There’s only about three weeks left before Election Day, and unless a candidate’s knocked on your door, or they’ve appeared on Open Sources Guelph, you probably haven’t heard from any of the people running locally yet. That will change next week as the four main party candidates meet virtually for the first of a couple of different debates that will help you make up your mind on who to vote for, or change it!

First up on Thursday September 9 is the Chamber of Commerce debate, which is co-sponsored by the Guelph & District Association of Realtors. Shakiba Shayani, President & CEO of the Guelph Chamber, will be the debate moderator and ask questions of the four main party candidates meaning Michelle Bowman of the Green Party, Aisha Jahangir of the NDP, Lloyd Longfield from the Liberals, and Ashish Sachan from the Conservatives.

The debate will be recorded on Thursday afternoon and then posted for public viewing on the Chamber’s YouTube page on Friday September 10. Members of the media have been invited to watch the debate live to cover it. Members of the public can submit questions meant for all candidates by sending an email to chamber [at] guelphchamber.com.

On Tuesday September 14, the Guelph Wellington Coalition for Social Justice, Democracy Guelph and Guelph Wellington Climate Coalition will be hosting a virtual debate that will also feature the four main party candidates but will focus primarily on questions around climate change and social justice issues.

In this debate, many of the questions will be selected in advance by the host groups to make sure that the debate covers topics of interest to their members. A portion of the debate will also be reserved for questions from people who register in advance for the debate, which will be broadcast on Zoom from 7-8:30 pm and to register, visit Eventbrite here. Some guy named Adam A. Donaldson will be the moderator for this debate.

Our Energy Guelph, the Council of Canadians-Guelph Chapter, Greenhouse Guelph, eMERGE, Guelph-Wellington Labour Council, the Ontario Public Interest Research Group, Central Students Association, Fair Vote–Guelph, and Wellington Water Watchers are among the co-sponsors.

Finally, high school students from Guelph in the Wellington Catholic District School Board are organizing a debate with all seven of the confirmed candidates for Guelph including Communist Party candidate Tristan Dineen, People’s Party candidate Josh Leier, and Animal Protection Party candidate Karen Levenson. The debate will be broadcast from Bishop Macdonell High School with the students themselves moderating and asking the questions.