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All-candidates meeting gives community forum for discussion

Election candidates bared their souls at the all-candidates meeting on All Souls Day, Saturday, Nov. 2, a date also known as the Day of the Dead.

Election candidates bared their souls at the all-candidates meeting on All Souls Day, Saturday, Nov. 2, a date also known as the Day of the Dead.

The seven incumbents pitched to the community for the chance to serve Whistler again while 13 others vied to replace them.

"What’s a guy got to do to get a part-time job around here?" joked council candidate Shane Bennett, taking the floor for his three minutes in the spotlight.

"This is the roughest job interview I’ve ever had."

Councillor candidates each had three minutes to plead their cases to the roughly 225 audience members. The mayoralty candidates were allowed five minutes each.

Councillor candidate Mitch Rhodes joked in his summation:

"There’s so much hot air blowing that I’m afraid we’re not going to see snow till after the election."

Although long, the three and a half-hour session proved useful to some audience members.

"Coming here –it was enlightening," said Maureen Horvath, sitting in the front row of the Myrtle Philip gymnasium.

"There’s been a movement in my thoughts."

Audience members had the chance to approach the microphone and ask candidates specific questions.

Resident John Richmond was particularly interested in the Tourist Accommodation zoning bylaw, a controversial issue among some community members, which has not been a big part of election campaigns to date.

Dave Davenport, who is challenging Mayor Hugh O’Reilly for the mayor’s job, said that he would be very surprised if most of the councillor candidates didn’t support the existing TA zoning laws.

"As the mayor the greatest opportunity is that I can participate in this. I do not have to excuse myself," he added, referring to the fact that O’Reilly has not been able to participate in TA zoning discussions due to a conflict of interest.

Later councillor Nick Davies, who is also a practising lawyer, pointedly asked Davenport if he would not have excuse himself out of certain council discussions involving businesses in the village and in Function Junction.

On the matter of conflicts of interest Davies said: "The law is crystal clear."

Davenport owns Skitch, a store in the village, and Mountain Crests, in Function Junction.

"If it came down to it I would put the store for sale and Mountain Crests for sale," said Davenport, who was the focus of most questions during the mayoralty portion of the meeting.

"I’ll do it if it’s necessary."

Among other things Davenport was also asked about his views on the $10 million library/museum building, to which the municipality has committed $5 million. The rest is to be raised by the community members.

"The library/museum has been very concerned about me for quite a while now. I’m not here to kneecap anything," Davenport assured the audience, saying that he would call for a public vote on the matter if all the funds could not be raised.

Prior to the mayoral debate, the 18 candidates seeking election as councillors had a brief opportunity to talk about their platforms and field audience questions.

They were asked about affordability issues like rising taxes, homeowners grants strata-titling suites, as well as the widening of Highway 99.

Richard Wyne, who is running for school trustee, asked two councillor candidates their views about transporting people around the community, and as an aside, would they support giving the three council parking spots under the Royal Bank back to the community.

Both incumbent Ken Melamed and new candidate Bob Calladine supported giving the parking spots back.

Melamed added that they have proved convenient and useful in the past but he’s willing to get around town like everyone else in the community.

As for transportation he said one of the main things is to put employee housing in the community.

"I think one of the key strategies is to integrate resident housing in communities," he said.

While Calladine said he would like to see more integration between buses and cars, he stressed that there is still use for the car in Whistler.

"I think the municipality is pushing for an anti-car lobby and I think it’s over the top," said candidate Calladine.

The four candidates running for the two positions as school trustee were also given a forum to present their platforms and take questions from the audience.

Incumbent André Janyk was not able to attend the meeting because she was coaching Whistler Secondary School’s senior boy’s soccer team at the provincial championships. School trustee Alix Nicoll, who is not seeking re-election, read Janyk’s speech.

Among other things the school trustees were asked about the high school quarter system in Whistler and their involvement in the district school system over the past three years.

Cathy Jewitt asked them to identify the main issues locally, within the district and provincially.

After thanking Jewitt for the "easy" question, Don Brett replied:

"We can’t have 33 kids in Grade 4 classes."

He also said the school board could do a better job of working together.

"The big issue for me is the language education not being available to everybody," said candidate Bea Gonzalez.

"This is a really big thing for me and I will be advocating French immersion for everybody."

Chair of the meeting John Nadeau was quite pleased with the event.

"I think it went reasonably well. It ran a little long. I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t have more time for questions."

He said this year the sound system was a little better and he’s looking forward to more inventive and interactive ways of having all candidate meetings in the future where the community doesn’t have to sit in a gym for over three hours.