This year, the Review is making the voter the story in the 2019 federal election, and we’ve recruited several engaged residents to be our go-to sources during the campaign.

Following the Review’s all-candidates debate Oct. 8 at the Hamilton Technology Centre, in partnership with the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce, we reached out to three residents who took in the debate: Nathan Tidridge, Richard Brown and Jim Leamen.

Tidridge, a history teacher at Waterdown District High School and an author whose work focuses on the Crown’s relationship with Indigenous communities, was focused on the environment, Indigenous rights and the polarization of society, heading into the debate.

From an issues standpoint, Tidridge, who is a member of the Ontario Liberal party but is not a member of any federal party and has voted for many different parties in the past, said he’s not sure he learned anything new about the stances of the various parties.

“I did learn about the personalities of the candidates and their own personal stands, and deliveries of their messages,” he said, “which to me, as a voter, is valuable.”

Tidridge said he was happy to see the environment was a big issue but said Indigenous rights didn’t really come up — apart from mentions by the Liberal and NDP candidates — although he did speak to Conservative incumbent David Sweet about it after the debate.

In terms of polarization, he didn’t find the debate very contentious, and the only attack he recalled was during the closing, when Liberal candidate Jennifer Stebbing urged voters to “unseat Sweet.”

“Other than that, I thought it was pretty congenial — maybe even too congenial,” he said, adding Stebbing was the only candidate who seemed to attack Sweet’s record. “I didn’t hear that from the Green candidate and the NDP candidate.

"I don’t know, if you went in knowing who you were going to vote for, if any minds were changed,” he said.

Richard Brown is a Canadian veteran who lives in the northern part of Flamborough and is focused on veterans affairs.

Brown, who is not a member of any political party, formerly lived in the Niagara West Riding and moved to Flamborough last year.

Although the debate did not touch on veterans' issues, Brown said he would like to see an operational stress injury (OSI) clinic for mental health in the Hamilton area for military first responders. An OSI clinic provides assessment, treatment, prevention and support to serving Canadian Armed Forces members, veterans and RCMP members and former members.

“Right now, veterans in this country are getting treated like dirt,” he said. “There’s nothing in Hamilton.”

Brown said he has to fight daily with Veterans Affairs Canada, so when NDP candidate Allison Cillis said the party would cut the number of cases per caseworker to 25, from 40, he was pleased.

He said he was disappointed by Sweet and Stebbing in relation to Veterans Affairs.

“The only one who actually did something to answer my questions was Cillis,” he said.

Jim Leamen, who lives in Waterdown, is the managing director of the Flamborough Food Bank.

Leamen, who is not a member of any political party, said he is focused on social issues. Among his chief concerns are solving addiction problems through a national strategy, and environmental concerns.

As well, Leamen said he would like to see more federal investment into housing at the provincial level, to help solve affordability issues.

With those issues in mind, Leamen said he didn’t see evidence that the Liberals or Conservatives would do a great deal in those areas.

“I think the Liberals would do more than the Conservatives,” he said. “I think the Conservatives are just interested (in) balanced budgets and more tax breaks.”

He said the Green party and the NDP put together decent platforms for his issues, but he wasn’t impressed with the PPC candidate.

“I thought the debate itself was really good,” Leamen said. “I thought everyone was pretty prepared with the local issues.

“I thought they all spoke well, and I was glad to see there was quite a few people there.”