Residents of Keremeos and the Lower Similkameen showed once again that their political interest and awareness exceeds the average for most Canadians.
Victory Hall literally burst at the seams last Wednesday with a packed house on hand to hear an assembly of candidates at the Keremeos all candidates forum.
The venue provided an excellent opportunity for citizens to view, hear and compare the various candidates’ positions and personalities.It was a well run, tightly time managed meeting that was a credit to host organization Siimilkameen Country.
The candidates’ views appeared to be split between those advocating change, incumbents for the most part advocating a steady, thoughtful continuation of the status quo, and other candidates who, while not part of the recent political record, were satisfied enough with it that their interest lay mainly in making a civic contribution to their community.
Those advocating change, we feel, missed their opportunity to define their candidacy. There was a general failure on the part of the change advocates to outline to the public why their version of change was necessary and, more importantly, what it would cost.
None of those candidates provided concrete answers as to how their ideas would be implemented or paid for, resulting in rhetorical platforms that completely lacked substance.
The 100 plus crowd that gathered to hear the candidates did not miss this lack of message, as was witnessed by the questions posed to several candidates.
It was quite obvious that the public knew who the charlatans were - a fact that was made clearer to a large number of Lower Similkameen electorate because they took the responsibility - and an evening - to find out for themselves.