This election season, the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce is trying something new rather than hosting an all-candidates forum.
The chamber is hosting a meet-and-greet open to everyone, and will be posting video interviews of each candidate on its website.
Chamber director Dave Walgren is chairing the organizing committee and said as for the questions they are asking the candidates in the interviews, they solicited the membership for ideas.
“We got less than 20 questions and there was some overlap so then we selected the questions based on what we thought were relevant to the organization, the community and the number of questions that were on the same topic,” Walgren told the Tribune.
“Someone on the board suggested we do the videos because it was done in Kamloops during the last election.”
The videos will be on the chamber’s website and linked to YouTube and the candidates can also provide a link to the videos on their own sites, he added.
Walgren said with all-candidate forums, sometimes every candidate does not get equal time to answer questions.
“We wanted to try something different.”
The meet and greet will take place on Thursday, Oct. 4 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Gibraltar room at Cariboo Memorial Complex.
“We have invited all the candidates to attend and we are anticipating that people will come in and have conversations with them one-on-one.”
There are two people running for mayor and 10 for city council.
Read more: Two running for mayor, 10 for councillor
General voting day is Saturday, Oct. 20. There will be advanced voting days on Wednesday, Oct. 10 and Wednesday, Oct. 17 at city hall from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
There will also be special voting opportunities for residents at Cariboo Sunset Manor on Thursday, Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Glen Arbor on Thursday, Oct. 11 from 2 to 4 p.m., Williams Lake Seniors Village on Monday, Oct. 15 from 9 a.m. to noon.
There is also a voting by mail opportunity available this year for residents who expect to be away during the advance polling or general election days.
People can call city hall for more information.