Local candidates play it tame at Rossland All Candidates Forum
By Allyson Kenning
Last night a crowd of 58 people gathered at the Miners Hall for Rossland’s All Candidates Forum, hosted jointly by The Rossland Telegraph, Lone Sheep Publishing and the Rossland Chamber of Commerce. All four of the candidates for our riding of BC-Southern Interior attended: Stephen Hill of the Conservative Party of Canada; Shan Lavell of the Liberal Party, Bryan Hunt of the Green Party, and our incumbent, Alex Atamanenko of the NDP. The format included a panel session where four panelists, Les Anderson, Kelly McLean of KBS, Norm Fraser of the Chamber of Commerce, and myself, asked two questions each to the candidates. After that, the microphone was open to the public, and ten people eagerly lined up behind it get an opportunity to speak directly to those running for our seat in Parliament.
From the outset, the distinction between candidates who live locally, Stephen Hill and Alex Atamanenko, and the candidates who are from elsewhere, Shan Lavell and Bryan Hunt, was clear. Both Lavell and Hunt relied heavily upon their party’s platform to answer questions both from the panel and the audience, and at times had difficulty relating their answers to specific locally-related questions. For instance, when asked about the frequency of flight cancellations at Castlegar and that being an economic deterrent, airport by Norm Fraser, Lavell said, “we [the Liberals] have a national transportation and infrastructure strategy, and I would really want to put the Southern Interior on the map nationally for the gems that it has, and so I think we have to upgrade whatever the equipment is…So I think it is absolutely crucial that we have airports that can sustain regular scheduling. I would be your champion.”
Both Hill and Atamenenko, however, had very specific responses to this question that demonstrated their knowledge behind some of the issues with so-called “Cancelgar”, namely the different landing criteria there are in Trail Regional Airport and the airport in Castlegar, and the various discussions they’ve had with local leaders in the communities about the situation.
Lavell’s performance at the forum in general showed how passionate she is about the issues of early childhood education, parental education, investing in families, and looking after the most vulnerable segments of the population. As a former nurse and counsellor, and a foster parent for challenged youth, Lavell’s enthusiasm for nurturing children and youth was infectious, saying she wants to be the “champion for children” in the riding. She was also very passionate about the Liberal platform, calling it “a thing of beauty.”
There was a bit of feistiness last night, some of it coming from our Green candidate, Bryan Hunt. When Kelly McLean asked the candidates about the tar sands, Stephen Hill responded first with a rather humourless comment: “We like to refer the to tar sands as the oil sands.” He went on to say that the Conservatives “believe industry will act responsibly.” But Hunt wasn’t buying it. “I often work with oil and gas companies,” he answered. “These [the oil companies] are not responsible people.
“These are oiled-mustached, sneering people that will steal candy from a baby. I’ve been to the tar sands or oil sands or happy sands – whatever you want to call it – [and] it’s a little bit disgusting…Again, these are not responsible people and you cannot trust them to do the right thing.”
Later on in the evening, Hill got a dig back at Hunt while answering an audience member’s question about possible Conservative coalitions with other parties, including the Green Party, should no party win a majority. “Well, we’re making a lot of assumptions there…that the Green Party’s going to get a seat in this election…He [Hunt] wants a job in the Kootenays but he can’t find one, but he knows that if he votes Conservative he’ll have an opportunity.”
For his part, Hill painted a grim picture of the Kootenays, referring to the area a couple of times as “the Newfoundland of BC”, stating that the region has the highest level of unemployment in BC, has had thousands of job losses, and is also experiencing a significant migration of its residents to larger centres where there are more jobs and services readily available.
He also seemed to have some contempt for the format of the forum, which did follow federal guidelines. When an audience member asked the candidates about bad behaviour in Parliament, particularly the shouting and insult-slinging during question period, Hill said, “the bad behaviour in the house starts here tonight. What we’re not able to do is get across substantive points about solving poverty, about solving our health care fix, about solving our pension fix, and what we’re trying to do is get across that one line, that one zinger, because that one line and that one zinger shows up in the press…The political process is flawed, and it starts right here. This process that we’re going through tonight is flawed. And that’s why we get bad behaviour in Ottawa, because the skills necessary to get to Ottawa start right here.”
At the opposite end of the candidates’ table, our NDP incumbent had a quiet night, since most questions seemed to be directed at his Conservative opponent. With the latest poll showing Atamanenko significantly ahead of Hill in the race, it almost seemed as if he wished to remain under the radar. Yet our sitting MP was not without pep.
In response to the aforementioned question about behaviour during question period, he said, “I’m a former school teacher and I would never take my students to question period. That kind of behaviour would not be tolerated in my classroom…There’s a couple of yahoos in my party. They yell and scream, and it bothers me.” He went on to relate a story about how the loud and disrespectful behaviour of an MP he sat next to in the house prompted Atamanenko to request a seating change from the party whip after talking to the MP and putting in ear plugs failed to work.
Over all, it was a mmostly barb-less evening with good behaviour all round. Everyone adhered to the rules, and if the candidates ran over their time limits, our timekeeper, Adrian Barnes, rang a bear bell, which seemed appropriate for Rossland, and everyone heeded its peal. Audience members were kind enough to help stack chairs at the end of the night, which reminded me of what happens at the end of a Joe Hill Coffee House evening.
If you’re not aware yet, election day is this Monday, May 2, and our polling station this time is at RSS. Polls open at a 7:00 AM and close at 7:00 PM. If you haven’t received a voter information card in the mail, don’t worry; you can still vote! If you are not sure if you’re registered, you can register at the polling station on voting day; all you need to do is bring some photo ID and proof of address. For more information, visit this site for all the details.
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