Political signs of the season ... lead us to the Lester Centre tonight

The forest of political signs from Sunday at the
corner of 2nd Avenue West and McBride, heralds the arrival
of the 2018 City of Prince Rupert Council race

What could be one of the few opportunities to take the measure of the eight candidates for Prince Rupert City Council comes tonight at the Lester Centre as the Prince Rupert and District Chamber of Commerce and Prince Rupert Toastmasters host an Election Forum dedicated to the Council race.

The Council Forum which starts at 7 PM features a format that is divided into three very different elements of participation for the eight council hopefuls that will be seeking your support on October 20th.

The evening will get underway as the doors to the Lester Centre open at 6:30, with an opportunity to meet the candidates outside the theatre, with each of those participating on the  night setting up in the foyer, available there to answer questions or hear the concerns of the voting public.

Among those that will be standing ready to hear from the public about the last four years and their view of how the next four should go, will be incumbent city council members Barry Cunningham, Wade Niesh, Blair Mirau and Gurvinder Randhawa.

Members of the public can also learn more about the ideas that the newcomers to the council campaign offer, with Nick Adey, Charmayne Carlson, Sarah Dantzer and Reid Skelton-Morven also set to be in the foyer to outline their political themes for the public.

The Lester Centre is the venue for tonight's Al Candidates Forum

Things move into the theatre for the 7 PM start of this years Council Forum.

Organizers have created an ambitious and tightly packed two hour program for the evening which Chamber of Commerce President Dave McKeever to outline the format ahead, as well as to introduce the moderators  from the Prince Rupert Toastmasters who will asking the questions of the candidates for the evening.

Those providing the questions to the council hopefuls will be Michal Sluka, Leslee Bruce and David Armstrong, while Michael Gurney and Lorraine Zuzarte will be the official timers of the evening, seeking to keep the candidates to their allotted times for comments and rebuttals.

The candidates then will be offered the opportunity to deliver their two minute opening statements, providing the first glimpse of the focus for their campaign of the next nineteen days.

The first phase of questioning comes as a two part themed question period, the topics selected by Chamber of Commerce representatives and reflecting the themes of interest that they have worked on in the lead up to the Forum.

Round One -- Economy and Infrastructure

Round Two -- Dynamic Community

Each category features eight questions that the candidates have already had a chance to review, they will be asked to select one question from each of the lists that has been made available to them.

The forum organizers plan to release the complete list of sixteen questions for the public to review once the Forum has come to an end.

Rounds Three and Four will be turned over to the public who can make their inquires of the candidates by way of electronic input, whether through a pre forum option (see below) or by crafting their question while in the theatre through their own electronic devices, or by submitting them to roving members of organizing committee who will include those questions on the electronic list for consideration.

From those submitted, the highest ranked questions will be the ones which will be asked of the candidates.

As part of this segment, the candidates will once again be offered the chance for a ninety second response.

You can contribute your own question, or vote on ones that have already been submitted by logging onto the Questions for candidates link here.

The information that is included as part of that feature advises that the top voted questions will be asked at tonight's forum, a bit over thirty minutes have been set aside for the public question and answer session for the evening.

As with the Chamber created questions, all of the public submissions will be released by the organizing committee following the forum, to allow for further discussion by the candidates as the campaign moves forward.

All candidates will also be provided with interjection cards which will allow them to offer a one minute response or rebuttal immediately after a candidate has completed their thoughts, the candidates will be allowed to use that rebuttal on two occasions.

No interruption of the speakers will be allowed as part of the format, those candidates who have a question or response to something they have heard will make use of the interjection cards.

Following the end of the the Public questions element of the night, the council candidates will then be offered one minute to make their closing comments and final pitch of the night to the voters.

Mayor Lee Brain who recently was returned to office by acclamation, will also be offered up to six minutes to deliver an address to the audience as part of tonight's Council focused forum.

Mr. McKeever will then bring the night to an end with some concluding remarks on behalf of forum organizers.

For those that cannot make it to the Lester Centre for tonight's candidate Forum, it is also available for viewing on City West Community Television, channels SD10 and HD310 as well as through online streaming through the CityWest Facebook page.

CityWest will air the Prince Rupert forum again on Sunday, October 7th, with plans to run the three Northwest Forums from Kitimat, Terrace and Prince Rupert one more time on October 19th.

See the CityWest Facebook page in the days ahead for the full schedule of rebroadcast options.

Some background on the advance polling process and election day itself can be reviewed here.

You can explore some potential discussion themes, as well as the latest notes from the election campaign trail from our archive page here.

To return to our most recent blog posting of the day, click here.