The Humboldt & District Chamber of Commerce hosted an election forum at the Bella Vista Inn on Mar. 22.
The chamber has hosted a number of forums in the past at all three levels of government, municipal, provincial and federal.
Chamber Board of Director member Joanne Forer organized the event and said it was important to host the forum so each of the candidates can have an opportunity to “expose” their platform to the constituents.
It was also an opportunity for the constituents to get an opportunity to get to know the candidates and have face-to-face conversations with each one after the forum was over.
“Any opportunity that you have to either make them aware of what your personal concerns are and for our perspective, we want to make sure that all the candidates are fully aware of the business communities concerns and the issues that we’re facing on a day to day basis as well,” says Forer.
The forum saw all four electoral candidates for the provincial election in the Humboldt/Watrous constituency have the opportunity to lay out their platforms and answer questions.
Each candidate was afforded five minutes to give opening statements and then were asked four predetermined questions with each candidate being given the opportunity to respond to one question, with the other three able to rebut.
The first candidate was given three minutes to lay out their answer as best as they could to each question with the other three candidates allowed two minutes each to rebut the question. One final minute was given to the candidate that originally answered the question so they could rebut the rebuttal and get in the final word.
After the four questions were answered the floor was opened up to those in attendance to ask questions of the candidates about whatever issue they wanted.
The audience asked a number of questions including some about various roadways, the accumulating debt in the province, which liquor stores in the constituency would be privatized, as well as a general question about privatization, another about health care, just to name a few.
Sharon Cameron attended the forum and asked a pair of questions regarding health care and privatization and said it was important for her to hear what answers the candidates had for those questions.
“Their platforms, sometimes they say something but then after the election is over it changes, like tonight I reminded Donna (Harpauer) that last time we had a forum like this she said they had no privatization in their platform and then after the election it changed so that was troublesome to me,” she said.
The forum was very well attended, which Forer was very pleased to see especially considering the roads were not their best given the weather.
“We’re really happy with the turnout and we’re really happy that we could facilitate an event for the community,” Forer said.
