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by John Butler

At an all-candidate meeting sponsored by the Grey Highlands Chamber of Commerce and held in Markdale on Thursday evening, the modestly sized (population 10,000) municipality of Grey Highlands educated itself – and in the process, gave the broader world a much-needed lesson in civility.

The meeting of over 200 local residents with their six federal candidates

in the riding of Bruce Grey Owen Sound was well-ordered and sedate. To those who measure public political deliberation in terms of fire and friction, the event was probably a disappointment. But to those who believe democratic debate must maintain the mutual respect that makes communities politically livable, the event was a resounding success, evidenced in part by the fact that almost none of the 200+ attendees left before the three hour meeting was over.

Candidates, seated at a head table from left to right, were:
Michael Den Tandt, Liberal Party, Dan Little, Libertarian Party, Alex Ruff, Conservative Party, Chris Stephen, NDP, Bill Townsend, People’s Party, Danielle Valiquette, Green Party

The event involved three components moderated by Ray Robertson, Executive Director and President of Grey County Agricultural Services:
1. Each candidate made a five minute opening statement.
2. Candidates then responded to eight questions posed in to them in advance by the Chamber. Each was given five minutes to answer before the moderator moved on to the next question.
3. Candidates gave one-minute responses to six questions posed by the audience. On arrival, attendees were asked to write down their questions on slips of paper, and six of these we read aloud by the moderator during part three of the meeting.

Each candidate was provided with a table for the placement of posters and literature, staffed by volunteers from the candidates' campaign teams.

The eight questions posed in advance by the Chamber of Commerce transcended the interests, narrowly defined, of Chamber members: they were questions mean to interest the whole community, including businesspeople:

1. What steps have you taken to prepare for the role of a Federal Member of Parliament?
2. Do you have qualifications that would allow you to be considered for a committee chair or cabinet position?
3. What do you think about the federal management of rural broadband initiatives?
4. What federal policies are in place, or should be in place, to make sure that carbon tax revenues are actually helping to reduce carbon emissions?
5. Canada's agricultural food industry drives our national economy. What would you work on to help Grey Highlands farmers be more sustainable?
6. We need more affordable housing. Do you have any solutions? Could the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation offer 5% down payment mortgages to more people?
7. Do you support a federal pharmacare system?
8. Our senior population is increasing rapidly. The cost of living is also increasing annually. Would you promote a substantial increase in the Old Age Pension and then annual indexing?

For the last six of the eight questions, candidates generally referred to their party platforms (links to these platforms are at the end of this article). Despite individual party differences and nuances, what generally emerged in the answers, however, were two broad approaches to addressing problems.

• Empowering individuals and families to solve their own problems by minimizing government involvement in their lives and by allowing them to keep as much money in their own pockets as possible to solve problems – a position emphasized by Libertarian, People’s Party and Conservative candidates.
• Taking collective social action, fuelled when necessary by taxation and regulation, to address problems beyond the control of individuals and families – problems that do, however, pose threats to individuals and families. This position was emphasized by the Green and NDP Parties and to a lesser extent by the more centrist Liberal Party.

The questions posed by audience members included questions about climate change, social justice and the plight of former residents of residential schools for Aboriginal children, the acquisition and retention of jobs, how the voices of citizens – particularly young people – could be heard in the corridors of power, how to address issues of homelessness, and how to address racism in light of the blackface/brownface controversy surrounding Justin Trudeau.

What was striking about the questions is that they were not the conventional and narrow self-interest questions that sometimes characterize public political meetings.

Tranquility is not always a measure of political virtue; politeness can be a mask over the face of injustice. There is often a proper place for indignation and anger in public discourse, and in communities, people don’t always get along (as humorist G, K. Chesterton put it, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people”). But signs of respect and consideration in public discourse can grease the wheels of community life, and there were plenty of these small but significant signs at the Markdale meeting:

The candidates themselves treated each other with respect and a degree of comradeship. Rather than hunkering down in isolation over their speaking notes before the meeting began, they were engaged in what looked like lively and friendly conversation with each other before Chamber of Commerce President Stewart Halliday called the meeting to order.
Candidates hewed closely to the times allotted to speak, rarely exceeding their allotments by more than a few seconds (but it was amusing on occasion to see how rapidly a candidate could talk to get as much policy information or opinion as possible into their allotted time).

While candidates occasionally criticized the platforms of other parties, they generally concentrated much more on putting forward their own party’s position. No candidate made any disparaging comment about any other candidate.
The audience greeted each candidate’s remarks with applause, and from the volume and length of applause a casual observer could not conclude that any one candidate was getting more appreciation from the audience than any other.

During an election campaign we often hear the old adage that citizens in a democracy get the government they deserve. By that standard, and based on the results of the Grey Highlands Chamber’s candidates’ evening, the community deserves a pretty good government.

The Grey Highlands Chamber of Commerce will publish a special podcast of the event on Friday September 27 through its podcast outlet IN GREY HIGHLANDS THIS WEEK at
 Visit I tunes and search for IN GREY HIGHLANDS THIS WEEK. Readers can also visit the website of the Grey Highlands Public Library ( https://www.greyhighlandspubliclibrary.com/ ) to access the video on the Cultural Channel.

Party positions and platforms van be accessed through these sites:

Green Party candidate Danielle Valiquette:
https://www.greenparty.ca/sites/default/files/platform_english_web.pdf
https://www.greenparty.ca/en/mission-possible
NDP candidate Chris Stephen:
https://www.ndp.ca/climate-and-jobs and https://www.ndp.ca/climate-action
Liberal Party candidate Michael Den Tandt:
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/pan-canadian-framework.html
Conservative Party candidate Alex Ruff:
https://arealplan.ca/
Libertarian Party candidate Dan Little:
https://www.libertarian.ca/platform_2019
People's Party candidate Bill Townsend:
https://www.peoplespartyofcanada.ca/global_warming_and_environment_rejecting_alarmism_and_focusing_on_concrete_improvements