All candidates debate

STORY BY ERIN QUEENAN

Thursday, Oct. 1 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Macdonald-Heaslip Hall at Trafalgar Campus, students have the chance to grill politicians on youth related issues at a candidates debate. A senior Broadcast Journalism class in partnership with Sheridan Production House, and other journalism and media students will host the event.

Federal election candidates from Mississauga Centre, Oakville and Brampton have been invited. Mississauga Centre has three out of their four candidates coming, and we are still hearing back from the Oakville and Brampton candidates. “Wow, what a wonderful opportunity that students at Sheridan have to show that students do care. It might make politicians sit up and take notice,” says Catharine Tamas a professor in the Journalism Broadcast program and organizer of the event. 

Open to the public, the event will be live streamed via YouTube and Sheridan TV, and rebroadcast on Cogeco. A live stream link will be available on Sheridan’s home page in the Sheridan Spotlight widget on the day of the event, as well as a live twitter feed on the Sheridan Sun Twitter account. Students are invited to tweet questions for the candidates to discuss with the hash tag “studentsvote2015.” In Tamas’s eight years at Sheridan she’s never seen an event like this before with all the different media programs volunteering, the Sheridan Production House covering it, and now the Student Union agreeing to join last Friday to help with the publicity. 

What started as a small discussion in a class of about twelve students has turned into a real opportunity for students to be involved and make a difference in the election’s.

“Rick Mercer has a fabulous quote, ‘If you’re a student and you wanna scare the hell out of people who run this country, this time around do the unexpected.’ There is enormous potential for youth to have a voice, by coming to the debate they become active participants, and it’s really important to take part, have a voice, make a difference, and be a part of the democratic system.”

Picture from iconshut.com