No Knock Out Punch at All Candidates Forum
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 @ 1:18 PM
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Nathan Giede, Donald Roberts, Mike Morris, Karen McDowell, Shirley Bond, Terry Rysz, Bobby Deepak and Sherry Ogasawara
Prince George, B.C.- The first all candidates forum in Prince George, brought together all 8 candidates vying for votes in the 2 Prince George ridings.
The format for the forum allowed each candidate to introduce themselves, and then, respond to questions from the audience.
In opening comments, each candidate presented their platform:
Nathan Giede: Conservative candidate for Prince George- Valemount.
· Supports hold on taxes, says his party will not raise taxes
Don Roberts: Christian Heritage ,Prince George-Valemount
· Supports pro-life and is anti-euthanasia
· Health care worker for past 20 years
Mike Morris: Liberal candidate Prince George-Mackenzie:
· Noted positive record for Prince George under Liberals
· Says election is a choice between solid economic plans or a debt ridden anti-development
Karen McDowell : Green Party : Prince George –Mackenzie:
· tax shift to establish community based economies, where communities are in control of their own resources.
Shirley Bond: Liberal candidate Prince George-Valemount
· says people tell her about needs for more health care, more police services. Our party believes the only way to provide those services is to have a solid economy.
· Supports stable resource development to boost economy.
Terry Rysz: Conservative candidate Prince George-Mackenzie:
· Says he understands needs of business
Bobby Deepak: NDP candidate Prince George-Mackenzie:
· I want to bring to Prince George, opportunities.
· Expressed need for change, and referenced HST decision by Liberals
Sherry Ogasawara: NDP candidate for Prince »George-Valemount:
· Strong advocate for workers rights, says her reason for running is ìts time for change`
Each candidate was then asked a specific question , with a question drawn from a bowl:
1.Why is there a deficit if we are so rich?
Nathan Giede: We have deficit financed for the Olympics, highways have been deficit financed “We have a deficit simply because people have spent money they don’t have.”
2. Are you in favour of completing Site C?
Donald Roberts “I am definitively against Site C” he says it will never be able to pay for itself, and it’s life span will be relatively short because it will silt out.
3. How will you ensure a fair share of gaming funds are made to charities and non profit groups?
Mike Morris: says the government will ensure everyone has a fair share through a strong economy and developing resource opportunities. Says money that is now being used to pay down the debt, will eventually be used to boost social programs.
4. What action will you take to ensure sustainable funding for early learning and child care programs for families?
Karen McDowell: Says Green party supports school boards having funding to support education and activities at community centre facilities that already exist and it would be free of charge.
5. What steps would you take to facilitate settlement of First Nations Land claims?.
Shirley Bond: recognize the importance of working with first Nations, and says the goal of achieving 10 settlements has already been achieved,
6. Name economic development your party would support.
Terry Rysz: forestry, mining and natural gas
7. Why are there so many foreign workers when we need to train our own people?
Bobby Deepak : because the Liberal government supports the foreign worker program. In order for British Columbians to have the jobs first, we need to increase skills training.
8. What is your party doing to deal with the labour shortage?
Sherry Ogasawara: we recognize that if we don’t address this it will become a crisis. We need to do something now, increased training and post secondary education are the keys to the future. We’ve committed to reinstating no repayable student grant programs.
The second round of questions got off with a twist, as Nathan Giede remarked he thought the scowls from Shirley Bond’s supporters "weremost fitting" a comment which sparked a bizz in the audience as people tried to figure out what that was all about.
The all candidates debate is set for May 8th at the Canfor Theatre at UNBC.
Comments
Sure hope there was more to the forum than this. Only chamber members could attend and the questions were flakey but given the people in attendence no wonder, Grade 7 class would have posed better questions.
Is there any wonder why the voter turn out is so bleak these days. What a total waste of my time.
All the answers given are bland, straight out of a political campaigner’s handbook. Boring and uninformative.
In a era where perfection is expected, and every word is sliced, diced, and analyzed to death, is it any wonder that the candidates trot out ‘safe’ answers?
Found the opening comments by Don Roberts disturbing and then was alarmed to learn that he works in health care. Hopefully he operates in a position that doesn’t give him any control over patients.
I feel pretty confident that any overtly religious political party will not garner any serious support in this country, but it just seems backwards to me. For a democracy to survive (and we’re just barely hanging on now) there has to be a clear separation between church and state.
Abortion is currently a necessary and integral part of a healthy and egalitarian society and so too will be euthanasia in the future I believe.
The chamber which arranged the debate didn’t know that there are two sets of candidates for Prince George-Valemount and Prince George-Mackenzie?
They could have at least allocated half of the time to one set of candidates and the other half to the second half.
Were they allowed more than one minute to respond to a question?
Hate to tell you Bobby but the foreign worker program is not a provincial program and you do not have the option to ‘not support it’. You have no jurisdiction to change a federal program even if you think you do.
“a comment which sparked a bizz in the audience as people tried to figure out what that was all about.”
I suspect that was about a little fish trying to be noticed in a big pond
It is very odd that her highness decided to participate and sit behind the same table with the other candidates.
li’le fish watch out there are sharks in the pond ;-)
What a pathetic bunch! “The reason I’m running is to get rich quick on the backs of taxpayers and receive that awesome government pension when they throw me out.”
If any one of them had made that statement, it would have been the only honest person at the table.
Jack Nicholson said it best, “You can’t handle the truth!”.
People want to be lied to, then complain about it later.
About the scowls coming from Shirley Bond’s supporters and directed at the other candidates….thats the kind of rude and disrespectful behavior I have seen City Councillor Cameron Stoltz display in the past at all candidates forums…wouldn’t surprise me if Nathan Giede’s comments were directed at him.
Big Bore I have to say I agree with your view and this is not a kick at you. Just like NDP leader collected $70,000 when he was fired for lying to the police. Well he’s back for more money when he should really be paying back the money plus interest when the NDP severed tie with him. This would not happen in the private sector. If he is serious of being a leader give back the taxpayers money. Why would they bring back this fireball? Is he the best they have?
Slinky …. the TFW program is indeed a fed program … but it is very much endorsed by the current provincial Government …. You dont recall Pat Bell doing the backpeddle of all backpeddles with respect to HD Mining corp?
Sine… Don Roberts is nothing more than a Giant *Facepalm*
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