Orillia’s three mayoral candidates presented their visions for the city in a meet-the-candidates forum hosted by Patrick Fogarty Catholic Secondary School on Thursday.
The Student Vote 2022 meeting brought hundreds of students into the high school’s gymnasium to hear candidates Mason Ainsworth, John Maxwell, and Don McIsaac respond to questions posed by their peers.
Following introductory remarks, candidates discussed their plans to improve city infrastructure, reduce crime, strengthen relationships with Indigenous communities, support electric vehicle infrastructure, address homelessness and the opioid crisis, improve long-term care, and more.
The debate took on a combative tone at times, with candidates taking jabs at one another during several points of the meeting.
One student asked about Maxwell’s campaign sign, which reads “Maxwell for Mayor, or another four years of nightmares.”
“Why did you feel it necessary to put that quote on your signage – isn’t that Trumpian in nature? What kind of message does that say to the youth in the community?” asked Grade 10 student Jordan Maxwell.
“I truly, truly mean it. If you are voting for a nightmare, make your choice, make your choice,” John Maxwell responded, alluding to his competitors, drawing a strong reaction from the crowd of students.
In his opening statements, Ainsworth suggested he would set up chairs for students at future debates if elected, as students were seated on the gymnasium floor.
McIsaac poked at this statement throughout the debate.
“There are other priorities before chairs, in terms of helping the homeless … helping with the rising cost of living, so hopefully we can get those done first, and then we’ll get to chairs,” said McIsaac at the end of his response on improving infrastructure.
Ainsworth said he was proud to have served on a council that doubled investment in local infrastructure, which McIsaac attacked during a later response as well.
“In 2018, one of the first items we brought up to budget was to actually double investment into basic infrastructure. If you want somebody who's serious about basic infrastructure, that's me, I'm serious about it," said Ainsworth.
“I understand that we did double the investment on roads but, let's take accountability, the roads are a mess,” McIsaac said. “It doesn't matter if you've doubled the investment. They're still messy. It's embarrassing, so you have to own that, take responsibility for what we do, or what we haven't done.”
Ainsworth responded: “More shots fired, so that’s always fun for a nice, positive campaign,” he said.
“The reality is we need to take it a lot further … (but) we've dealt with a global pandemic in the last few years, so unfortunately we couldn't keep that trend going because that's money on the taxpayer, in a time when we didn't know what was going to happen across the entire planet,” said Ainsworth.
In his closing statements, McIsaac brought up a recent situation that made the news, where he gave $100 to a woman in need while out campaigning.
“She needed it, and I had it. I gave it to her, no big deal. I understand later she bought two weeks worth of groceries with that money, and that helps. I've (had) no further contact with her,” McIsaac said.
“However, my opponent found out about this and went to the press … (and) he characterized it as some sort of bribe. That is not who I am, or how I was raised," said McIsaac.
“Just a quick rebuttal to that, this nice woman reached out to me, who was very upset that she had been given $100 cash with (campaign) literature, and (McIsaac) said, ‘Oh, I’m not trying to buy your vote,’” responded Ainsworth. “I wasn't too impressed with that.”
The municipal election takes place on Oct. 24.
