City residents will have at least three chances to debate their electoral candidates this month, two of which are next week.
Three St. Albert organizations have arranged all-candidates' forums for this federal election. The forums will be one of the few places where residents will be able to see, hear and question all four candidates about the issues of the day at the same time.
The St. Albert Chamber of Commerce will hold its traditional election forum this April 21 at the St. Albert Inn, says CEO and president Lynda Moffat, hosted, as usual, by John Farlinger of Farlie Travel.
These forums give people a chance to see how the candidates conduct themselves in public, Moffat says. "It's quite revealing." They're also extremely popular — some 110 people showed up at the 2008 forum.
The chamber is sticking with its Q&A format, Moffat says, where organizers collect written questions from the audience, categorize them and present them to the candidates. "That way, we move through a lot of questions and get a lot of information out to people." Each candidate will also get to make opening and closing remarks.
The chamber forum starts at 7 p.m. in the Grandin Ballroom. Call 780-458-2833 for details.
Paul Kane High School will hold a forum at 11:30 a.m. this Thursday, says teacher Brandon Andreychuk, in what's thought to be a first for the school. Staff decided to hold the forum — as well as a mock election — to give students insight into the political process. "These are real issues and tangible things open to all of them."
The forum will be an open-mike, town-hall affair, Andreychuk says, with each candidate given time for opening and closing remarks. It's open to the public, but will likely be dominated by students.
The Paul Kane forum goes down in the school's atrium on April 14. Call 780-459-4405 for details.
Speed-date a candidate
The first, and likely most unique, forum of this election will happen this Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the St. Albert Public Library.
The library gave candidates space on its website during the last civic and provincial elections, says director Peter Bailey, and decided to hold a forum to get more involved in the community. "We've always been a community hub for information," he says. "We just see this as an extension of it."
Staff didn't want to step in the way of the chamber's forum, Bailey says, so they decided to use a unique format recently seen in the Edmonton civic election. "Somebody called it speed-dating."
Each candidate, plus a moderator, will be placed in a different corner of the library's program room. The audience will be divided into four groups. Each group will get to grill a candidate on any topic they wish for 10 minutes, after which they will rotate to the next candidate.
This is less adversarial than other formats, Bailey says, and is meant to counteract the rabid partisanship that often permeates the House of Commons. "This is an attempt to give every candidate from every party a chance to discuss the issues."
The format sounds like fun, says Green Party candidate Peter Johnston. "I like the idea of getting personal contact with a small group of people," he says, compared to the "quiz-show" format of other forums.
This forum should be very interesting, says Liberal candidate Kevin Taron, and will give people a chance to talk one-on-one with the candidates. "It's more like a two-way street."
The room only has room for 100 people, so Bailey asked residents to pre-register for the event. Call 780-459-1682 for more information.
