The cost of democracy

West Island residents accustomed to watch provincial election candidates in Jacques Cartier riding in live debates as they battle for their audiences' votes will be very unlikely to get such a chance this year, and that might be due both to a lack of funds and a perceived lack of interest.

"First, it takes quite a while to rent the Beaconsfield (High School) auditorium," said Beaconsfield Citizens' Association (BCA) president Karin Essen, explaining the provincial elections were called in a very short time frame.

Secondly, she said, the citizens' group is on a very restricted budget, and has not even been able to pay off its invoice to Lester B. Pearson school board from a debate organized in the same auditorium in September for the federal election candidates of Lac St. Louis.

Any of Beaconsfield's municipal associations are able to use the high school's auditorium at no cost, thanks to an agreement reached between the city and the school board last year which saw Beaconsfield pay $50,000 to allow Lester B. Pearson to renovate its audio system.

However, Essen explained, associations still have to pay rental fees for the use of audio equipment. Last year, the BCA organized a provincial election debate in March 2007, and that did not pose a problem. Essen estimated the association was billed $175.

This year, Essen said, the BCA was charged $675 for using the same type of equipment at the same auditorium for the federal election debate. "They charged us for a second technician, and for some rental equipment," she said.

Essen insisted the BCA never asked for an extra technician, nor was it told costs had dramatically increased for rental of audio equipment. "We certainly would have liked to have a debate," she added, but current circumstances do not make that possible.

Meanwhile, Corinne Havard, president of the Student Union of John Abbott College, who organized a federal election candidates' debate earlier this year for the student population, said there seems to be generally less interest among student voters regarding provincial elections, and the timing could not be worse for most students.

"I think in general there is less interest for this election than there is for the federal ones," Havard said. She theorized most people in the West Island are also not too hesitant on who they are going to vote for. "Provincially, I feel like it's either the federalist party or the sovereignist parties," she said.

Havard added most students are also worried about passing their final exams or handing in their final projects at the moment, and this may also make it difficult for them to attend any debates.

Lester B. Pearson did not return phone calls for comment for this story as of press time.