SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
While city boundary disputes, public-private partnerships and other contentious issues were supposed to be the focus of an all-candidates council forum Wednesday night, it turns out the main event wasn't even on the agenda.

Candidate Dane Mason addressed questions about the IServeU platform at the municipal all-candidates forum on Oct. 14. "If we can depend on all of you to interact with us Š then we've already got a better discussion going," he said. - James Goldie/NNSL photo

After a lengthy question and answer period on the merits of the upstart IserveU online voting platform, incumbent Linda Bussey had heard enough.

"I'm just going to talk from the heart," she said after asking Shelagh Montgomery, the moderator for the Alternatives North event, for permission to speak.

"I'm not going to talk from a political stance. It's very difficult to sit here and to listen to these comments because when I take this job, I take it seriously and I listen to people. So don't sit here and minimize what I do."

Bussey interjected after listening to Dane Mason, a council candidate and IserveU spokesperson, to explain how the group's candidates would try to defer votes should they be elected and an amendment was made on an important item before council.

IserveU has been suggesting for months that the wishes of residents are not being fully served by council and the need for an online voting system directing councillors serving under the IserveU banner.

Many of the questions and comments coming from audience members inside the packed city hall council chambers focused on the yet untested voting system.

"You're asking the people of Yellowknife to put their democracy in the hands of an unproven system that is run by a third party that declares a non-profit," said Miles Welsh.

Referring to the estimated percentage of Yellowknifers who don't have home Internet, Welsh went on to ask how the three IserveU candidates can reconcile a commitment to make decisions in the best interest of all citizens despite using a platform that "already disadvantages at least eight per cent of (Yellowknife) residents."

IserveU candidate Marie-Soleil Lacoursiere disagreed with the notion that the online service would make municipal politics less inclusive, insisting Yellowknife's population has a higher rates of Internet access than the national average.

"Being able to have all kinds of people who I would never know be able to get in touch with me, share their comments, see what I will vote before I do," she said.

"I see it as such a tremendous improvement from the current system."

Rommel Silverio, the third IserveU candidate, called it a tool to improve public engagement. He said the system can be used by citizens whose English is limited.

"With this forum, they are able to put down their thoughts and it translates to English," he said. "These are the people who are never contacted for municipal things."

Another audience member expressed discomfort with what she perceived as the IserveU organization having "been able to wrangle so much sway over this election."

Another posed questions to three incumbents about why they had chosen not to run under the IserveU banner.

"This is the problem: I don't know who's at the other end of that terminal, who's voting, how much do they know, do they understand (the issue) as well as I do," said Adrian Bell.

"I'm prepared to be proven to be wrong about this ... I can't say that it won't (enhance dialogue) but I'm skeptical, and for that reason I wouldn't sign up myself."

The final question of the night asked IserveU candidates how the platform would function should they be elected to council. It was after they responded that Bussey interjected.

In an e-mail to Yellowknifer after the forum, Mason expressed frustration with how the forum was conducted.

"(Organizers) treated an outburst from Coun. Linda Bussey as a question, and again allowed all non-IserveU candidates to comment on IserveU without allowing a rebuttal," he said, adding he feels for candidates whose campaigns or priorities were overshadowed by all the IserveU discussion.

Although no other subject was given quite as much air-time, the first hour of the event saw two mock city councils - each chaired by a different mayoral candidate - discuss four separate topics chosen by Alternatives North. The questions involved the Smart Growth Plan, a boundary dispute between the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and the city, a city policy related to P3 projects and whether the city should pay all its employees and contractors a living wage.

The Smart Growth Plan passed, but all other motions failed - in part to do with the wording of the motions.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.