Conservatives criticized for missed meeting
All-candidates forum hosted by Alternatives North
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, October 9, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The dominant theme of an all-candidates meeting held at a packed Northern United Place in Yellowknife on Wednesday night was the almost universal condemnation of Conservative candidate Floyd Roland for snubbing the event.
Liberal candidate Michael McLeod, left. Green Party candidate John Moore and Dennis Bevington, NDP candidate, share a light moment during Wednesday night's all candidates forum at Northern United Place. Conservative candidate Floyd Roland was roundly criticized by the audience for snubbing the event. - John McFadden/NNSL photo |
Speaker after speaker heaped scorn upon the Conservative party, its leader Stephen Harper and Roland for not attending the forum. One speaker said it showed a "lack of courage" on Roland's part.
Roland's open letter to Liberal Leader Justine Trudeau
The meeting was hosted by the social policy organization Alternatives North and included environmentalists, organized labour representatives, women's rights groups and aboriginal organizations. Prior to the forum, Roland's campaign team told Yellowknifer he would not be attending because he was busy meeting with constituents and knocking on doors.
It was moderated by Yellowknife lawyer Margot Nightengale and both questions and answers were rigidly timed. The format saw the forum split into two parts - the first allowed for questions from representatives of Ecology North, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the NWT Status of Women Council and the Dene Nation. There was no actual debate among the candidates but there was certainly some eye-rolling from candidates when their opponents made reference to their parties and their policies.
The other three NWT candidates did attend: NDP incumbent Dennis Bevington, Liberal candidate Michael McLeod and John Moore, who is running for the Green Party. They did attack Conservative policy and Harper but for the most part were gentle in their criticism of Roland.
Moore received applause when he made reference to the Conservatives in his opening statement.
"I want to reiterate and echo those concerns from previous speakers over the lack of confidence the prime minister has in his candidate to speak on his behalf," Moore said.
The second half of the event allowed for questions from people not necessarily affiliated with any particular group. Questions ranged from aboriginal treaty rights to addictions and mental health issues to equal pay for women to fracking to the new Trans-Pacific-Partnership trade deal that was just agreed to by the Conservatives.
Not everyone, however, who attended the forum was anti-Conservative.
Merlin Williams, president of the Yellowknife Seniors Society, said that he felt Roland and the Conservatives won the night even though Roland wasn't there although he did feel that the forum was slanted such that Roland would suffer.
"There was a lot of low punching there,"
Williams said.
For a full version of this story visit www.nnsl.com.
