The Weyburn Chamber of Commerce is changing things up for the all-candidates forum for the federal election, with a different venue and format proposed to allow for more questions from a wider part of the community.
The Weyburn Chamber of Commerce is changing things up for the all-candidates forum for the federal election, with a different venue and format proposed to allow for more questions from a wider part of the community.
The forum will be held on Wednesday, Apr. 20, at the Soo Theatre from 2 to 4 p.m.
"In an effort to have more issues addressed, there will no longer be an open microphone portion of the event. Instead, the Chamber is soliciting questions from our members. These questions will be posed by a chamber volunteer," said Chamber manager Jeff Richards, adding that e-mails and letters have been sent to other groups, organizations and schools in the community to solicit questions from as many people as possible.
Asked why this different venue is being tried instead of the Legion Hall, Richards said, "We wanted to shake it up. We thought it would be nice to have more of a town hall feeling, and to give more opportunity to interact with the audience hopefully."
As for the change in format, with the removal of the open mike, he explained, "We found in the past there were one or two or three who would ask all the questions. We've changed the format for the questions. One of things we would always hear after a forum, people would watch the show and go, 'Somebody should've asked this question'."
In addition to compiling a list of questions beforehand, they are also curtailing the opening remarks, so the candidates will introduce themselves and they will jump right into the questions.
"We thought, let's just change it up for this election. We want to feel it out and see how it works. Municipal elections are very different, people are very engaged in those, but provincial and federal elections are different. Let's get everybody engaged, and hopefully we can get people involved," said Richards.
In the meantime, the Chamber is urging their members, and anyone else who has questions they would like to pose, to submit their questions to the Chamber office, by e-mail (manager@weyburnchamber.com), phone, fax or in person.
