Editor:
Like the interloper I am I attended (from North Delta, but provincial election issues are pan provincial and not circumscribed by provincial riding boundaries) the last half of the candidates meeting last Tuesday evening at the Genesis Theatre in Ladner.
These "debates" - and this was no exception - seem to always be constrained almost to the point of being ineffective by arcane "debate" management techniques. Nevertheless, there were three things on Tuesday that stood out for me.
The first "thing" was the crowd. It looked to me to be largely pro-Vicki Huntington before discussions even commenced. This is always interesting. These kinds of events seem to be more a kind of pep rally trying to demonstrate support for a particular candidate than they are efforts by people attending to try to understand positions on issues taken by the candidates participating. Unfortunate, but the reality . . .
The second thing that stood out most for me (and I am certainly going to be accused of bias here, but, "Hey," I am not a member of the B.C. Liberal party - really!) was the different ways the three candidates responded to "questions."
I like Vicki Huntington and I think she works hard, but she sure is "against" a lot. Listening to her (I have looked quickly at her website, but like many potential voters I don't have the time to easily "study" it) I began to wonder what she is actually "for." It takes more than platitudes to initiate "things" and suggest ways to accomplish goals and objectives. I didn't hear suggested solutions to the many problems Huntington keeps telling us we have, in anything she tried to tell us on Tuesday.
Liberal candidate Bruce McDonald talked differently than this on the issues he addressed. His approach to me seemed to be business (not a dirty word) like and focused on solutions - an approach to issues that McDonald brings a wealth of experience to.
I could go on, on this particular point, but there was one other interesting development at the meeting. This came in the context of the closing statements by the three candidates. McDonald took issue with the manner in which Huntington has trumpeted her accomplishments over the past several years while in office. In particular he debated the claim that has been reported in the local media - and that is proclaimed on Huntington's website - that tells us that "Vicki secured a $3 million commitment" to dredge Ladner Harbour.
The crowd "roared" (OK; it didn't really roar, but it did erupt in relative indignation - at the notion that McDonald would challenge what appeared to be the crowd's more or less sacred cow - a claim by the independent candidate to have single-handedly dredged the harbour) it's disapproval at the notion that McDonald would be so presumptuous to try to correct an only too obvious effort at self aggrandizement by candidate Huntington.
Those - in perhaps too many words - were the highlights for me in watching and listening to the events of last Tuesday evening. Edifying? Maybe, but it could be much more so if we would attend these kinds of gatherings in a spirit of enquiry and focus less on blatantly and unhelpful partisan participation.
Firth Bateman
