Fringe candidates can liven staid election debates

While considered a distraction by some, there's no denying that fringe candidates add something to election debates, which can otherwise become a series of rote events with candidates repeating the same promises and rhetoric.

Wednesday night's all-candidates debate was a great example of how intense they can become, generating laughs and gasps almost at the same time.

The Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce event had plenty of serious moments, debate on weighty issues and sometimes pointed back and forth between candidates. But there were also some silly to absurd moments, courtesy of the candidates whose chances of winning are slim.

Case in point was Jeanne Brohart, whose claims of a massive building conspiracy are well known to journalists, but largely unknown to most of the public. Until Wednesday.

“I have a masters in finance and I am the only woman running for mayor,” Brohart began, promisingly enough.

Before long, however, her voice was at full register as she vowed her first order of business as mayor would be to show Sudbury is the “epicentre of a nation-wide building scandal,” she said, reminding people who don't believe her that “we ignored Elliot Lake.”

But after accusing just about everyone of being complicit in the alleged scandal, she offered an insightful critique of candidate Dan Melanson's plan to use municipal bonds to repair roads.

“Bonds should be used for revenue-generating (projects),” she said, not roads.

While the most well-known fringe candidate was absent – David Popescu, who has in the past called for religious programming to replace current TV shows, among other more radical ideas – Jean-Raymond Audet referenced him in a prayer.

Audet also expressed his hostility to capitalism, saying domination by corporations was the big problem in the city.

“It's big business that's getting all the breaks,” he said, adding he opposed deregulating store hours, wanted and called for Greater Sudbury to be an officially bilingual city.

But the grandfather of fringe candidates in the city stole the show — as he often does, having run in almost every federal, provincial and local election since 1993. The city has two major problems, Ed Pokonzie said: the infrastructure deficit in roads and sewer, and the fact the media won't publish his ideas.

He got big laughs when, about an hour before the debate ended, he asked if he could give his closing statement because he had to leave.

"I have to catch a bus," Pokonize said.

That prompted fellow candidate John Rodriguez to offer him a ride home so he could stay for the whole debate.

It was the beginning of a number of back-and-forth quips between the two. On the casino issue, for example, Rodriguez got a big laugh with, “There are rare times that I find myself aligned with Ed Pokonzie.”

And when Rodriguez was reaching for the microphone to respond to a question, Pokonzie helpfully passed it to him.

"Thank you, Ed," Rodriguez said, breaking up the crowd again.

But when Pokonzie criticized one of Rodriguez's policies, the former mayor quipped, "You'll be walking home!"

More laughs.