The thing about growing up is that, for a lot of us, we lose our spunk. We start caring a little too much about appearances. We only say the “appropriate” thing.
Not the teens, though. They’re out for blood.
Students from the Alberni District Secondary School hosted an all-candidates meeting. From now on, we think high schoolers should conduct all election events.
First, they have a lot more time on their hands to learn about topics we should care about. Second, they hold back on absolutely nothing.
Because of this, their questions was absolutely incredible.
First of all, they kept the event down to 1 hour. That’s excellent time management, and about the time anyone has to spare.
If a candidate went over their 25 second intro or started a glorified speech about themselves, the kids whisked the microphone away from them.
They ran a tight ship, and they weren’t afraid to throw anyone over board.
They got the elephants out of the room almost immediately.
The crowd went wild when students got right to the good stuff. They asked any candidates who supported the convoy to stand up and make their opinions known. Michelle Bisaro, Wendy Kerr, and Seva Dhaliwal all stood.
Students definitely weren’t afraid to get personal either.
The first real question went out to Mayor Sharie Minions. They asked how it’s felt to run for re-election with all the negativity thrown at her over social media. “People tell me not to take it personally, but it is personal because I care about the decisions we’re making for this community,” Minions replied.
They also asked who each candidate would vote for. While some candidates chose to share their answers, others were taken aback by the line of questioning.
“I can work with anyone, but nobody has business in my voting booth or my bedroom,” John Douglas said.
At least he can take comfort in knowing that no one has any interest in his bedroom.
The students also focused on Indigenous relations within the city. The whole event opened with singing from Nuu-chah-nulth singers, and students asked many questions about reconciliation. They also asked for concrete examples of how candidates would create healthy relations with Huu-ay-aht, Hupacasath, and Tseshaht First Nations.
They also wanted to know how candidates have been and will continue to contribute to the Valley.
They asked why candidates decided to run for council, and what about their volunteer track record.
How would they work for positive change if they do NOT get elected?
In the last five minutes, they held a lightning round on the candidate’s backgrounds and the issues they support.
Students returned to the “stand if yes or stay seated if no” method of questioning, and launched into a ton of profiling topics.
These ranged from whether candidates grew up in low-income families, whether they plan to address homelessness issues, to whether they support high-density housing in the Burde Street ponds area.
Overall, the whole thing was concise, hit on hard topics, and was overall pretty enlightening.
The event was held at the ADSS Theatre in front of fellow students and more than a dozen members of the public.
Students held a mock vote, and the results will be released from following the real elections results on October 15th.
Now if only all of the all-candidates forums could be that forthright.
