Carleton Candidates lay out how they will represent voters

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]One of the most striking take-aways from last Wednesday evenings all-candidate meeting hosted by the Richmond Village Association Inc. was the quality, depth and diversity of the slate of candidates running in Carleton. While we drown in media reports about the leaders and party politics, voters in this ridding have a full slate of good candidates to choose from. They were all current with the issues, their party’s platform and their commitment to resolving issues for the people of Carleton.

Let’s face it, as the very basis of our Parliamentary democracy you can only vote for the local candidate despite all the focus on parties and their leaders. Voting for a quality candidate you can trust to fight for what you believe in, within or outside the governing party, is the most important aspect of your vote. Carleton in that sense is a winner already with those candidates that have come forward.

RVA President, Ryan Pinet began the evening by welcoming everyone and asking each candidate to introduce themselves and their reasons for running. The introductions were followed by responses to a series of questions submitted in writing to the chair and later an open mic session to round off the evening.

Those in attendance heard many of the same things they heard on national and local media but the interplay between the candidates was certainly something worth seeing.

Several dominant themes emerged including global warming and alternative views on how to respond; affordability and how candidates parties propose to pay for all the promises; people’s frustration with partisan politics and Federal /Provincial squabbles such as one government destroying the investments/programs of a previous government; as well as several examples of what appeared to be misinformation over for example, changes coming to how hospitals will be compensated for veteran’s medical services.

In all of this the two perceived front-runners Pierre Poilievre and Chris Rodgers, who were only seperated by roughly 2000 votes last election, were often singled out for their views. While the two men and their parties clearly have opposing views on how to deal with the environment and the state of the economy the greatest contrast lies in their personal style. The Ottawa Citizen article below explores that contrast in detail.

ANALYSIS: For Carleton constituents, vote will be as much about style as substance

All the other candidates held their own very well on any of the issues raised during the discussions / Q&A periods and provided a very interesting and at times entertaining counterpoint to the two front runners with corrections to the historical performance of previous governments.

Readers are encouraged to visit this link to an article in the Ottawa Citizen “Election 2019: What you need to know about the candidates in Carleton” for an introduction to the candidates and what they stand for.

All the candidates have worked very hard over the past months and even years with tens of thousand of door knockings, and hundreds of hours of commitment at community events to get the message through on why they are running and what they have to offer. All of this in service to the public … we owe them our thanks, careful consideration and finally, our VOTE!

If you haven’ t already done so, be sure to VOTE for the candidate of your choice on the 21st.

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