Election 2025 – First impressions matter: Dress for the job you want
Impressions from the All-Candidates Forum in FSJ
Election debate season is upon us. Less than a week to go now until Election Day and with the first Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies riding debate over, and two more coming up on Wednesday and Thursday, in Prince George and online, it’s time to look at the first debate and how the candidates might improve the impressions they have on voters.
Like the October provincial candidates’ debate, there was a candidate missing on April 15th.
Just four of the five registered candidates showed up, each with different party policies to uphold and use to convince us that they’re the best choice. Except for the Liberal candidate, Peter Njenga.
The absence of the Liberal candidate last Tuesday wasn’t at all surprising. After-all, at the provincial candidates’ debate, the guy parachuted in by the incumbent government couldn’t be bothered to grace us with his presence then either. It appears that in recent times, whichever “left leaning” party is in power in either BC or Canada, doesn’t care what we think. Or maybe they think they won’t win, so they don’t bother wasting all that time and money campaigning here.
But it robs us of a full slate of choices. I’m sure there are people in the North Peace who would like to vote Liberal, and now they must do so without hearing from their candidate.
First impressions are important. By not showing up to what is essentially a job interview, as NDP candidate Corey Grizz Longley characterized the debate, Njenga is not making a good first impression.
A debate is the candidates’ chance to tell the public, the voters, why they should be given the job of representing us in Ottawa.
Have you ever heard the expression, dress for the job you want? Apparently only one of our potential future representatives has. I expected business casual attire, but what we got was one candidate in a t-shirt and hoodie; one in a t-shirt and denim jacket; one in what appeared to be a dress shirt with a t-shirt donned over top; and one in a black shirt, purple tie and suspenders (a bit funereal perhaps, but he was wearing a TIE not a t-shirt). Grizz’s cap was a snazzy touch, however.
Much of the audience was better dressed than the candidates.
Regardless of their attire, four candidates showed up to be vetted by us voters, unlike the Liberal candidate. It will be interesting to see if Njenga shows up to the Prince George debate on April 23 or the online debate on the 24th. Perhaps he’s not at all familiar with the geography of the riding he claims to want to represent after moving from the Island to the North less than a month ago, and that’s why he was absent from the Fort St. John debate?
Geography doesn’t matter to the Green Party candidate, Mary Forbes. Instead of running in Cariboo-Prince George where she lives, Forbes implied that the boundaries are arbitrary – yet Williams Lake has never been part of this riding since it was created as Prince George-Peace River in 1966.
Call it a pet peeve, but how can you properly represent a riding if you don’t live there? Nothing against Forbes, who seems quite nice, who did live and work in Fort St. John years ago and obviously has a fondness for the region. I said the same thing when Bruce Lantz ran for mayor of Fort St. John, but he lived in Area B. He, at least, had lived in town recently. Forbes repeatedly referred to Williams Lake as her “hometown”. Does she have any interests in the riding, other than her archeological work up here more than a decade ago?
This is a vast riding. Adding in a trek from the Cariboo to visit any of the constituency offices seems like an ordeal. Fort Nelson, for example, is a hell of a long way from Williams Lake. Okay, it’s a long way from pretty much everywhere – an eight-hour drive from Prince George on a good day – but it may as well be on another planet compared to Williams Lake.
Then there’s the three dudes. Each of them from a different community in the riding. Bob Zimmer is our incumbent Conservative MP. Grizz Longley, from Dawson Creek is challenging Zimmer for the second time for the privilege of representing the people of the North in Ottawa. David Watson, the postmaster from Bear Lake, rounded out the panel as the People’s Party candidate.
It was a good debate, with good responses to the questions posed both in advance and from the floor. They’d clearly all thought about their positions on various issues, and their parties’ platforms.
Zimmer and Grizz not only stuck to their respective party lines but provided the liveliest parts of the discussion, arguing and interrupting on certain points.
However entertaining that was, it was also disappointing to hear a candidate whine about other candidates having more money for signs, using that as an excuse for their own lack of signage.
I’ve signed up for all party emails and they’re all sending out pleas for funds and have buttons on their websites to click to donate to the campaigns. If a candidate needs money for signs, shouldn’t they be out recruiting volunteers to help put signs up, and doing some fundraising to pay for them? Instead of using other candidates as an excuse for lack of self-promotion.
Not a good impression.
Overall, it was a good debate – I hope for the next two that Peter Njenga will show up and give Liberal voters a chance to hear from their candidate.
For your second “interview”, candidates please show yourselves, your potential constituents and the job you’re applying for some respect – look like you’re serious about the position you’re asking us to give you.
First impressions are important, especially in a job interview and I’ve never seen a t-shirt, hoodie or a denim jacket on the floor of the House of Commons.