In the past couple days I’ve been asked by a few friends who won Tuesday night’s Southern Interior all-candidates forum.
It’s a telling sign that most of my friends are sports fans so: a) they decided to shrug off democracy and watch the Canucks get thumped instead; and b) they boil everything down to wins and losses. Other than passing judgement on my closest circle, it is a bit of a natural question I suppose.
So who won Tuesday night? Well, clearly the 150 people who showed up to watch the two-hour show. I’ve been part of more than a dozen of these events over the years at the municipal, provincial and federal levels and it always blows me away that the crowd overflows into the Hume Hotel hallway pretty much every time. Thank you Nelson for making me feel like this election actually does matter.
That’s swell, but not the answer those who skipped the night seek. They want to know who won the trophy (we actually didn’t give one out, but perhaps we should).
That’s a little more difficult to pin down.
Tuesday was the first time I had the opportunity to meet Green Party candidate Bryan Hunt and Liberal candidate Shan Lavell in person. They left the biggest impression on me, but it’s not because of their performance.
Both are really genuine people and were pleasant during the evening’s discussion. That said, neither have a chance to win the Southern Interior and when the night was over that was obvious. Neither performed well enough to pull off a miracle.
The night was really about NDP incumbent Alex Atamanenko and Tory challenger Stephen Hill. They will finish one-two on May 2 and the only real question will be whether Hill forges enough inroads during this campaign to make it interesting this time around.
Atamanenko’s performance was pretty standard. He emphasized the good work he has done in the riding over the years, talked about what a great leader “Jack” is and took every opportunity to mention F-35 fighter jets. Atamanenko’s tone is generally pretty positive, but we did see a little emotion when Hill’s plant questions came to the mic to challenge him on his record.
The most anticipated performance of the night belonged to Hill. A self-proclaimed SOB, Hill is a classic Conservative candidate. Not afraid to speak his mind even when he knows in a place like Nelson most of what he says will be unpopular.
Tuesday’s discussion and debate really pitted three against one. It’s pretty much a love-in when it comes to Hunt, Lavell and Atamanenko. They represent three parties with very much in common. Hill is the contrast and he handled himself relatively well.
The majority of the questions were aimed at him and he answered them all. He referenced the Midway mill way too many times and waved his Conservative election playbook to the audience for good measure. He faced the most jeers, but stuck in there.
One of the most telling questions of the night came from Mountain FM news director Glenn Hicks who asked Hill and Atamanenko to say something they like about the other person’s platform or personality.
Atamanenko struggled. Even when he found something nice to say, it carried a pretty distinct “but.” Like most in the NDP, Atamanenko’s world is pretty black-and-white so seeing any glimmer of hope in Tory ideas is almost impossible.
Hill was much more gracious and surprisingly so. He complimented Atamanenko, saying some of his work has been “phenomenal” and that he is “an honourable man.” He went on to make it clear he is the “antithesis” of Atamanenko.
It was the most interesting part of the evening. And in a night pretty tough to score, it probably tilted the scales to Hill.
And then just when I was ready to give the Tory the victory, a troubling situation arose just after the forum broke.
As candidates were milling about and media were grabbing candidates for post-forum interviews, Star reporter Greg Nesteroff went to ask Hill for a moment of his time. I stood there and watched as Hill brushed off Nesteroff and his handlers told the reporter that the candidate didn’t have time for an interview.
I was stunned. Here’s a guy auditioning to be our MP and he snubs the most important link between the representative and the represented. The media is a vital part of democracy, but Hill didn’t have a few seconds to give.
I expressed my disbelief with Hill’s campaign manager (who wasn’t the handler who helped Hill dodge Nesteroff). She eventually did the right thing and we did ask Hill a couple of questions. But the damage was done. It’s sad that Hill doesn’t understand the importance of speaking with the media. The odd post-forum moment was enough to snatch the trophy away from him.
So on a night when even the winners lost, the top prize again goes to those who came out to get more informed about what is an important decision on May 2. Congratulations.
Bob Hall is the editor at the Nelson Star. He can be reached via email at editor@nelsonstar.com