Kevin Laliberte
Editor, Smoky River Express

Congratulations to all successful candidates voted in on respective municipal councils within the Smoky River region in Monday’s municipal election. It will no doubt be interesting to learn who’s in and who’s out with respect to the election race in the Municipal District of Smoky River, Donnelly, and McLennan. Last week’s publication deadline prevented us from including the results in the Oct. 17th issue of the Express. We will, however, have a detailed breakdown of all results – including voter turnout and reaction from elected candidates – in the Oct. 24th edition of our newspaper. While I’m on the topic of the election, I’d like to discuss the fall-out from the Oct. 2 all-candidates election forum in McLennan which I was unable to attend due to a family funeral. Speaking with several individuals who attended the Oct. 2 forum gave me a better understanding of how things unfolded at the event, which drew a relatively small turnout of about 60 people. I was somewhat surprised to learn last week that some people were bitter and unimpressed by the manner in which the forum ran. Part of the negativity included comments that moderator Nobel Gabriel had an “axe to grind” with present town councillors and local developers in relation to the lack of residential development within the community. Others, meanwhile, indicated that the question and answer period dragged out far too long and failed to provide an ample window of opportunity for public participation. (Roughly 15 minutes was left for the floor to ask questions – a time frame which many people felt was hardly sufficient to address their concerns) On the flip side, I received several calls at the office last week from people who voiced their complete satisfaction with the forum and the way it was handled by Gabriel. In a conversation I had with Gabriel last week, he indicated receiving a “good sampling” of questions from the public in response to an article in the Express promoting the event and soliciting feedback in the form of questions for the all-candidates forum. Those responses were then culled down to three primary questions deemed to be most important in the minds of respondents. Gabriel, who took the initiative to coordinate the event based on his keen interest for the community and political issues, indicated receiving verbal warnings from a number of individuals in addition to a formal letter from the Town of McLennan warning of the potential for a display of strong emotions by some residents planning to attend the all-candidates forum. He says those warnings prompted the need to dispense three main questions in an effort to defuse any display of strong negative emotions anticipated during the evening. Supporters of Gabriel say he succeeded in that endeavour through a balanced approach towards fairness and accountability with the candidates as well as honesty and open dialogue. But that’s a matter of personal opinion depending which side of the fence you’re on. What’s unfortunate in all of this verbal rhetoric is that the forum fallout appears to have overshadowed the true meaning of the forum by placing the opinions and views of candidates on the backburner. Sure, the forum may not have been perfect in the eyes of some residents, but give Gabriel some credit for at least trying. If someone thought they could have done a better job, they should have stepped up to the plate.

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