The Sunshine Coast Community Coalition played host to five of the six candidates in the upcoming federal election at a public forum in Gibsons Wednesday night.
The missing Conservative candidate, incumbent MP John Reynolds, proved a hot topic in the question-and-answer period.
When a member of the 80-plus audience asked why Reynolds wasn't there, the Liberal hopeful Blair Wilson had a quick answer.
"I'll tell you why John Reynolds isn't here: because he doesn't care," said Wilson. Each of the candidates opened with a five-minute speech. Their platforms ranged from the Canadian Action Party's Marc Bombois with his two-point agenda to Wilson's whole-hearted endorsement of Paul Martin and his programs.
Andrea Goldsmith, the Green party representative, emphasized her record as a Gibsons' councillor. According to Goldsmith, her party aims to balance fiscal concerns with social needs. Their desire is "a healthy economy, a healthy community and a healthy country."
She frequently referred to a large binder to quote the party's position on a number of issues.
Making her first appearance in the election race was Anne Jamieson of the Marxist-Leninist party. Jamieson, a retired nurse, wants the Canadian people to "stop paying the rich." She opposes the annexation of Canada by the United States. She's against NAFTA and any military agreement with the U.S. Bombois, who spoke against the "takeover of Canada by the U.S.," drew the biggest audience support of the night. Loud, sustained applause greeted his platform. Bombois wants out of NAFTA and wants the government to use the Bank of Canada instead of private lenders to fund public expenditures.
Rounding up the group was NDP candidate Nicholas Simons. He got chuckles from the crowd when he talked about converting his Montreal-based parents to the NDP - "not very helpful for me," he said. Simons spoke several times on the NDP's social programs and indicated his support of Jack Layton, the federal leader of the party. Goldsmith drew the ire of several members of the audience more than once when she hammered Simons on the past record of the provincial NDP. She needled him on the NDP's environmental showing.
"All you did was create parks that are being dismantled now because you didn't have strong enough protection for them in place," Goldsmith said.
The question period was cut short because most of the candidates had to catch the last ferry. Approximately 12 disappointed people left the Gibsons Elementary School gym with unanswered concerns.
