A debate between four party candidates in the riding of Portland-Simonds drawing a bigger than expected crowd with around 70 people filling the seats at the Nick Nicolle Community Centre in the North end.
One Change President Scott Crawford says they wanted to host this event so community residents can get to know who will be representing them. He says they traditionally have had low voter turnout in the neighbourhood and anything they can do to connect the residents with their elected officials is a positive thing for both the community and for the officials that will represent them in the future.
Resident Denise Maloney attending the more than two-hour debate between the candidates, which included Conservative Trevor Holder, Liberal Michael Butler, Tony Sekulich of the NDP and Green Party’s Sheila Croteau. She says the debate was very informative for her and she liked the way the candidates presented themselves saying they were in many ways supportive of each other instead of attacking each other.
We asked resident and retired public health nurse Debbie McCormack if any one candidate stood out to her and she says she was impressed with Croteau but was also very impressed with Butler who she believes has a lot of potential.
The topics of discussion varying from job creation to poverty reduction and higher education.
