A few months ago, Dave Brekke challenged Dave Stockdale to a debaters’ duel.
The topic: electoral reform.
The former returning officer and the city councillor don’t see eye-to-eye on the present electoral system.
Brekke thinks it’s broken.
Stockdale doesn’t.
Hence the duel.
Instead of swords, each man was going to get a panel of supporters.
And they were going to joust it out with words.
But Stockdale had trouble finding a panel.
“People who don’t want change, don’t want to bother talking about it,” said Brekke.
So rather than two sparring panels, the men decided on one panel featuring speakers who are both for and against electoral reform.
In Canada, 40 per cent of eligible voters don’t vote, said Brekke.
“So we want to make people aware of how dysfunctional the present system is,” he said.
“We needed to do something differently,” said former MLA Don Roberts, who is on the panel.
“We need to engage the public.”
The panel discussion is on Tuesday, November 16 in the Whitehorse Elementary School gym.
It’s free and everyone is welcome.
The panel consists of Bob Sharp, Dave Stockdale, Kirk Cameron, Elizabeth Hanson, Keith Halliday, Steve Smyth and Roberts.
There will also be a discussion on CBC, with Larry Gordon of Fair Vote Canada, Ilona Dougherty of Apathy Is Boring, Ken Coates from the University of Waterloo, and local economist and writer Halliday. It will air at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, November 15.