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Get to know the UCP candidates

The United Conservative Party (UCP) Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul Constituency Association wants everyone to have a chance to meet their nomination candidates. On Sept.
UCP

The United Conservative Party (UCP) Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul Constituency Association wants everyone to have a chance to meet their nomination candidates.


On Sept. 5, the doors of the Bonnyville Agriplex will open and welcome the public to the UCP candidate forum.


Ron Young, president of the local association, said the purpose of the forum is to give candidates Dave Hanson, Glenn Spiess, and Craig Copeland, a chance to “get their message out.”


“We wanted to create an opportunity where people could come out and hear all three of the candidates, because they’re from such diverse regions of the constituency,” expressed Young.


The event will be held in Bonnyville starting at 6 p.m., wrapping up around 10 p.m.


Young explained, “We didn’t want to create a situation where we were having too many forums - we thought it was critical to have a forum, and if we were having one forum it should be in a central location. Bonnyville is the central location between Cold Lake and St. Paul.”


Hanson, Spiess, and Copeland will each take a few minutes to explain their platform and introduce themselves.


The public will be invited to ask questions following the candidates’ opening statements.


After closing remarks, people will have an opportunity to discuss more with the candidates one-on-one.


“They’re going to be learning who the candidates are, because there are a lot of people that just haven’t had an opportunity to see one or more of the candidates. What happens in the nomination process, is usually someone is sold a membership by a candidate or their surrogate, chances are that person is familiar with that candidate… but they might have no idea who the other people are,” Young detailed. “(The forum) is an opportunity to hear what some of the priorities of the different candidates are, because although they may believe in similar things, they may prioritize them differently.”


The forum is open to everyone, however Young is expecting mostly UCP members will be attending the event.


“The critical thing that people have to understand is that the cutoff for memberships to be able to vote, is Aug. 21. You have to be a member by then to be able to vote (in the UCP nomination). This forum is two weeks after that,” he noted. “In some respects, it’s somewhat disappointing that the cutoff is so far before the forum, nobody can come to the forum who isn’t a UCP member and say ‘wow, I really like that message, I’m going to buy a membership to vote for that guy,’ because it will be too late at that point.”


Young encourages anyone who wants to get to know the candidates more to attend the event.


“There won’t be a lot of sparks or direct one-on-one conflict between the candidates, because they’re all from the same party… It’s not going to be fight night, but it’s going to be an information night where people are going to be able to listen and decide who they think will represent this constituency the best.”

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