Voters have some decisions to make before election day, with three different candidates vying for the position of mayor in Okotoks.

Though it was switched to a virtual platform versus in-person, attendees were still able to present their questions via the chat feature on the Zoom call.

Dawn LeMaistre, the executive director of the Okotoks & District Chambers of Commerce, says there wasn't really a loss in switching the format.

"We were thankful that we did pivot it to the virtual platform and were able to get in front of more residents than we expected."

Though the evening was off to a rough start with some technical difficulties, they were able to make it work, and attendees were able to engage by sending in their questions.

She says they were super excited about the limitless capacity which enabled them to have over 220 attendees.

Candidates attended in person and fielded various questions throughout the course of the evening.

LeMaistre says that the online viewers were prepared, some of them sending multiple questions in the chat which were filtered by the organizers to ensure relevance and lack of repetition.

"There was lots of questions we received that were not directly related to this level of government, so you know discussions around COVID and vaccine passports and different things like that are all provincial and federal levels of government."

Candidates were challenged with questions on everything from water solutions, economic development, community engagement, to child safety around busy roads.

LeMaistre is also excited about the new award they've created in honour of Mayor Bill Robertson.

"It's called the Bill Robertson Community Engagement Award, and it will come up on the slate of awards for the 2022 Business Excellence."

Each candidate was asked to provide three reasons why they should be voted mayor.

Their answers can be viewed below.

 

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