A packed house at the Okotoks United Church Tuesday night as it was the Foothills riding's chance to see all six of the federal candidates in one room as the Oct. 19 election looms near.

The forum presented questions pre-set by the Okotoks Chamber of Commerce but questions from the audience were also addressed leading up many different avenues. The usual topic of the economy came up along with childcare, the legalization of marijuana, and even the Senate made it into the discussion.

Conservative MP John Barlow, the NDP's Alison Thompson, the Green Party's Romy Tittel, Liberal candidate Tanya MacPherson, Libertarian Cory Morgan and Marc Slingerland with the Christian Heritage Party all had their moments of appealing the crowd in both positive and negative ways.

The forum was designed to entice the voting population, which only had 18,000 people vote in the last election when more than 90,000 people were eligible to vote.

One attendee, who chose to remain anonymous, says forums like this give undecided or non-voters a chance to have an idea of who they're voting for.

"All voters should get out to these events because it's the only time you actually get a feeling of who the candidate is and what they stand for," she says. "There are many more opportunities this week for voters in the Foothills riding to get out and see their candidates and they should really take advantage of those."

She says the economy is a huge issue for not just the country but more specifically Alberta and says the candidates are speaking on ways to use renewable energy along with oil and gas that makes sense going forward.

"I think we've been on a roller coaster for a long time when it comes to the economy and I think the answer is not so much to shutdown oil and gas, but diversify. I think a way to do that is through renewables, as dirty of a word as that is in the province, I believe that's the way forward."

She gives her opinion on who "won" the forum.

"A lot of unique questions here tonight. I think all of the candidates did really well, they all represented platform quite well but I would say for me the winner was Alison Thompson, I think she's a great NDP candidate and her professional experience is really relevant to the future of Alberta."

If you missed last night's forum there is another forum happening in Bragg Creek on Oct. 13 at the Community Centre starting at 7 p.m.

Starting Monday OkotoksOnline will showcase the six candidates every day, asking each of them the same questions in preperation for the election.

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us at news@okotoksonline.com