Candidates make their points in Rupert

The final week of the federal election campaign brought all of the riding's candidates to Prince Rupert for an all candidates forum, providing one of the last opportunities to learn about their positions on the issues of importance to the Northwest.

Originally it was believed that Conservative candidate Sharon Smith was going to take a pass on the festivities, but last week even she declared her intention to participate in the event, and judging by the feedback from local residents it was a smart decision on her part.

For the bulk of the evening it appeared that the two main candidates in the riding will be the Conservative challenger and the NDP incumbent and considering the volume of her supporters and the nature of the questioning on the evening, it would see that she will be Cullen's largest potential threat for a return to Parliament.

The Daily news outlined the evenings events with the headline, front page story in Friday's paper. Earlier in the day, the Northern View had provided its synopsis of the night's events as well, which can be found here.


WOULD-BE MP'S IN SPOTLIGHT AT ALL-CANDIDATES MEETING
Questioners take chance to grill those standing in election at open-mic session
By George T. Baker
The Daily News
Friday, October 10, 2008
Pages one and two

They were presented equally across the stage and were given an equal amount of time to discuss their platforms but the six candidates for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding had very different answers to local questions at the all-candidates meeting last night.

The hottest question on the night (the one that drew the most rebuttals) was asked of Green Party candidate Hondo Arendt.

Arendt was asked what he thought was the future of West Coast fisheries and after he answered the other five candidates each weighed in on the issue.

"We need to take a lot more local control of the management decisions because it certainly has been a mismanaged industry over the years," said Arendt.

The first rebuttal came from the NDP's Nathan Cullen.

"I think individual transferable quota need to be eliminated and I think owner-operator should be a model that is done on the East Coast and should be done on the West Coast. If you own a licence, you should fish the licence," said Cullen.

Cullen's main challenger (by the amount of visible support at the event) Conservative Sharon Smith did not back away from the question either.

"What I've learned is our current fishery management is being mismanaged and that we need to stop having special interest groups telling us what to do. We need real science from the department of fisheries to examine our stocks," said Smith.

The other candidates could not resist the key local issue either, they all took a swing at the important question.

"Global warming will effect our oceans and it is important that we do all we can as individuals, as communities and as a nation to turn that, stop that," said Canadian Action Party's Mary Etta Goodacre.

"It's really important we get fishing back to where it was," said Liberal candidate Corinna Morhart.

"We have people who can't even get employment insurance hours in and I think it is really important that an MP actually goes to Ottawa and lets Ottawa know what is happening here. We need a lot more done," said Morhart.

Rod Taylor added that fisheries was important and so is the water and that both needed to be protected.

What little there was of fireworks were more then made up for in quotes.

One of the top quotes came from Goodacre, who referred to the alleged 9-11 conspiracy as the "rotting elephant in the room that needs to be thrown out".

And Arendt remarked when he received his second question of the night from a local resident that it was a new personal record.

As for the audience, some of those in attendance found the event clarifying and informative toward the questions they had regarding the local candidates. Others like Brian O'Connor found the forum wanting.

When asked if any of the candidates had answered any of his questions, he said that he could not say that they had.

"I would like to know what is going on with raw logs exporting and the port development doesn't seem to be going anywhere just like the rest of things here in Rupert don't seem to be going anywhere," said O'Connor.

O'Connor said he had already made up his mind before coming to the forum that he was going to vote for Cullen and nothing at forum had changed his mind.

While O'Connor may have been dismayed by the events, Janet Biel was happy with not only being able to hear where the candidates stood on the riding's top issues but also with the turnout.
"I've found it very interesting and I've really enjoyed the dialogue this evening from all the candidates, especially all the questions that were asked because of our economy situation. We are a resource-based economy and we should basically stay that way," said Biel.

Biel added that she was also paying close attention to the U.S. presidential election because of the effect the U.S. economy will have on the Fairview Container Port.

"Overall, the candidates have done a pretty good job and may the best candidate win," said Biel.
According to the Lester Centre's Crystal Lorette, there were approximately 230 people in attendance at last nights' all-candidates forum.