Kitchener-Waterloo Byelection Candidates and Forums
UPDATE: 2012-08-27: Added Sept 1 "Politics on the Patio" event.
I am kind of sick of politics, so I'll refrain from commenting too much on the September 6 byelection in this entry. Instead, here are basic details about candidates and all-candidates meetings I have found so far. I have also posted this to the Wonderful Waterloo site: http://www.wonderfulwaterloo.com/showthread.php?t=1419&p=39137
There are currently ten candidates registered for the byelection: http://wemakevotingeasy.ca/en/electoral-districts/by-elec-kitchener-waterloo.aspx:
- Garnet Bruce, Independent.
- Kevin Clarke, People's Political Party
- Stacey Danckert, Green Party
- Eric Davis, Liberal
- Allan Dettweiler, Libertarian Party
- David Driver, Freedom Party
- Catherine Fife, NDP
- Elizabeth Rowley, Communist Party (The official link is supposed to be communistpartyontario.ca, but that points to a parked domain.)
- John Turmel, Pauper's Party
- Tracey Weiler, Progressive Conservative
Interesting geeky facts:
- The People's Political Party website was made using MS Office
- The Green Party and Libertarian sites are Drupal
- The Freedom Party site looks hand-coded, although I might just not recognize the content management system used
- The NDP site for Catherine Fife, the Ontario Communist Party site, and Tracey Weiler's PC site are Wordpress
- Eric Davis's Liberal site looks like a content management system, but I am not sure what it is.
I had trouble finding information about all-candidates meetings, so I emailed the campaigns of the NDP, Liberal, Progressive Conservative, Green and Libertarian parties. I received feedback from the Greens and NDP.
Here are the debates I know of currently:
Monday August 27, 7-9pm: Record debate held at the Viennese Ballroom at the Waterloo Inn Conference Hotel, 475 King St. North, Waterloo. http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/786484--kitchener-waterloo-byelection-forum-monday-aug-27
Tuesday August 28, 7-9:30pm. KW Common Front all-candidates meeting at First United Church, 16 William Street West, Waterloo. The candidates I emailed did not seem to be aware of this forum. http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/785546--economic-hardship-should-be-election-issue-coalition-says
Wednesday, August 29, 7-9pm?: KW Chamber of Commerce debate held at Kitchener City Hall (outside the electoral district, which was the excuse one candidate used in the federal election to skip the debate). They have only invited candidates from the four biggest parties. http://greaterkwchamber.com/en/workingForYou/kitchenerwaterlooforum.asp
Saturday September 1, 8pm: Fair Vote Canada "Politics on the Patio" conversation held at the Huether Hotel, 59 Queen Street North, Waterloo. The following candidates are scheduled to attend: Stacey Danckert, Eric Davis, Allan Dettweiler. http://listserv.thinkers.org/pipermail/fvc-wat-announce_listserv.thinkers.org/2012-August/000183.html
There is also a "Health Town Hall" event organized by the PCs. I do not know whether other candidates are invited.
Thursday, August 30, 6:30pm-8pm, Country Hills Community Centre, 100 Rittenhouse Road, Kitchener. http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/785871--health-care-forum-planned-thursday-in-kitchener
Maybe I will bore you with my thoughts and opinions later.