You have to respect the candidates

Jeff Green | Oct 03, 2019

As some letter writers have pointed out, I have been accused, not necessarily unfairly, of talking about the federal election as if it were a non-event in Lanark Frontenac Kingston.

Over the years, we have taken on a similar role at the Frontenac News for all elections, federal, provincial and municipal. We provide all candidates meetings so that our local residents have an opportunity to see and hear what the candidates have to say, and to put questions directly to them. We also publish interviews with each candidate with a view towards providing readers with a sense of who the candidates are and what their intentions are, regarding the position they are seeking. In provincial and federal elections we also ask look at their view of the party they are representing and its policies.

We are doing the same things in this election. We organised an all candidates meeting in Sharbot Lake on Monday night (September 30) and are helping to publicise a meeting in Verona on October 9th, and will be publishing candidate profiles in a couple of weeks.

I have been less than enthused about this campaign, partly because of the flawed electoral system and partly because, in spite of the fact that there are important, even grave issues, facing the country, I don’t find that the campaign has generated anything resembling a national debate on policy direction. It seems, from the media coverage at least, that the parties are stumbling along, making promises we all know they can’t possibly keep, and leaking as much dirt on their opponents as they can find.

Do we really care if Andrew Sheer sold insurance or not, if Elizabeth May is a kind boss, or if Jagmeet Singh held anti-police signs when he was a younger man who faced institutional discrimination from a young age, or even if Justin Trudeau didn’t know when he should refrain from dressing up as other people in public. I know I don’t.

None of this really changed on Monday Night at the all candidates meeting in Sharbot Lake, but the way the four candidates conducted themselves, the tone and content of the questions from the audience, did bring, for the first time, some elegance and grace to this election for me.

Each of the candidates did well for themselves. Scott Reid talked primarily about the work, much of it non-partisan, that he does in Ottawa and intends to continue doing, while supporting the general thrust of the Conservative party’s platform. Satinka Schilling presented the social justice aspect of the New Democrats. She talked eloquently about income disparity. Kayley Kennedy supports much of the Liberal party platform, used her youth as an advantage, and was willing to mix it up with Scott Reid over policy. Stephen Kotze put forward the environmental policies of the Green Party and projected the idea that the Green’s do not want to oppose the other parties on all issues out of principle.

The question of the night, for me, was put by Jim Tysick of Brooke Valley. He asked the Liberals and Conservative candidates how their parties were different from each other, and put the same question to the Green’s and the NDP, setting up two separate exchanges with a single question.

The candidates had some harsh things to say about their opponents in response, but it never descended into personal enmity between them.

In the end, the candidates showed respect for one another without shying away from disagreements. They all are taking this election seriously and are doing what they can to get as many votes as possible.

Although I continue to believe that our electoral process is less than democratic, the local candidates in this riding brought a strong measure of legitimacy to the process on Monday night, because of their commitment and honesty about their own candidacy and their support for the policy directions that the parties they represent are bringing to the table.

On October 9th in Verona, there is another opportunity to see these four candidates in action, as well as  Matthew Barton, candidate from the People’s Party of Canada.