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Candidates' forum, breakfast meeting announced for Comox Valley

Comox Valley voters have an opportunity to hear what local provincial election candidates have to say at two meetings.

Comox Valley voters have an opportunity to hear what local provincial election candidates have to say at two meetings.

The events are being hosted by the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce, which is non-partisan and receives no funding from any level of government.

"The first event is a public forum and the other is a breakfast meeting geared more to the business community," says Chamber president and CEO Dianne Hawkins. "At both events, each candidate will have an opportunity to make a timed opening statement, followed by a moderated question and answer period and then a closing statement.

"While these events are outside of our usual focus of networking and business education, we feel it is important live up to our motto of 'taking care of business' and being the 'voice of business' in our community.

"We welcome and encourage participation in these election events and trust that these forums will assist people in our community in making informed decisions on Election Day, which is May 14th."

A candidates' public forum will happen April 30 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Florence Filberg Centre in Courtenay.

Candidates whose attendance was confirmed by press time are:

•    Chris Aikman — Green;

•    Kassandra Dycke — NDP;

•    Diane Hoffmann — Conservative;

•    Don McRae — Liberal (Incumbent).

Members of the public are welcome to attend this public forum, which will be moderated by Don Sharpe, former chair of the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce. Timing will be performed by members of the local Toastmasters organization.

To make this event accessible to the widest possible audience, the Chamber has arranged for the team from My Tech Guys, in co-operation with videographers from Prestige Video Transfer, to live-stream the proceedings.

"Our hope is that by streaming the debate more people will be able to engage in the electoral process," says Bob Wells, My Tech Guys. "Once the debate is completed, we will be hosting an archived copy on our website (www.mytechguys.ca) so that it can be watched by anyone at their convenience. Thanks to Shaw Business for their support providing the Internet Access for this event so that we can stream them to the public."

• • •

A business breakfast with the candidates happens May 9 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Best Western Plus Westerly Hotel.

Chamber members and businesspeople are invited to attend a breakfast meeting and meet the candidates. Breakfast will be moderated by Marty Douglas and candidates will be given time to answer questions from the attendees.

The cost is $25 for Chamber members and $30 for prospective members and includes breakfast. Pre-registration is required and space is limited. For more, visit www.comoxvalleychamber.com/news-events.

For more information about the election, visit www.elections.bc.ca. For more information about the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce, visit www.comoxvalleychamber.com/news-events or call 250-334-3234.

— Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce