I participated in my first political debate last night -- as a candidate anyway. It was scary, humbling, nerve-racking, enlightening and altogether exciting. Overall, I would call it a positive experience.

Held in a United church, I took a seat at the table at the front of the sanctuary with the three other candidates Jane Thornthwaite (Liberal), Mo Norton (NDP), and Gary Hee (Conservative) and we fielded questions one at a time on a variety of topics. I didn't really like the format, as it didn't allow candidates to respond to claims by their competitors unless they were next in line, but for the most part the tone was civil and respectful (though the audience did get rather belligerent toward the Liberal candidate a few times.

For my part, I suppose that I performed as expected. As first-time candidates often do, I lacked polish, used some terminology that shall we say, "didn't resonate well with some people" and most importantly choked on the first two questions as they were in areas on which I wasn't all that well versed yet.

After those first two though, I got my act together and did very well. I was clear, concise and did a very good job and positioning the Greens as a viable alternative to the Liberals & NDP.

When it was all over, I had a number of people take a moment to come up to me and congratulate me on a good debate and let me know that I'd flipped their vote away from one of the other candidates. I can't tell you how good that felt. Though I clearly could have done better, I am quite proud of myself :-)

I'd also like to take a moment here to thank my brother, Melanie, Margaret and Quinn for coming out to support me last night. As intimidating as the whole process was, having them in the audience really did make it so much easier on me. Thank you so much guys.

My next (and last?) debate is this Thursday at 7pm. As Quinn & Melanie took notes for me from this last debate, I shall endeavour to remedy my previous shortcomings and give the other candidates another run for their money then.