A nominee for the federal Conservative candidacy would like to see meet and greet activities creating by the riding association.
Holly Thompson put out a press release objecting to events being organized by one of her competitors, Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison. He had put an offer out to all candidates to attend the events he had put together in locations around the riding.
“This is just unprofessional,” Thompson contended in an interview. “This is not how a conservative candidate that we are going to send to Ottawa should behave.”
She confirmed that she is waiting to hear from the riding office on whether or not there will be a neutral all-nominees meeting between now and the July 7th nomination meeting.
Thompson makes a point of preferring her campaign style of engaging people one on one. She said she would not be attending any of the five meetings taking place over the coming days.
Thompson did not attend Aitchison’s first meet and greet held last night at the Quality Inn in Bracebridge.
“We’ve got a campaign strategy and we are operating on a tight schedule,” Thompson said. “In the time they had the session last night I had over 40 phone calls and personal interactions with members and that is how we are running our campaign.”
In an interview earlier this week with MyMuskokaNow.com nominee hopeful Alan Fraser, a lawyer in Toronto who grew up in Bracebridge, said he would be attending the Aitchison-organized events.
He attended last night’s event and said it was a great chance to meet with potential delegates and voters.
“Scott’s taken the initiative to organize it, it’s an opportunity to meet local residents in the constituency,” commented Fraser. “If she can’t make it, that’s fine but we should be working together to get to know the community.”
Fraser went further, calling Thompson’s reaction to the event “childish”.
“In the political sphere we all need to work together,” said Fraser. “We all need to work together to represent the constituency.”
Fraser adds that he spotted members of Thompson’s campaign at the event, recording portions of the question and answer segment. The fourth nominee, Meghan Shannon was not at the event.
There are five events remaining that are organized by the Aitchison campaign and all candidates have been invited to attend.
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- Muskoka Lakes Township
Saturday June 22nd
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Port Carling Community Center
3 Bailey Street,
Port Carling
- Seguin Township
Saturday June 22nd
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Rosseau Community Center
2 Victoria St. West
Rosseau
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[one_half_last]
- Burk’s Falls
Sunday June 23rd
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Burks Falls Legion
9 Mary Street
Burks Falls
- Gravenhurst
Tuesday June 25th
7:00 pm- 9:00 pm
Gravenhurst Legion
290 Veteran’s Way
Gravenhurst
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- Huntsville
Wednesday, June 26th
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Huntsville Legion
21 Veteran’s Way
Huntsville