Provincial Election 2022: Beaches-East York Interfaith group hosts candidate’s meeting on evening of May 12

Local faith communities are looking to engage with candidates in the upcoming provincial election on issues that matter to people of faith. The Beaches-East York Interfaith group will host a candidates’ meeting on Thursday, May 12, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Church of the Resurrection, 1100 Woodbine Ave.

The event will take place in person and on Zoom.

The group has invited candidates from the Green, Liberal, New Democratic and Progressive Conservative parties to present their views and answer questions. To be invited, candidates must represent a party with at least one representative in the legislature at the time of dissolution or have candidates contesting at least eighty percent of the province’s ridings. The group feels it is important to ensure that there is adequate time to hear from those candidates with the best chance of forming the next government.

The Beaches-East York Interfaith group includes representatives from Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities in the riding.

Questions for the candidates will address health, housing, homelessness, education, environment and climate change.

The group has framed its questions from a faith-based perspective since these issues overlap with ethical perspectives on care for people living in poverty, for those who are sick and for those who share our common environment.

The group believes people of faith have a collective responsibility:

• to create a more just and equitable world,
• to care for one another …and successive generations,
• to protect the environment we share for our own mutual advantage

These responsibilities oblige the congregations to shape how they live in community, how they value people who are vulnerable and how they tend to creation. This is why faith is political.

At the same time, the group appreciates that there are different ways of accomplishing these goals.

The purpose for hosting the candidates’ meeting is to hear how the different candidates would accomplish these goals. No faith community will instruct its congregation on how to vote. The group will leave it to the candidates to persuade people.

The group’s ground rules for the evening include asking the candidates to focus on what they would do and to refrain from attacking other candidates or the platform of other parties. This was felt to be particularly important, given the lack of decorum that is sometimes present in political debates.

Each candidate has received a list of prepared questions which they will address in less than two minutes and in some cases, less than one minute.

People present in the church and on Zoom will also be able to submit questions for the candidates. The questions will be consolidated and asked of the candidates during the second part of the evening.

People who wish to attend in person will be asked to abide by the Anglican Church’s guideline to wear a mask. To register for in person attendance at the Church of the Resurrection, (1100 Woodbine Ave.) go to Beaches–East York Interfaith All Candidates Meeting Tickets, Thu, May 12, 2022 at 7:00 PM | Eventbrite.

To register for zoom attendance go to Beaches–East York Interfaith All Candidates Meeting on Zoom Tickets, Thu, May 12, 2022 at 7:00 PM | Eventbrite

For more information check out the Church of the Resurrection website at www.therez.ca/election/

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