Independant candidates

snowbull

Are they ever sane? They just had a debate between the candidates for my riding. One of the independents was running as an applied project for his social studies class, and the other one seemed to have no coherent anything at all.

The fact he was allegedly from the "house" party also makes me suspicious. I think they just pulled a random 20 something off the street and told him to debate.

glennmagusharvey

Huhh?

snowbull

Candidates that run for a seat in parliament without the backing of a major party?

I guess the American equivalent is the House of Representatives, but i don't know how they decide those.

glennmagusharvey

No, what I don't understand is what a "riding" is, and how you have school-age candidates running for office.

snowbull

Oh, a riding is basically the electoral district/constituency that a member of parliament represents.

The guy running was a teacher, and he had his class come up with a platform as a little project, and him and some other students took it a little further by actually registering to be elected. It was the vaguest possible thing, and reeked of design by committee.

Of course, the minimum age to be an MP is something like 18 years old, so a high school student could conceivably be elected to Parliament. I think there have been 20 year old MPs in the past, and I remember some guy in my area got elected a school trustee about 2 years after he graduated from high school.

glennmagusharvey

Oh, i see.

Now it makes a lot more sense.

I think it's pretty cool that a schoolteacher is running for Parliament as a glorified class project, to be honest.

Gelzo

Did you mean: independent