The Portage and District Chamber of Commerce held an All Candidates Forum in front of a packed house at Yellowquill School last night. (listen to the entire broadcast below) Three of the four mayoral candidates and all 14 of the people running for council attended the event and all had an opportunity to make an opening and closing statement.
As far as the rest of the night was concerned, questions came from chamber members as well as from people in attendance. When it came to the potential mayors, all had a chance to answer each question asked of them while three potential councilors randomly chosen answered each question submitted for that group.
Outgoing Mayor Irvine Ferris was one of the many in attendance and feels these types of events are important.
"I have to say, it's very different being a spectator, sitting and watching. I can really feel for all the people who were on stage, it can be very nerve-wracking. You don't know what questions are coming at you. I really applaud all of them. Investing their time, their families for supporting them, it certainly gives people of Portage a lot of choices. Portage, I found always takes their politics seriously. We don't seem to do acclamations here."
Former councilor Jeff Bereza also took in the event and had similar thoughts.
"These people are under attack up there sometimes, but you know what, to put your name forward is so important. I was so impressed with all the candidates that came forward here. And I think the most important thing here is to vote. Get out and vote. If you wanna make a change, get out and vote. To have this much choice in Portage is great. We've got a good cross-section of people from our community that are running."
With the number of candidates running, the event took almost three hours. One of the moderators was Guy Moffat, interim president of the chamber. He commented that things went very well.
"I was happy with the responses that we got. It was wonderful to see the diversity on stage and the answers were reflective of that diversity. It's difficult when you have that many candidates to have everyone have the same voice. But everyone did have a voice and I think some of the answers to the tough questions around housing and economic development were answered well by some of the candidates. The gymnasium was full, the overflow area was full, so obviously people are interested in hearing more"
The municipal election is next Wednesday the 26th and full results from Portage and the surrounding area along with reactions from the candidates will be available here on portageonline.