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Letter to Editor
ShareReal questions please
By Neil Horner - Parksville Qualicum Beach News
Published: October 06, 2008 4:00 PM
While it was encouraging to see the strong turnout to the all candidates forum in Qualicum Beach last week, it remains an open question whether or not those people got good value for their time.
This possible lack of intellectual value does not entirely come from the format used. True, the method used by the two chambers of commerce and the real estate board came across as somewhat sterile, with no real back and forth possible between the candidates, but all the blame cannot be laid there.
What really seemed to suck the dynamism and life out of the forum had little to do with what was going on amongst the candidates on stage, and more to do with the people in the audience lining up at the microphone. Rather than concerned citizens asking tough questions of national and local importance, attendees were forced to listen as softball after softball got lobbed from the floor to the questioner’s candidate of choice, with the full expectation it would be hit out of the park.When this happens, the event degenerates to an entirely partisan affair of little real value.
Let’s be a shill-free zone in future forums.
