If you were unable to attend Tuesday night’s All Candidates Meeting in Barry’s Bay (maybe you were among the 50 or so Madawaska Valley residents denied entry), here’s your chance to see and hear what all twelve municipal candidates had to say – from the comfort of your own home. The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 406 was packed to capacity (203 persons) so fire regulations did not permit a larger audience. Above from left: Mayoral candidates Mary Blank and Roger Prince; Candidates for Councillor positions: Alia Bayat, Helen Benn, Fatima Bint Abdul-Muqit, Robert Faulkner, Noel Fenech, Lisa Hildebrandt, Shelley Maika, Leigh Meadows, David Shulist, Patrick Zelney. (Photo: madawaskavalleylibrary.ca)
The Madawaska Valley Public Library has arranged for this video of the event to be available on its website so that you can watch the proceedings, thanks to community volunteer videographers Terry Mask and Jeff Johns. An audio recording is also available on the Opeongo Line podcast, courtesy community volunteer Barry Conway. MV Library CEO, Natalie Barrington, opened the proceedings and introduced the evening’s emcee, Sean Conway. He and Barrington had pored through more than 80 questions submitted in advance by members of the public and had selected about 20 themes to question the candidates about. Although no questions were taken from the floor, audience members were able to speak with candidates after the meeting. Each of the twelve candidates was allowed to make a statement, and then questions were asked.
The evening was split into two sections – the first speakers were the two mayoral candidates, Mary Blank and Roger Prince. The second half of the evening was devoted to the ten candidates vying for the four councillor seats. Time was strictly kept to 2 or 3 minutes per answer in order to allow everyone an opportunity to talk and Conway called upon the candidates in alphabetical order. The video recording runs for just over 2 hours, so you have the option to fast forward, reverse, etc. in case you want to find a particular speaker or if you missed something and need to re-watch it. Links to both video and audio recordings are below, just click on the image.
Click here to view the video on the Madawaska Valley Public Library website:
Click here to listen to the audio recording on The Opeongo Line podcast:
