By Brittney Matejka

Candidates for mayor, city council and school board held forum for grade 6 students.

Oct 12, 2017 | 4:47 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB. – Grade 6 students in Medicine Hat were given the opportunity to ask questions to municipal candidates regarding the upcoming election at the Dr. Roy Wilson Learning Centre. 

Addie Crawford, had the chance to ask a few questions of her own to candidates running for mayor, city council and school board.

“There is a lot of different opinions they all have but a lot of them have really good ideas towards being a part of this leadership,” she said.

Fellow student, Melody Clark was also able to ask the candidates some of her questions to help her decide who she would like to vote for.

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“I am hearing what the growth of our community would be if these people were elected,” she said.

Teacher Lacey Worth explained federal, provincial and municipal government studies is part of the grade 6 curriculum. 250 students were able to take turns asking questions to the candidates who came out to the forum.

“We guided them in some directions and kinda gave them some prompts and some things to think about. They researched the candidates and some things in local government like the services we have in Medicine Hat,” she said.

The forum was an hour in length and almost all the candidates running in this municipal election were able to attend. Darren Hircsh, is running for city council, he said he was impressed by the knowledge of the students.

“We got grilled by the grade sixes, very energetic and excited group today, so we were pleased to answer plenty of tough questions by them,” he explained.

Incumbent Mayor Ted Clugston said he had wished they had more time to answer questions from the eager students.

“The questions were actually quite thoughtful to tell you the truth. They asked: why do you think you would be a good candidate for mayor? What would you do about taxes? I found it very interesting they asked one about unity, unification and keeping Medicine Hat citizens unified,” he explained.

The grade sixes will be able to cast their ballots in a student vote for mayor, city council and school board representatives on October 13th.