Four of the five candidates vying for the role of MP for Portage-Lisgar participated in a virtual all-candidates forum hosted Thursday evening by the Winkler and Morden chambers of commerce.

Solomon Wiebe, the candidate for the People's Party of Canada; Ken Friesen, the candidate for the New Democratic Party; Andrew Carrier, the candidate for the Liberal party and; Candice Bergen, the incumbent candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada answered various questions that were submitted in advance from the public after delivering their opening statements. Jerome Dondo for the Christian Heritage Party did not attend.

 Solomon Wiebe - People's Party of Canada

"Our platform, right now, focuses mainly on COVID because COVID is the matter of the day. Our platform involves voluntary vaccination, it involves no segregation based on vaccination status and it also involves freedom of movement for all Canadians based on our Charter. We also want healthcare reform. We want a mixed private and public system that includes better service and improves healthcare for all Canadians - rich and poor. Taking care of our veterans, we want to do a line-by-line revision of the 2011 Veterans Act."

 Ken Friesen - New Democratic Party

 "We can make life more affordable for everyday people by investing in healthcare, affordable housing, Pharmacare, and childcare. We can build an economy that works better for more people by providing quality, affordable childcare when you need it. Making employment insurance work for you. Ensuring that we are more accessible. Job training and lifelong learning for all. Supporting small businesses, and we will protect the family budget and force the big corporations and big polluters to start paying what they owe. "

 Andrew Carrier - Liberal Party

 "Each community has an important role to represent and remember all of our homesteads and so on, and recognize the hard work of our people in that area. I also look at, not only early childhood education but also employment. There's a lot of need for training, our health care system is in crisis. We have lost so many jobs, and we're not promoting nurses, as well as health care workers, enough to ensure to meet the need."

Candice Bergen.- Conservative Party of Canada

"We have a five-point plan that will address the needs of Canadians. The first part of our plan is to secure jobs. Secondly, we need to secure mental health. We also need to secure Canada. We need to make sure that Canada can take care of Canada. We also need to secure accountability, we need to stop the corruption that's going on in Ottawa. And lastly, we need to secure our finances and this is a really important thing."

Submitted questions revolved around representation, lockdowns and vaccines, employment and labour shortages, immigration, inclusion, affordable housing, and childcare.

Click here to watch the forum in its one-hour entirety. The Portage and District Chamber of Commerce is hosting a similar forum on Tuesday.