I read all the party platforms, and found that none of them answered all my
specific questions. Yes, they did have general information about how much
money they're going to throw at which programs, but I'm concerned about
issues within issues. For example, rather than how many jobs you're going
to create, I want to know what specific measures you'll take to encourage
businesses to create secure full-time permanent jobs with reasonable pay and
benefits instead of insecure contract positions. None of the party platforms
entirely addressed the specific aspects of the issues I care about the most.

So what I did was I sent an email to each of the four candidates running in
my riding. In this email I made it clear that I had read the platforms and
they didn't provide me the answers I was looking for. Then I asked five
specific questions that I couldn't find the answers to in the platforms. I
sent the same five questions to all the candidates, mentioned that all the
candidates were getting the same questions, and politely asked them to take
a moment out of their campaign to answer my questions.

It did occur to me that I might not get answers from all the candidates,
that I might not get answers from the candidates themselves but rather a
campaign worker, and that this might be irritating the candidates because
some of my questions were off-message. But I thought it important to define
my issues myself rather than letting the parties and the media do it for me,
and also I wanted to see what would happen.

I just got my first response back, from the NDP candidate. He gets points
for being the first to reply, for replying on a Sunday, and for under
24-hour turnaround time. However, all those points are swiftly taken away
because his response consisted of politely suggesting that I read the
platform. GAH! I did read the platform! I told him that! That is not so
very cool.