Cochrane is in search of a stage to hold town council’s 19 candidates in a forum before the Oct. 18 election and the question remains, who or what will answer the call?
With all the restrictions and health measures in place right now due to COVID-19, council candidate Samantha Nickerson said she feels that hosting an in-person event to that scale is a sensitive subject.
“I feel like it’s really touchy because people are trying to be safe,” she said. “I know some candidates are doing solo live streams over Facebook. I think there needs to be more opportunities to meet though because I know a lot people aren’t going door-to-door.”
“It is just a different year but I think something online, if anything, where people could send in questions over Zoom or something and that could be broadcast to Facebook.”
Kevin Shier, president of the Rotary Club of Cochrane said that the club’s apolitical stance is what led them to decide they are not going to host any public candidate forums.
What they did instead, was host a virtual “reverse town hall” with the Lions Club, Cochrane town council and Rocky View County candidates.
The meeting on Sept. 27 was about the Rotary and Lions clubs plans moving forward, where they were speaking to candidates as opposed to candidates speaking and answering questions.
Much of the discussion was around future visions for the Rotary managed Bow RiversEdge Campground to expand and push more funding into the community, as well as the extension of the Trans Canada Trails' Great Trail to connect Calgary, Cochrane and Canmore.
Shier said they have found that municipal administrations can sometimes get in between what the Rotary and Lions clubs, or other service groups, are trying to accomplish and what the councillors are hearing.
Shier believes the scale of both projects deserved a presentation directly to council candidates.
“It was strategic from the perspective that the councillors are hungry right now to come out and tell people what they’re going to do and try and get elected,” he said. “We actually limited them to about 45 seconds each to introduce themselves … The idea was that they would be eager to come even if they just got to get their face in front of some new voters.”
New councillors will be busy with other administrative tasks in the six to 10 months after the election so Shier hoped the meeting would stick in their minds when they ask to get in front of council again later down the road.
Town councillor Marni Fedeyko, who is running for re-election, said she felt the meeting was also beneficial to the new candidates to get a sense for some of the great things the Lions Club and Rotary Club have accomplished in the community over time.
The next event scheduled for candidates is the Town of Cochrane Candidates Open House at the Social Spot on Tuesday (Oct. 5) from 6-8 p.m. While Fedeyko plans to attend and meet with constituents there, she said hosting all 19 candidates in a public setting right now is tricky and so not all are likely to attend, especially with the health measures and capacity limits in place.
“It definitely goes to show that COVID brought about weird times and having typical types of events or forums with that many candidates is going to be challenging,” she said. “And with that many people, even if you allow only five minutes for a candidate to speak it adds up to a lot.”
Apart from rumours of people trying to organize a forum or other public meeting for the town council candidates, Fedeyko said she has not heard of any other events scheduled down the line but feels there is a need for one.
“Anybody can put a campaign into writing,” she said. “They might not have even drafted that campaign themselves. Anybody can put something in writing and put it out to the public, but where a forum helps is when you are asked a question you’re not expecting, and you’re expected to answer intelligently, knowledgeably, confidently.”
Fedeyko said sitting in chambers is a huge learning curve for anyone who has not been in that position before and a forum can help candidates to prepare for and better understand that responsibility to the public.
“In a forum opportunity, I think that's where you're going to see who actually has the confidence, the knowledge and the ability to bring stuff forward on behalf of the residents. And that I think, is invaluable,” she said.
