Rumble at the Sicamous

While it was largely civil, education seemed to hit a nerve during the third of four all-candidates forums in the Penticton riding Tuesday evening.

The debate, hosted by the Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce, was held on the SS Sicamous, with questions submitted in advance and moderated by chamber president Neil Wyper.

“And then you swoop in at the end after everybody’s in an uproar, like it’s a real shame that the community had to get divided and you had to undermine the school board like that,” B.C. Green Party candidate Connie Sahlmark scolded incumbent B.C. Liberal MLA Dan Ashton to applause from the crowd.

While those two were caught up in quiet discussion following Sahlmark’s comments, B.C. NDP candidate Tarik Sayeed found himself trying to speak over the pair.

“Should I start?” he asked the two, before continuing on speaking on the school closures.

“(Ashton) didn’t show up for any one of them. This is fact-based,” Sayeed said. “I was there for all of them. Kids were crying, parents were begging to keep their schools open.”

Candidates also exchanged quips over who added fewer positions in health care during Tuesday’s debate on the SS Sicamous.

“During the 1990s, the NDP added this many positions,” Ashton said, making a zero with his thumb and index finger – much to the chagrin of one attendee. That person’s groan was met with Ashton’s disclaimer that everyone is entitled to an opinion.

“That’s how many new positions for teaching doctors were added. Zero. We doubled the positions.”

Meanwhile, Sayeed took aim at a Liberal promise to provide all residents with a family doctor by 2015.

“That didn’t happen,” he said. “Long wait times for urgent health care? That’s unacceptable.”

Sahlmark, on the other hand, focused on health policy, looking at ways to bring more doctors to rural areas.

“What we need is to have a program, whereby we can discount their tuitions, maybe give them a break on their loan payments, if they go to our rural communities,” she said.

Candidates also touched on issues from the tech and agricultural industries to the major energy projects to affordability.

The candidates will have their final faceoff on Thursday at the Penticton Lakeside Resort.