On Page 3 of today's issue you will meet one
of the candidates who is running for provincial office in
Sudbury.
Over the next several issues, similar Meet
the Candidate question and answer features will appear in the
newspaper.
This week reporter Craig Gilbert and I, with
some help from other members of the newsroom staff, are
interviewing the candidates in Sudbury and
Nickel Belt.
Their Q&As will appear in order of when
they were interviewed and edited. We will attempt to run about
1,000
words of each interview and to be as fair in
the editing process as is humanly possible.
Each candidate is being asked questions from
the list Gilbert and I compiled. However, in some cases, in
particular during interviews with the incumbents, the
conversation turned to their records as MPPs.
Or in the case of PC candidate Dave Kilgour,
who is still a member of city council and a former mayor of
Capreol, the conversation shifted at times to
provincial/municipal issues.
We asked all candidates about their stands on
abortion and gay rights. These are questions readers said they
wanted us to ask.
The questions are designed to reveal
something about the candidate's personality and history. While
we wanted to talk about issues, we also wanted the candidates
to get off message and put their policy books down for a few
minutes to get real. Many people vote for the candidate not the
party, and voters still like to feel the person they send to
Queen's Park represents their interests first, the party's
second.
People who want to know specific details
about each party's platform should visit our elections website,
which can be accessed from northernlife.ca. The site also has
links to the provincial party websites and those of local
candidates.
Voters can also obtain election literature or
any other information by phoning the candidates'
headquarters.
In recent years, there has been a real
concern about the democratic process. Federally, the Liberals
have formed a friendly dictatorship. Voter turnout has been
declining to record low levels.
While we still have a choice, I urge you to
excise your right to vote Oct. 2.
