October 8th, 2015

Tom Fuke’s Grade 5 class brought their Canadian government lessons to life last week as they hosted an all candidates debate for the upcoming federal election.

PC candidate Marian Gagné, Liberal candidate Marwan Tabbara, Green Party candidate David Weber, and Libertarian candidate Nathan Lajeunesse gathered in the school gym, ready to face the young politicos.**

Students welcomed everyone, and informed candidates and the audience of the format for the debate, and how long each candidate had to answer a question. Each candidate had five minutes to introduce themselves and their party platform before answering any questions. The order of introductions was determined by a good old fashioned game of rock-paper-scissors, with PC candidate Gagné emerging victorious from the tournament.

Students prepared questions on a variety of topics, such as: how would candidates and their party protect our oceans from pollution, what is the key factor for reducing Canada’s debt, what plan would they put in place to help our homeless, what would their party do to help refugees, and their position on Canada as a peacekeeping nation when engaged in conflict. Students had serious questions, and they were ready for serious answers.

Candidates tried their best to answer the questions in the allotted time, but some had to cut their answers short when students informed them their time was up.

We’d like to thank each of the candidates for participating in the debate and engaging our students in meaningful discussion.

The federal election takes place October 19.

** NDP candidate Lorne Bruce could not attend the debate

Categories: Community · Learning · Schools Tags: election · Pioneer Park Public School