All Candidate Forums

[Glacier]

Personally, I find all candidate forums the best way to decide who to vote for. Even though they tend to bring out a few cooks and conspiracy theorists, I do enjoy attending and meeting the local candidates.

My Observations from this year's forum:

- I was one of a select few under the age of 40.

- The crowd wasn't as large as the last provincial forum, and this surprised me.

- The NDP candidate was the only one of the four who does not understand economics. All three of the other parties said that lower gas prices as proposed by the NDP will not encourage energy conservation. The NDP begged to differ. She also failed the same logic test around credit cards where she could not seem to understand how forcing credit card companies to charge less interested will only encourage consumers to take on more debt.

- The Conservative and Liberal support the status quo on gas prices and argue high prices encourage people to switch to alternatives. The Greens are calling for a 20 cent/l carbon tax. By contrast, the NDP wants to see lower gas prices through government price controls, while looking for alternatives at the same time.

- The NDP candidate was worried about electromagnetic radiation emitted from things like smart meters. lol.

- One interesting topic that was brought up - catching the candidates a bit off guard - was the area of halibut (and salmon) fishing. Apparently, the current government has been looking to follow Alaska's lead by reducing the commercial quota down to 80% for the current 83%. The others didn't know much about this.

- The negative attacks really made me uncomfortable. They were all asked to say something nice about the other candidates, and they all managed to get in some cheap shots while doing so.

- In their closing statements, the Liberal candidate went on the worst negative attacking tirade of the night over Steven Lloyd Harper, while barely mentioning why I should vote for her. What a turn off, I must say.

How was your forum?

[The Green Barbarian]

- The NDP candidate was the only one of the four who does not understand economics.

And this was a surprise to you?

[Al Czervic]

I find these forums are always a waste of time. Generally filled with highly partisan, decided voters. “Questions” are typically planted, sometimes even choreographed. “robo” crowds who will clap and cheer for whatever their candidate says (no matter how stupid) and sometimes boo or even heckle an opposition member. Party Candidates who almost always tow the party line you could have read in the campaign brochure..….

As you can see I am not a huge believer in all candidate forums. What really get’s my goat is when people calls these things debates. They are anything BUT debates…..

[grammafreddy]

They are anything BUT debates…..

Agree.

I'd like politicians and political parties to grow up and start acting like adults instead of like schoolyard bullies arguing ...