She has the shortest name of the four candidates vying to be the first Member of Parliament for the newly created Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee riding.
NDP candidate Leah Main drew some of the biggest cheers for a pair of one- and two-word answers during a federal all-candidates forum Thursday, April 17, at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre.
The other three candidates 香蕉视频直播� Scott Anderson (Conservative), Blair Visscher (Green Party), Anna Warwick Sears (Liberal) 香蕉视频直播� were also present for the forum, hosted by the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce.
Asked by forum moderator Dan Proulx, Chamber general manager, what she thought about tax relief for small business, Main answered simply, "Definitely," and said nothing further.
And when asked how she felt about proportional representation, Main leaned into her microphone and said, "Oh boy."
Both replies garnered loud cheers and laughter.
Expanding on proportional representation, Main said the biggest reason to send her to Ottawa to represent riding constituents is that without the third, and fourth, and fifth voices in Parliament, it will continue to be Liberal-Conservative forever. And neither party, she said, has any interest in bringing proportional representation to the floor.
"We need the NDP, we need the Greens, we need any other party to be in there, raising our voices, saying, 'You two (Liberals, Conservatives), do not represent all of us," said Main. "We don't want our voice to be silenced by not having representation in Parliament. Proportional representation, whatever format we eventually come up with is critical to our cohesion."
Main also generated chuckles and applause when she began a reply to a question about protecting Canada's sovereignty with the now trending catch phrase, "Elbows up."
The 90-minute forum, which drew a large crowd that nearly filled the lower bowl portion of the theatre, began with the candidates allowed three minutes to introduce themselves. That was followed by Proulx asking the candidates three questions developed by Greater Vernon Chamber members through a survey. Those questions were not given to the quartet in advance.
The final survey question was about seniors' health care.
Warwick Sears said the important thing is to build more long-term care homes and staff them.
Anderson said the red tape surrounding the building of such facilities must be removed, and that a strong economy and collecting taxes is a must to fund them.
Main said services must be provided so seniors can stay at home for as long as they need to.
Visscher was the last to reply to the question. She said she heard all three of the larger parties know what to do regarding seniors' health care, then asked, "Why hasn't it been done?
"If everybody here knows what to do and how to do it, then where is it?" asked Visscher, who said this is the reason a Green Party candidate is needed in the riding.
"We hear the same things over and over again. The same promise, the same rhetoric, and we have more seniors stuck in hospital beds. We have nursing staff run off their feet. We have doctors who cannot perform all of their duties. And apparently everybody knows what to do. There are solutions to these very important issues, but I think it's time to consider electing people who haven't broken any promises."
To cover a variety of topics, Proulx asked candidates individual questions, followed by a Lightning Round, where each candidate was given a question or topic to cover in only one minute.
Anderson was asked about the federal government investing in mental health services, and he said mental health is often paired with addiction because of self-medication. The Conservatives, he said, want to tackle addiction and part of that is mental health.
"There are so many things we need to tackle, but we simply can't say, 'Well, the government has to pay for it,' but the government can't pay for everything," said Anderson. "We will never achieve perfection, but we need to be able to fund things that are important and mental health is certainly one of them."
A question written beforehand by a member of the audience was directed toward Warwick Sears, who ran in the 2024 provincial election as an NDP candidate, then joined the Liberals for the 2025 federal vote. The audience member, through Proulx, wanted to know what changed to make Warwick Sears switch.
She gave an answer that included a bold prediction.
"I ran for the NDP provincially because our communities deserved better service from Victoria," said Warwick Sears. "I wasn't thinking about running after that (loss), I was taking a break when I was approached by friends here in Vernon who asked me very strongly to run much for the same reason. Our communities need much better representation.
"And unless something really weird happens, (Liberal leader) Mark Carney is going to form government (drawing cheers from the audience) and Vernon and the entire riding needs and deserves to have a representative at the decision-making table."
The evening finished with closing comments from the candidates.
The forum, in its entirety, can be viewed below.
