Here we are in the doldrums of the pre-federal election period where presumably candidates have some flex in their schedules. Won’t last long, but perhaps we should take advantage of it.
Would you be prepared to spend a day with the candidates for Charlottetown? Not an hour-long soundbite-driven traditional all candidates meeting where Leo Broderick asks embarrassing questions about social housing and the head of the Chamber of Commerce asks embarrassing questions about payroll taxes, but rather an opportunity, with a skilled facilitator, to engage in real dialogue for an entire day.
I have no idea whether this would work. But it seems to me that if we’re prepared to outsource decision making to one of the candidates, we should be prepared to take a day out of our lives to do a thorough evaluation of their ideas and approaches.
Think of it as a day-long group job interview.
Comments
Tell me when I’ll try to be there.
Is a morning more appropriate, rather than a full day?
Do you think it’s really possible to get a whole day out of any candidate, let alone all of them, during an election? Someone running for office should be trying to meet and greet as many people as they can in one day.
That being said, I think we should engage them more directly than we did with the municipal election. What’s the best way to bring blogs to a debate: live blogging, email interviews, sending a blogger around to follow a candidate for a day?