Voters will get a chance to hear what the candidates vying for the Kenora-Rainy River riding have to say when the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce and district teachers’ groups host an all-candidates’ forum here Oct. 2.
Chamber manager Dawn Booth said yesterday that all four candidates—incumbent NDP MPP Howard Hampton, Liberal candidate Mike Wood (Dryden), PC candidate Penny Lucas (Kenora), and Green Party hopeful JoJo Holiday (Kenora)—will attend the forum, which will be start at 7 p.m. at the Civic Centre.
While the district teachers (Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, and Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association) and Chamber have sponsored candidate forums and debates in the past, Booth noted this is the first time the two groups have worked together.
“We’re excited about that,” she remarked.
The forum will be conducted as they have in the past.
“Each of the candidates will be given time to do opening remarks, and then there’s six different questions that will be asked,” explained Booth.
“The teacher group will be asking three questions that they will be devising, and as in past years, what the Chamber will be doing for our portion is picking three topics that we think the business community needs to know about or is interested in.
“Again, we’ll be asking members of the media to put together questions underneath those topics.”
Booth noted the Chamber’s chosen topics likely will be economic development, taxation, and either health care or natural resource management.
Each candidate will have two minutes to answer each question, and then one minute for rebuttal.
After the forum, the public will be encouraged to stick around for coffee and doughnuts and meet the candidates face-to-face.
Shaw has confirmed the forum will be broadcast live on Channel 10.
Election day is Wednesday, Oct. 10.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
