Appetite for change
Posted Apr 13, 2011 04:37:57 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Green Party is more than a “one trick pony.”
That was the message delivered by candidate for Kitchener-Centre, Byron Williston, following his online chat with 570 News.
Williston insists that, while viewing issues through an environmental lens, the Green Party is concerned with a number of issues that are important to Canadians.
“Healthcare to jobs to the economy more generally,” Williston lists. “Fighter jets, foreign policy, our role in Afghanistan, our status in NAFTA and a whole series of issues like that.”
Williston says he’s been hearing about a variety of issues while canvassing for this campaign, including the environment, and suggests there’s a frustration with the way previous governments have handled the portfolio. That’s where he hopes to have his voice heard in a riding that was among the most closely contested in all of Canada in 2008 (Conservative Stephen Woodworth beat Liberal Karen Redman by 339 votes after Redman had held the seat for four terms).
As for the online chat in our newsroom, Williston found it to be a useful — if not a little confusing — forum.
“I was actually coming in here expecting to be live on the radio so I was a little more nervous than I needed to be, as it turns out,” Williston says with a laugh. “It (the online chat) was fantastic. I thought it was a great way of interacting with the public and I got to answer 15-20 good and pointed questions.”
Click here for a complete transcript of Williston’s chat.
And just so you’re not caught off guard if you’re the next candidate, here’s a tutorial on how an online chat is conducted at 570 News.
