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Debate, not meet and greet, needed

September 24, 2014   ·   0 Comments

Dear editor:
On October 2nd your paper is holding an all candidates meet and greet at the Beeton arena. I am asking you to turn it into a proper debate, one that takes questions from the floor.
I am asking this for the following reasons. Council positions are not volunteer. They are well paid for part time work and include expenses as well as benefits.
Over the next four years this council will face increasing pressure from a cash strapped province anxious to download services. We need to know if we will have a council with the backbone to resist.
The county used to represent 2 per cent of our municipal tax. Now its over 20 per cent and they are spending like they won the lottery. Two of the most recent examples are a million dollar donation to a university and the purchase of a share in an airfield. That’s your tax dollars folks, someone may want to ask why we are funding this nonsense.
Closer to home the council has committed $80,000 to take CN to court over ownership of the wooden bridge on the 9th Line. They want to replace it with a level crossing at the Towns expense as well as spend millions replacing the single lane concrete bridge at the end of Lilly. We have been told, as we are every election that there will be a solution to truck traffic on main street. We now hear about a Beeton By Pass – Is this it? I hope not – directing trucks past two schools and residential areas is poor planning but if not the 9th Line where will the by pass be?
We need to know how council hopefuls will address these issues and a creme puff meet and greet won’t cut it.
Iain Mackay,
Beeton
Editor’s note: I agree with many of your points here Iain. The reason I am hosting a meet and greet, as opposed to a formal debate, is to ensure that constituents have equal access to their candidates. In the traditional debate model, the candidates for mayor and deputy mayor (since they are voted in at large) are the recipients of the majority of questions. This makes for an unbalanced approach. At a meet and greet, candidates can speak with their ward constituents directly. All candidates will also all be given the floor, to present a moderated two minute speech, outlining their platform for all to hear. I believe the meet and greet style is the only fair way to give each of the candidates the same campaign exposure.

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