CASTLEGAR NEWS Your Horoscope For the Week with Michael O’Connor inside the West Kootenay Advertiser
Vol.10 • Issue 19
Breaking news at castlegarnews.com
Thursday, May 9, • 2013
Frequency, volume increased Dancers dazzle at for local air service Diamond Dinner See Page A2 See Page A19
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Candidates seated in upper right with moderator Suzanne Lehbauer (centre), from left, Glen Byle (Independent.); Katrine Conroy (NDP); Joseph Hughes (Independent); and Jim Postnikoff (BC Liberal). Jim Sinclair
Candidates state cases at Castlegar forum MARVIN BEATTY Castlegar News Reporter
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The four candidates running for the MLA seat in Kootenay West took questions from the media and public during a lightly attended forum hosted by the Castlegar Chamber of Commerce at the Sandman Hotel in Castlegar on Tuesday, May 7. Candidates Glen Byle, Katrine Conroy, Joseph Hughes and Jim Postnikoff, along with members of the local media, were introduced by chamber president Stuart
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Ady before he turned the proceedings over to moderator Suzanne Lehbauer. Questions from the audience of about 60 were wide ranging. Hot-button issues like a regional hospital, jobs and job training, education, the Columbia River Treaty, environmental protections and the economy were most prevalent but the candidates also answered questions about rising electricity bills, road maintenance, and transitional funding for outgoing MLA’s. While there were
several minor violations from a time-keeping perspective, there was little in the way of head-to-head debate betweenthecandidates. In her opening comments Conroy went after the Liberals’ record on jobs and the economy, saying the government’s claims of a balanced budget were not true and that they had increased the provincial debt faster than at any other time. Postnikoff countered those claims by saying the budget was balanced and
mentioned it was important to look at the records of the past. The format allowed each candidate a brief follow up to any question posed to the others, something almost all took advantage of until near the end of the evening when a number of people were still lined up behind the microphone. As has been the pattern in recent match-ups between the candidates, Conroy (NDP) focused her attention on her experience as an MLA, citing numerous examples of the
people and organizations she has worked with while doing the job; Postnikoff (BC Liberal) steered many of his answers to jobs and the economy; Byle (independent) spoke mostly about the benefits of a technology-based system of government that he feels would provide individuals with a more powerful voice in government; and Hughes, also an independent, expressed concern for the current state of affairs locally and regionally while promising an independent voice
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without party affiliation is the best way to affect real change. All candidates agreed that improvement in local health care infrastructure was a necessity. “The health care we don’t have in this area, is something we can’t stand for any longer,” said Postnikoff. “There are facilities being built all over the province; those facilities need to be built here.” He said changes were not going to come over night but the process...
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