Candidates for Langley mayor, council, and school board sought to win over voters one-on-one at a meet and greet event Tuesday.
Organized by the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce at the Cascades Casino ballroom, the meet-and-greets are designed to allow voters to speak to candidates individually.
The format was inspired by the number of candidates running and the difficulty of holding a debate that gave candidates more than a few minutes each to speak.
Two City mayoral candidates, Val van den Broek and Peter Fassbender, and more than a dozen council and school board candidates arrived at the event.
“I think it’s great,” said Mike Solyom, running for the first time.
David Stingl was also pleased with the idea of a different format.
“It doesn’t need to be a debate,” Stingl said.
Voters dropped by to meet the candidates or to discus specific issues.
“There are some new faces,” said longtime local resident Don Castron.
Castron said he wanted a chance to see what the candidates were thinking and the reasons they were running.
Van den Broek and Solyom mentioned people, at the forum and elsewhere, have been asking them a lot about homelessness, and that was on the mind of some of the voters at this event.
Fraser Holland is both a City resident and a homeless outreach worker who came to talk to candidates.
“See where they stand, what they’re interested in doing,” Holland said.
Another meeting for Township candidates will be held in the same format on Oct. 10 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Redwoods Golf Course.