Mike Holbrook from the Green Party, the NDP’s Jessica Zielke and the New Blue Party’s Glenn Tyrell made the trek to Bancroft Thursday evening for the All Candidates Meet.
“I feel like I’m in an Agatha Christie novel” said Zielke at the start of the question period.
It was a nod to the classic crime novel And Then There Were None, as she referenced the pared-down attendees on stage.
The event was hosted by the Retired Teachers Federation and moderated by former Global News anchor Bill Hutchins. Numbers in the audience were also low, as the debate went head-to-head against the Canada USA l 4 Nations hockey game final.
“Yes, we are competing against the hockey game” said Hutchins, “But you know, throughout the course of this debate, not to interrupt the flow of things, but we’ll see if we can provide you with some updates along the way.” he added to a chuckling audience.
After the candidate’s introduced themselves, each was given two minutes to respond to questions from the floor.
Concerns raised by residents included healthcare, reliable funding from the province, housing and homelessness.
Many of the topics touched on feelings of being passed-over in rural, more northern municipalities.
“What assurance do we have from any of you that we’re going to see you? Maybe at town hall once in a while? Maybe some form of communication?” asked one constituent, adding, “Bancroft just seems to be left on their own and nobody bothers once the official gets elected it’s ‘Adios thank you very much’ so what is your commitment?”
The Green Party’s Holbrook was the first called to answer the question responding that whether he wins or not he is committed to showing up.
“I intend to be here in any case and get to know the issues, not just in Marmora, but in the entire riding. That would be my approach. I will give (PC incumbent) Ric Bresee credit because he did show up to the first forum this week and he’s one of the very few PC’s in the province who did, so he had to actually buck his boss. So I don’t have much bad to say about Ric. He seems like a nice guy, but unfortunately his boss is kind of a jerk.”
Holbrook continued, expanding on what he sees as an issue with the conservative platform.
“The problem is that under party politics, the rules are that there is a party whip, and when they have a vote in the legislature, the party whip tells you how to vote. So as nice as Ric may be, he has very little freedom when it comes to votes, about whether he is going to vote. One way or the other, he’s told. And that’s very unfortunate. And that is against Green Party policy.”
Moose fm will be sharing more from the meet in the days leading up to the Feb. 27 election.
