The second of what will surely be many all-candidates forums this election season has been officially scheduled and announced by the Campbellton Neighbourhood Association (CNA).
Next Thursday, Sept. 27 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Eagles Hall, the CNA will host a forum in partnership with the Vancouver Island University Urban Planning Team they are calling “Visioning the Priorities.”
The goal of the night, according to CNA vice chair John Twigg, is to gauge the candidates views on how best to manage the continuing development and revitalization of Campbellton.
“The city has been pretty good about working with us to address things that need to be addressed in Campbellton,” Twigg says, “so this is a forum to see where they all sit in terms of wanting to continue that. But it’s also a forum for them to say why they think they should be elected, in general.
“It’s something we did in the last election and it had good success,” Twigg continues, “so when Brian (Shaw, chair of the CNA board) came to us with doing it again, we gave him the go ahead to put it together.”
The format, Twigg says, will probably be opening statements by candidates, followed by a series of questions related to Campbellton itself and then an open floor for questions from the audience.
The night will also provide an opportunity for candidates and the public to hear from the VIU program that has been working alongside the CNA for the past few years to analyze and make recommendations on improvements that could – and should – be made to the area.
“We’d like to hear the ‘what’s next?’ in terms of the Rescue the River project,” Twigg says. “During BC Day weekend at Campbellton Days we had the official opening of the pocket park at the end of Spruce Street, and we had four councilors out on a holiday Monday, so that’s an example of their current level of support. The accessibility of council to the CNA has been excellent, and we’d like to ensure that continues.”
For his part, Twigg says he’d like to hear from the candidates about specific areas they think would be good to add amenities or services, such as the possibility of a visitor information centre or a larger transit hub, “but the river itself is the longstanding concern we’d like to hear from them about. We don’t really have an agenda, though. It’s an opportunity for anyone with interest to ask questions and we’ll hear what we hear.”