A roughly two-hour forum for Athabasca town council and mayoral candidates will be held Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Nancy Appleby Theatre.
“It lets people know what they’re standing for and what their platform is,” said Athabasca District Chamber of Commerce president Penny Semashkewich, who will moderate the event for the first time, of the forum’s value for voters.
Semashkewich plans to spend from 7–8 p.m. on the council candidates and from 8–9 p.m. on the mayoral candidates.
“We just didn’t think we could get the public on two nights,” she said of the decision to host one forum for both election races, as has been done in the past.
Semashkewich could not confirm if all candidates will be in attendance.
“We did notify them all, and who comes will come,” she said, adding that there was no formal RSVP process.
As for the format, “We’re going to do opening remarks. Then we’ll have a few questions,” she said. Attendees can write down questions and put them in a designated box before the forum begins. After Semashkewich has read selected questions from the box and the candidates have responded, she will open up the floor for oral questions from the audience.
“I’m hoping to see a good number of people out there and people putting good questions forward to the candidates,” she said.
