by Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 23/97) - An argument on how the public should behave at a public meeting stirred up an otherwise polite discussion of issues at the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce all candidates meeting last night.

Lynda Sorensen, campaign manager for Liberal Ethel Blondin-Andrew, took exception to the way Andrew Johnson demonstrated his dissatisfaction with her candidate.

Johnson, standing at the back of the room, waved his arms and hands when Blondin-Andrew spoke, but said that did not give Sorensen the right to tell him to stop and complain about him to the meeting's organizers.

"I don't believe any member of any political party should approach any member of an audience unless it's because he or she is doing something obscene or illegal," said Johnson.

Sorensen disagreed.

"If he had been rolling his eyes or slouching his shoulders in disgust, that wouldn't have been a problem," said Sorensen.

She said Johnson's actions were distracting her candidate, noting he was only protesting when Blondin-Andrew spoke.

Media did not pick up on the conflict until near the end of the meeting. Once they did, Sorensen asked one reporter if Johnson, a UNW vice-president who lives in Iqaluit, was going to be interviewed.

"If you talk to him, you better talk to me too," she said.

From that point on Sorensen kept a sharp eye out for Johnson. Following the meeting, the two entered into a heated discussion at the moderator's table, Johnson claiming his right to protest and Sorensen doing damage control with a smile.

However, the national deficit and cost cutting, not freedom of expression, was the main focus of the debate.

When audience member John Murray asked what the candidates thought of the Liberal government's record on keeping promises, Blondin-Andrew noted the deficit had been reduced from $42 billion to $9.6 billion.

She listed a chain of Liberal achievements including stabilizing a cash floor for medicare and providing funding for training and youth programs, and bringing interest rates down.

"If that's not a promise we've kept, maybe we need to discuss you're definition of a promise," she said.

Mary Beth Levan slammed the Liberals for unfair tax practices, saying the country trailed all other industrialized nations in terms of fair taxation.

Referring to finance minister Paul Martin, she said, "He keeps his ships anchored in a third world country, so he doesn't pay any taxes on them...I have no quarrel with people making money, I have a quarrel with people not paying their fair share of taxes."

Independent candidate Wally Firth maintained the best government is a minority government, saying "A government that is too powerful does not respond to the wishes and desires of the public."

Bob Dowdall leaned heavily on the party platform, saying it presented the most common sense approach to the financial and social challenges confronting the country.

"The Progressive Conservatives are committed to restoring (transfer payment) funding that has been taken away from the provinces and territories," he said.

Transfer payment reductions, said Reformer Mike Watt, are at the root of a Liberal credibility crisis.

"You've got good reason to question the Liberal's integrity," Watt told one questioner. "They insist on national standards for health care and cut transfer payments so the provinces and territories don't have the tools to supply it."