

Posted on October 13, 2014 in Civic Election 2014 // 2 Comments

NEWS/ CIVIC ELECTION 2014

By ANITA STRONG

Chair, Council of Canadians, Kamloops

As you may know, strengthening our democracy is one of the main foci and campaigns for the Council of Canadians. For the last 17 years the Kamloops Chapter of the Council of Canadians has hosted all-candidates’ fora for federal, provincial and municipal elections and this year will be no different.

This election’s forum will take place Saturday, Oct. 18 on the Stuart Wood School yard beside the Kamloops Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. till 12:30 p.m. (Farmers’ Market hours are from 8 a.m. till 12:30 p.m. and during these hours Market regulations apply.) We will open by having each candidate answer one question which is specifically relevant to the Council of Canadians. The question is:

“In view of the fact that the United Nations has declared water to be a human right, how would you address this right in your capacity as mayor/councillor vis-a-vis the proposed Ajax mine, public drinking fountains, metered water, pollution through cosmetic pesticide use, or any other capacity?”

In view of time constraints and the number of candidates, mayoralty candidates will be given two minutes to respond to this question and councillor candidates will be given one minute. Following these opening responses, the public will be invited to submit written questions to the candidates and 30 seconds will be allotted for each response. The questions will be drawn and assigned at random and each candidate will have a different question.

We have arranged to have this as an old-fashioned outdoor forum where the candidates are encouraged to set up a table or to share whatever information they consider of import to their campaign on a one-to-one basis with citizens before the formal questioning begins.