From left to right: Carol Dyck (Green), Peter Fragiskatos (Liberal), Sarah Bokhari (Conservative), Sahil Mansur (PPC), Dirka Prout (NDP)
Voters in the London North Centre riding got a chance to see all five candidates discuss major election topics for the second time this campaign.
The debate was held at King’s University College across from Western University’s main gates. Given that the debate was happening on campus, students were a major focus. “I think having a debate on any of our Western campuses but especially King’s is super important for student engagement,” said Ellie Kozak, a King’s student who helped organize the debate. “Youth makes up one of the biggest blocks in this election and I think these debates really help get out the vote and make students make informed decisions when they go to the polling stations.”
The first portion of the debate saw a handful of students asked prepared questions at one candidate, with a rebuttal offered to another. Topics in this section included affordable housing, transit, electoral reform and climate change. More pertinent to students, candidates also discussed transitioning students into the workplace, plus student loans and debt.
All candidates discuss student loans.
Dyck: education is a right; not a privilege
Fragiskatos: increase student grants, delay interest on loans
Bokhari: student debt is an affordability problem
Mansur: a balanced budget will sort it out
Prout: eliminate interest on loans
— Greg Bowman (@gregbowmann) October 8, 2019
While it was important for students to get an opportunity to hear from candidates on major issues, the King’s debate was crucial in another way. “These events provide us the platform to give more information to help people figure out how to vote,” said Kozak. In the King’s College student centre, there were banners and slideshows being played that explained all the methods for students to cast their votes.
The second portion of the debate had the candidates ask questions to one another. It was much less civilized than the first part.
The Highlights
Incumbent Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos and Green Party candidate Carol Dyck are the only two candidates who also ran in the 2015 election. The two have collaborated on topics related to climate in the past.
Sarah Bokhari is running as the Conservative candidate. She was put on blast by her opponents because she is a new resident to London, with her competition citing that she does not know the area enough to represent it.
Sahil Mansur is the representative of the People’s Party of Canada. Much of his rhetoric was echoing of Maxime Bernier’s at Monday’s debate – calling for a balanced budget that will sort out the rest of the election issues.
Dirka Prout is running as the New Democrat Party candidate for the first time. She and Fragiskatos had an exchange while discussing the NDP’s platform promise of restructuring the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The King’s College crowd was a healthy mixture of both students and members of the community. Western’s University Students Council President, Bardia Jalayer, was in attendance, along with executive members of King’s Student Council.
The candidates have been asked to refrain from personal attacks to one another.
That’s the tweet.#CanadaDebates2019 #KingsDebate
— Greg Bowman (@gregbowmann) October 8, 2019
This was the last time that voters could see all five candidates discuss all topics before voters go to the polls on October 21st.
