I’ve been involved with Shaw Cable over the past week, as one of the panelists asking questions in a series of televised mayoral debates involving communities all across the Lower Mainland, from Abbotsford to North Vancouver.
It has been a very enlightening experience on many levels. The commute to downtown Vancouver on a daily basis is certainly a challenge, and I have more sympathy than ever for those who need to do that daily.
I’ve been using the 555 bus from Carvolth Exchange to Braid Station, and then travelling on SkyTrain. If you make all the connections, you can be downtown in just over an hour.
However, the 555 only runs every half hour outside rush hour, so miss a bus by a few minutes and you have a very long wait. As I was travelling in “off-peak” hours on two days, I endured 20- to 25-minute waits for the bus. That makes the trip very long indeed.
While it is better service than Langley residents have had, it comes with some severe limitations. Once again, transit provided to this area is a far cry from that available north of the river.
The debates have, in most cases, centred around growth-related issues. Many residents across the region are concerned that their communities are growing too fast, and services are not keeping up with the influx of new residents.
This says to me that the concerns over Willoughby are far from an isolated instance. Mayoral candidates in Port Moody, Maple Ridge and North Vancouver City echoed similar concerns.
The debate with four of the seven Surrey candidates on Thursday didn’t get into growth very much, but only because crime is such a hot topic. Surrey’s rapid growth has brought some pressing crime challenges, and delays in adding to the Surrey RCMP detachment strength mean police are hopelessly outgunned when it comes to keeping up with the serial criminals there.
Langley Township mayoral candidates will be at the Shaw studio in downtown Vancouver Tuesday, and the debate will be broadcast Tuesday night at 10 p.m. on Shaw channel 4. It will be repeated on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 9 p.m.
Langley City mayoral candidates will square off Wednesday morning, and that debate will be on Shaw channel 4 Wednesday night at 9 p.m., and repeated Thursday, Nov. 13 at 10 p.m.
For those who are Shaw subscribers, the debates can be seen online at http://www.shaw.ca/Decision2014/MayoralDebates/.
Based on the debates I’ve been part of so far, viewers will get a pretty good chance to look at where candidates stand on issues, and check out their style of campaigning and interaction with their opponents.
I’ve heard from several people who viewed the debates last week, and all have said they have helped them make up their minds who to vote for.
That is the intent. Shaw is to be commended for putting a lot of effort into presenting these debates for viewers. I can attest, from being in the studio, that it takes a lot of time, effort and personnel to stage and televise these debates.