Salt Spring Forum has organized a virtual all-candidates debate for the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding in the federal election campaign.
The event will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. with the link available on the www.saltspringforum.com website.
Forum manager Richard Steel said the organization has decided to allow only parties with sitting MPs in the House to participate. Candidates will therefore be incumbent Elizabeth May (Green), Sherri Moore-Arbour (Liberal), David Busch (Conservative) and Sabina Singh (NDP). Moore-Arbour was not listed on the Elections Canada website as an official candidate as of Aug. 30 but was nominated by the Liberal Party’s riding association and has a website.
As of Aug. 30, the other two candidates listed were David Hilderman for the People’s Party of Canada and Dock Currie for the Communist Party of Canada.
Tony Brogan, a supporter of Hilderman, has organized an in-person all-candidates event under the auspices of a group called Democracy Saltspring at the Royal Canadian Legion on Tuesday, Sept. 14 from 4 to 7 p.m. Confirmed attendees besides Hilderman were not available as of Monday.
Singh, Busch and May ran in the last election held in October of 2019, which May won with 49.09 per cent of the popular vote.
Voting eligibility and methods, and poll location dates and details will be available at elections.ca. Advance poll locations, dates and times will also be on voting cards sent in the mail to all registered voters. Elections Canada indicates advance polls will be held Sept. 10-13.