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By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: As election forums pile up, some limits are needed

Sep 18, 2019 | 4:48 AM

KAMLOOPS — AFTER A COLUMN last weekend in which I touched on the issue of skipping election forums, I received a reply from Cathy McLeod. She says:

“In Kamloops this round I have never seen so many requests from so many groups. We really need a better system. It is unfeasible to actually do them all.

“Would be much better to have fewer with themes/ blocks where different groups can be part of input.”

I think she has a good point here but let’s separate the issues. My comments in the column had to do with Terry Lake’s past habit as a provincial candidate of refusing some forums hosted by groups he believed to be partisan. I gave as examples forums hosted by the B.C. Teachers Federation and the Farmers Market.

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In my view, candidates who avoid forums in which they fear the crowds might be unfriendly pass up a perfect opportunity to show their mettle under fire and possibly make some conversions.

Besides which, we elect politicians to represent all of us, not just some of us.

However, it’s certainly true that the demands placed on candidates to attend forums and answer surveys are onerous. McLeod says she’s received 15 invitations so far and they’re still coming in.

Everybody wants the attention of candidates on their pet issues.

Fewer forums scheduled throughout the campaign, perhaps combining a number of specific issues, would serve the electorate and the candidates much better. That could only be done if the candidates all got together and sorted out which forums to attend, made suggestions to the prospective sponsors on merging some of them, and agreed on criteria.

But rejecting forums based on whether they think the crowd will be friendly shouldn’t be one of those criteria.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.