Social-media inspired debate proves to be success

By Shelbey Hernandez

 

A social media inspired debate called Vote Now, Vote Then, saw over 250 attendees.

The debate was held at The Foundry Pub on Oct. 15 and began at 7 p.m. The debate consisted of 10 of the 12 mayoral candidates and was broken up into three rounds of questions. The first round consisted of questions that were created during the Your City, Your Ideas summer event hosted by YKNOT Windsor-Essex. The second round consisted of questions that were submitted through social media prior to, and during, the debate. According to Jon Liedtke, the moderator for the debate, there were over 75 questions submitted through social media. The last round was a lightning round where candidates were given white boards and asked to answer the questions with either yes, no or maybe.

Liedtke said there were many ways this debate was more interactive and interesting for youth compared to other debates. The lightning round, he said, made it so the audience could understand clearly what each candidate plans to do if elected mayor.

“…typically at debates, you don’t get to see definitive answers like that with hard facts,” said Liedtke. “It’s a lot of platitudes and conversation so I think a lot of the demographic that was there, younger people…they were able to figure out what these candidates actually wanted or what they are actually going to do.”

The debate also included mock voting. There were three times when the audience would vote for their preferred mayoral candidate, once before the debate began, once after the first round and once at the end of the event.

The first and second set of votes was first past the post, but the third set was ranked voting. Based on 98 votes in the first round, John Millson won, with Drew Dilkens in second and Larry Horwitz in third. The second set of votes had them same results as the first, but for the last vote, Dilkens won with Millson close behind.

Liedtke said because of the different results, it is a perfect time to start talking about using ranked voting instead of the current first past the post method, which he said isn’t the best method of voting.

Missy Sauro, a representative for Pathway to Potential and Windsor Essex Youth Advising City Councillors, partnered up with Liedtke to plan and organize the debate. She said one of the great things about the debate was having it entirely run by those who understand what entices younger generations to vote. She said the location was especially important to the debate.

“The reason why we’re having the debate at the Foundry is because we’re bringing public debate back to the pub. That’s where traditional political debates began,” said Sauro.“…traditional campaign strategies, polling, going door-to-door, canvassing, that doesn’t work for us.”

“The idea was to allow these candidates to engage with a demographic that they’re really not seeing,” said Liedtke.“It’s one thing to have a Twitter account as a candidate and to put up a post every now and then, but it’s another to be in front of that demographic where they feel comfortable having a few drinks, letting your hair down, so to speak.”

Although the debate was seen as a success, one attendee said she didn’t think the candidates had enough time to talk and as a result, she felt many questions were hardly answered.

Keren Escobar, a University of Windsor social work student, said that before the debate began, she wanted to vote for either Millson or Horwitz. But after the debate, she said she wanted to vote for either Dilkens or Raymond Poisson because she felt Horwitz and Millson weren’t giving sufficient answers to the questions.

“It was either that they (Millson and Horwitz) referred back to their life experiences and employment experiences, but weren’t providing me with information as to what their plan would be for our city and what their proposals would be to improve my condition as a Windsorite, as a University of Windsor student, as a resident here,” said Escobar. “A lot of the times, they just weren’t answering the questions and that was frustrating.”

One of Escobar’s main concerns going into the debate was regarding poverty reduction in Windsor which she said only mayoral candidate, Poisson, touched on.

Liedtke said he can only hope this debate will spark younger generations to take an interest in the voting process. He said if youth want to make a change, all they need to do now is go to the polls and cast a vote.