All candidates night in Quinte West

Candidates in Quinte West’s upcoming municipal election and voters packed the halls and auditorium at St. Paul’s Catholic Secondary School in Trenton on Thursday night, for an all candidates forum.

Those running for Mayor took part in a mayoral debate, while the 27 candidates vying for a council seat were each given a 90 second block to introduce themselves and their platforms to the gathered voters before the stage was handed over to the mayoral debate.

Three candidates are currently vying for the Mayor’s seat in Quinte West. Current councillors Shelley Stedall and Zack Card, along with David Thomson.

During the mayoral debate section of the night, the candidates were first randomly selected to make a brief opening statement, before settling into a question period. The candidates were asked a mix of questions submitted previously online, and ones submitted by residents on their way in. Each candidate was given two minutes to answer their question, followed by a minute for each other candidate to make a rebuttal, and then another minute for a closing statement by the original candidate.

The questions that were asked covered a wide range of topics, from the new ALTO high speed rail development and a recent proposed data centre, to how to handle municipal budgeting and taxes as funds become more and more scarce.

After the questions, closing remarks were made by each of the mayoral candidates, again in a randomly selected order.

Shelley Stedall was the first candidate to make her closing statement, with a focus on her extensive experience in municipal governance.

“I bring 35 years of municipal experience as the director of finance and the treasurer, our municipal financial advisor with the province and chief administrative officer,” said Stedall. “Combined with my four years serving on council, I prepared budgets, long-term financial plans, managed staff and organizations, and worked on infrastructure and development and helped councils turn their priorities into action.”

Next was David Thomson, who kept the focus on his plan to ensure a 0% tax increase throughout his term.

“Everybody talks about affordability and things like that, but they don’t have a mechanism to do it. I’m willing to put my job security on the line to keep that 0% and resign if I don’t get it in every single one of these four years.,” said Thomson. “Now that might sound unconventional. I get it. I’m the disruptor. I ruin the party. But I don’t really see any way that we can rein in the spending, except start saying no a lot more.”

Zack Card was the last to give his closing statement, saying that the community would need innovation to succeed and that it was time for the next generation of leaders to step forward.

“The next council will need new ideas and new approaches. I believe that I am the best candidate to improve affordability, to make healthcare accessible, to achieve voter equality in all four of our wards, and to protect vulnerable tenants,” said Card. “Quinte West also needs to be the most attractive city in our region for investment and jobs. That economic growth will have the biggest impact on lowering affordability and property taxes for ratepayers.”

Quinte West residents will go to the polls on October 26th.