To the editor,
Re: Mayor hopefuls debate visions for leadership, Oct. 11.
I attended the councillor/trustee meet and mayoral debate at the convention centre.
If the highlight of the evening was suppose to be the mayor candidate debate, well just forget it. It was a bit of a dud. It got off to a bad start when the organizers announced that there was to be no applause after a candidate spoke. A political debate among candidate for the highest public office in the city and there is to be no applause? There was a scattering of claps anyway – muted, reluctant, tentative.
Pretty staid stuff, I say. I mean it’s not like we don’t have burning issues, like competence (too many call it governance), tent cities, drugs, transportation, housing, economic opportunity, tourism, arts and culture, fiscal responsibility.
And then the format of the debate was another problem. In an effort to be efficient, I suppose, the time allotted was hardly time to develop a sensible point. And the questions were tame when provocation was needed, when aggressive prodding was called for. Did any sparks fly? Not hardly! The candidates, unfortunately, fell into the psychology of the moment.
However, there were some bright lights: the candidates for councillor, the new ones in particular.
Brian Peckford, Nanaimo
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