I’m watching the regional all candidates meeting on local cable.

We are fortunate in this riding to have four parties represented.  Over 200 people showed up last night, there was so much hot air they had to turn on the air conditioning.

The sitting liberal and the running conservative have political experience and came across as fairly polished and sticking to platforms. I find local meetings rather charming, simply because the polish isn’t always there. They can disintegrate into mirror images of question period in the house, depending on the audience and their passion about their concerns - but over all this wasn’t too bad. Integrity was the buzz word of the night.

The conservative candidate is deputy mayor. He can stay there in that position. He was very rude to someone after the meeting who asked him a question and tried to brush them off. The exchange was witnessed by several voters. The questioner serves on a board that deals with social issues and was not easily put off. After prickliness from the conservative candidate, the questioner got a commitment that his campaign office would respond.
He tries to come across as a leader, but he is representative about what actually is scary about some of the old conservative guard, particularly in this region.  He didn’t extend the courtesy of speaking in French in his opening remarks to an audience that would have about a 50% francophone audience.

Our incumbent is between a rock and a hard place. Few in the region can question his work for this area, while he stuck to his formidable knowledge of what this region needs and receives; we vote party, and on the federal level dismal faltering and scandal  in this campaign is strong fodder for discontent. He came across as realistic about the way elections work, but usually does.  I think he’ll might be reelected because of his commitment to his riding and may well be spending time on the opposite side of the house. If he loses, I don’t think it will be by much because politics is self-interest and he has a good regional working record. 
I wish he had been clearer about his condemnation of the federal ads. On the local level he has not run any.

The NDP and Green candidates were great. Not highly polished, comfortable with their platforms and expressing them  - I can understand why they appeal to younger voters looking to the future of the country, and to their future.  I don’t think a vote for either one of them is a throwaway.

I’m quite surprised at how disappointed I am with the conservative candidate; now that I’ve seen him in debate format in this election race, his anger and forcefulness does not come across as leadership. He is an ideologue, an old school conservative who genuinely wants out of municipal politics and up the ladder.
Since the riding is represented provincially by a hard working  MPP, he has little choice but to try for a federal win.  
He’ll have one more chance to shine when Harper comes through the area over the next 10 days. 

This region has good internet access, and although three of the candidates hadn’t seen the  liberal attack ads online, they didn’t hesitate to comment and acknowledged they didn’t hit the sweet spot with voters.

The media question portion went on a bit too long. Questions from the floor where the meat of the meeting were sharp, interesting and pointed.

I think local candidates meetings are as important as national leadership debates. I don’t regret taking the time to turn this on and watch the interactions and discussion at my own speed. I know where my vote is going now.