Home stretch

With less than a month to go, candidates are heading into the final weeks of this federal election campaign. While things have been relatively quiet on the Oshawa front – the only visit from a party head was the NDP’s Tom Mulcair in the first days of the campaign – there is still plenty of time for things to pick up.

A quick drive down any street in the city will see a highly engaged populace, with blue, orange and red signs dotting the landscape. Many residents are voicing where their political allegiances lie ahead of Oct. 19’s ballot casting.

However, there are still many people who don’t know where their vote will be going, and many have shown a willingness to change their minds since the last election.

And in what is shaping up to be one of the tightest elections in our history – a CBC poll earlier this week showed the difference between the first-place Conservatives and third-place Liberals at only 0.9 per cent, with 30.5 and 29.6 respectively – a politically educated public is needed to pick a clear and decisive winner. Nobody wants to be mired in minority governments and more frequent elections again.

One of the first steps is to check out one of several all candidates debates coming up. There are two next week, one at the joint UOIT/Durham College campus and another at The Refuge.

And, of course, there is also the debate co-hosted by The Oshawa Express, the Rotary Club of Oshawa Parkwood and major media in Oshawa, taking place on Oct. 5 at the Oshawa Golf Club at 7 pm.

This debate will carry coverage by The Oshawa Express, Oshawa This Week, Rogers Cable, CHEX TV and Durham Radio, so there will be plenty of opportunity to find out what the candidates are saying.

All three of those debates are set to feature major candidates speaking about where their party lies on issues affecting Oshawa and, most importantly, be forced to defend those views under attack from the other candidates.

So those that are undecided or still sitting on the fence, it will be well worth to check out one or more of these debates and learn what the candidates have to offer.