ELECTION 2015: Federal candidates to debate at Kamloops Farmer’s Market

KAMLOOPS – The Kamloops Farmer’s Market will be the setting for the latest federal candidates’ debate for the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo riding.

The debate is scheduled for 10 a.m. until noon in the 200-block of St. Paul Street on the Stuart Wood Elementary grounds this Saturday, Sept. 12.

"(The debate is) kind of low key and more relaxed than some of the other public debates," Anita Strong, the chairperson for the Kamloops chapter of Council of Canadians, says. “A lot of people who are first time candidates like it because it’s more casual.” 

Questions will be collected from people in attendance, written down and drawn from a hat. Strong says this strategy helps the group to screen questions and maintain order.

Each candidate has five minutes to introduce themselves and their platform, three minutes for closing remarks and two minutes to answer each question. The debate will be monitored by Derek Cook, a political science professor at Thompson Rivers University.

“Candidates are welcome to arrive at 8 a.m. to set up a table, hand out information and meet people one on one,” Strong notes.

Three out of the four federal candidates running have confirmed they are attending the debate, with Conservative Cathy McLeod being the only exception.

The candidates running in the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo riding include Green Party candidate Matt Greenwood, Conservative candidate and incumbent Cathy McLeod, Liberal candidate Steve Powrie and New Democratic Party candidate Bill Sundhu.

The next scheduled debate, where all four candidates have promised to attend, takes place Oct. 14. Hosted jointly between CBC Radio Kamloops, Kamloops This Week and CFJC-TV, it will take place in Thompson Rivers’ Grand Hall.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

— This story was updated at 1:24 p.m., Sept. 9, 2015, to clarify the date of the debate.