You may have noticed some additional hues amongst the foliage by the highway recently, as the commencement of . . .
the federal election has brought its customary detritus to our landscape. You might have already been accosted at your door by some grinning candidate or a fresh-faced volunteer, their heads full of slogans and their hands full of glossy propaganda.
Though there may still be some stragglers to add to the list before the application deadline, the six main political factions have announced candidates for the Pontiac riding: Incumbent Will Amos (Liberal), Dave Blackburn (Conservative), Denise Giroux (NDP), Claude Bertrand (Green), Jonathan Carreiro-Benoit (Bloc Quebecois) and Mario Belec (PPC).
THE EQUITY will be bringing you the highlights from the campaign trail, including the upcoming candidates’ forum put on by the Pontiac Chamber of Commerce and CHIP FM on Sept. 26 at the Campbell’s Bay R.A. Hall. But for those that can’t make it out to events in the community, we’ll also be publishing where the would-be MPs stand on the issues that matter to this region.
As the rural portion of a riding that also has a large urban population, there are plenty of issues that matter more to our slice of this fair land than our neighbours on the other side of the hills. Things like cell phone and high-speed internet access, trade agreements for agricultural producers and protections for our vast wilderness.
And that’s where you come in.
We want to hear what’s on the mind of The Equity’s readers, and put your questions to the people who hope to lead this region. Now’s your chance to conduct a job interview for the public servant that will be representing us in Ottawa, probe their qualifications and get a sense of their values.
What do you wish you knew about the current crop of candidates? What do you wish they knew? If you’ve got beef with the system, we’re offering you a platter to serve it up on, so long as it comes in the form of a coherent query.
Submissions can be sent to editor@theequity.ca and we’ll select as many as possible before October 21 rolls around. Questions should be applicable to all candidates and suitable in scope to be answered in around 200 words.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Caleb Nickerson
