Low Turnout for Meet the Candidates Night

There was a very low turnout by the community recently as The North Bay & District Chamber of Commerce hosted a Meet & Greet for candidates in Callander’s up and coming municipal election on October 22.

It was an opportunity for local candidates Linda Alkins, Jordy Carr, Shawn Carr, Paul Giroux, Darryl Colnar, Trevor Holliday and incumbents Robb Noon and Maurice Turgeon to talk to the community about what they expect for the future from our local council.

The candidates with note pads in hand listened and took notes as residents expressed their concerns about issues that concern them from roads, events to services.

The only local group on hand was the Callander Public Library. The library had sent out a questionnaire to each of the candidates to hear their views on our new library. It was a mixed bag of opinions.

“We had responses from a few of them that we sent the questionnaire to,” said CAO Helen McDonnell, “but decided to come here and talk to them ourselves.”

The Callander Library has over 1843 active patrons and of those patrons only 400 of them are children, the rest are adults. These patrons are residents of the municipality who are in favor of the new library. They have worked together to fundraise over $500,000 towards the new library.

Callander Mayor Hec Lavigne was also present to meet with each of the candidates. Hec recently underwent a heart event but is determined to’ not let this stop him from doing his job.’ Congratulations on being acclaimed.

Former Deputy Mayor Virginia Onley and Councillor Heather Busch were also there to meet the new candidates. Both of these wonderful ladies leave behind years of experience and are proud of the contributions that they made to our community.

Advanced Polls will be held on Wednesday, October 10 from 12-8 p.m. and Saturday, October 13 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Callander Community Centre. Election Day is Monday, October 22 from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. at the Callander Community Centre.

Make your voice heard and come out and vote!