Final London debate tame
Sun, October 12, 2008
London-North-Centre candidates begin wait for Tuesday's vote.
By JOE BELANGER, FREE PRESS REPORTER
London-North-Centre candidates wrapped up their last debate today, each declaring Isreal’s right to exist before a small crowd of about a dozen at Or Shalom Synagogue on Huron Street.
“I think each candidate was able to put together their party’s position on the issues and I thought we benefited from this being the last debate before the election,” said Bob Kaplan, president of the Or Shalom Men’s Club.
Conservative Paul Van Meerbergen, Liberal Glen Pearson, the NDP’s Steve Holmes and the Green Party’s Mary Ann Hodge all answered a variety of questions on Israel, Afghanistan and the economy.
While the campaign has had moments of conflict between the candidates, the tone was clearly one of mutual respect.
“We’ve never taken personal pot-shots,” said Van Meerbergen. “We’re vigorous with our ideas and the issues, but it’s about issues, not personalities.”
Holmes said debates have become “testy” at times, especially if another candidate is misrepresenting another’s party policy.
“We certainly haven’t agreed on all the issues, but we’re not supposed to,” said Holmes. “It’s all been fairly amicable.”
Pearson clearly had the upper hand with the Jewish crowd, having spent time handling the Middle East file for the Liberals.
And Pearson summarized the debate by promising to keep defending Israel’s right to exist.
“That should not be questioned,” said Pearson, noting his empathy for Israel’s struggle flows naturally from his work with the London Food Bank and “caring about people who are poor or less fortunate . . . social justice is important work.”