June 18, 2004
All Candidates Debate
  First of all, the PDP would like to thank the Annex Residents' Association for hosting the debate, and the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Center for supplying the venue. Inviting the PDP is more than we could have expected, but the structure of the event was somewhat less than what we deserved---and I believe that I speak on behalf of some of the other candidates from the marginalized parties.
The PDP---along with the Canadian Action Party, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, and the Progressive Canadian Party---were set to debate amongst themselves after the first slate of candidates had debated, and half of them, left the building. Olivia and David had to go. Thank you, Tony and Mark, for having the courtesy to hear out your fellow candidates.
After putting up with an hour and a half of mudslinging among Tony Ianno, Mark Viitala, David Watters, and Olivia Chow (the bulk of which was slung between the first and last on this list), the four candidates from the smaller, yet most progressive, parties took the stage. As expected, however, the entourage of the four "main" parties left, as well as the tired Annexians who had, by 9:30pm, put up with enough sucker-punching and eye-gouging for one night.
Daniel Knezetic, Tristan Downe-Dewdney, Nick Lin, and Asif Hussein were left to debate amongst themselves in a nearly evacuated theatre hall. The candidates were asked about five questions---no more than 30 minutes in--- and were then given the option of giving their closing statements OR answering one more question. We managed to pull off a shotgun wedding of the two.
The bottomline is, we, the progressive parties, were marginalized once again and those of you who weren't able to be there should know this. Had we had seats in the first debate, at least Annexians would have been able to hear what their options were and the smaller party candidates would have been given a fair opportunity to debate the "main" party candidates. But this was too much to ask for. As one candidate advised us, we should have been thankful for what we got. THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AN ALL CANDIDATES DEBATE. To make matters worse and to further accentuate the iniquity of the evening, incidentally, the latter four candidates happened to be the youngest candidates in the event. In a recent Elections Canada commercial that aims to reach out to the young and apathetic, we're asked "Why not speak up, when everyone is listening?" Well, give us the mic!!!