On Sept. 26, the Western News and the Seniors Drop-in Centre are inviting the public to an afternoon election forum, starting at 1 p.m.
The forum will allow the public to press the candidates on issues of the day, as well as for the federal hopefuls to respond to their competitors view’s and positions. In order to get in as many questions as possible, there won’t be an open microphone at the forum. Instead, we are accepting questions in written form, either beforehand at editor@pentictonwesternnews.com or during the forum.
Candidates that have confirmed their attendance include Richard Cannings (NDP), Connie Denesiuk (Liberal) Brian Gray (Independent), Marshall Neufeld (Conservative), Samantha Troy (Green). Each will be allowed a two-minute introduction before the rounds of questions. The majority of questions are expected to be addressed to all candidates, with a two-minute response time for each. However, if a question is addressed to a specific candidate, the others will be allowed to request a 30-second rebuttal.
In order to keep the event lively and get to the meat of the issues, candidates have been asked not to resort to campaign speech answers; succinct and clear answers are the order of the day, then move on to the next question or follow up.
It’s hard to predict what questions will come from the audience, but the general topics of jobs and the economy will no doubt surface. Beyond that, we are hoping for lots of questions relating to issues of local interest: tourism, First Nations, the reopened national park debate, the environment, seniors’ issues and more.
Refreshments will be provided by the South Okanagan Real Estate board.
