Successful Mayoral Candidates Meeting

 

 

 

Attendance at Tuesday evening’s All Mayoral Candidates Meeting at West Haven bodes well for a good turnout at the upcoming October 22^nd London Municipal Election. From all reports this remarkable turnout was not an anomaly. (In 2014, voter turnout was 43.2%; in 2010, 39.9%.) Ten of the twelve Mayoral candidates for the City of London addressed a packed room of Londoners on a rainy Tuesday night at the Rotary sponsored public service meeting. Following an introduction provided by each candidate, Moderator Sheldon Hines turned the microphone over to each candidate to express his/her vision for the city for the next four years.

 

After the initial presentations from the candidates, President Carl Silke opened the meeting to questions from the audience. The majority of questions initially went to the perceived frontrunners: Paul Cheng, Ed Holder, Paul Paolatto and Tanya Park. Questions ranged from issues dealing with Ranked Shared Voting, poverty, the deplorable state of public housing, protection of heritage designated buildings, transportation solutions to replace the contentious Bus Rapid Transit proposal and the establishment of permanent supervised consumption injection sites.

 

David Millie brought up memories of a past council decision- the rejection of a ring road and the accompanying loss of provincial and federal funding, when he urged Londoners to not do the same again.  Other Mayoral candidates who participated were: Vahide Bahramporian, Dan Lenart, Mohamed Moussa, Sean O’Connell and Jonas White. 

 

Thank you to all of the candidates who gave of their time to help Londoners make choices for the office of Mayor and thank you to the audience members who came to educate themselves about the candidates seeking their votes.