With a provincial byelection less than two weeks away, the four candidates vying for a seat settled in for one of their last opportunities to debate and sway voters to their side on Nov. 27. The issues have remained consistent through the runup to the election — health care, education and long-term visions for the province dominated the discussion.

The candidates — Hannah Bell (Green Party), Bob Doiron (Liberal Party), Melissa Hilton (Progressive Conservative Party) and Mike Redmond (New Democratic Party), sat with Island Morning host Matt Rainnie to make their cases.

Why run at all?

Bell: "I've been asked to run many times by, I think, all the parties in the province, for me the fit with the Greens is the right one."

Doiron: "I've entered into this with one goal, I'd like to strengthen our community and make it a better place to live."

Bob Doiron says his motivation to join the legislature is the same as what prompted him to run for council — 'to strengthen our community.' (CBC)

Hilton: "I ran for council because I like to actually help people, and it's very rewarding when you're able to help them."

Redmond: "The greatest gift that we can give each and every Islander is opportunity. I think that is where we need to start today.

Health care

The first policy area addressed by the candidates was health.

Doiron: "There's a big concern about seniors, seniors in the hospital with no place to go. That's coming up at about every third or fourth day here, that there's overcrowding in the hospitals."

Hilton: "It's very difficult to pinpoint what is the biggest doorstep issue in health. There's so many issues ... It's been heart breaking to hear the stories that people are sharing with me."

Melissa Hilton says mental health support is an issue she'd like to address. (CBC)

Redmond: "It is a question of what is the priority of this government. If you want to address health care, you start with the social determinants of health. What's the first one? Income, housing."

Bell: "We often talk about beds or dollars or projects, but we're talking about people, and we can't expect people to put their crisis on hold while we sort out staffing issues."

Education

Education was up next.

Hilton: "Both the psychological assessments and the class sizes are playing very, very heavily on our standardized test results."

Redmond: "We have an unelected school board. That's problematic when you have advisory councils and you need to have that input from community ... The rezoning, that was an unmitigated disaster from this provincial government. They put people and communities at great risk and absolutely accomplished nothing."

Mike Redmond says Islanders want 'political patronage — historical Tory/Liberal — to go away.' (CBC)

Bell: "Our small size is our great opportunity. If we want to do something really innovative and creative in education this is the place to do it."

Doiron: "The government, in the district, has improved Parkdale school with a new gymnasium, Birchwood school, and now we're working towards putting a new school into Sherwood."

Key issues

At the end of the discussion each candidate was given an opportunity to address what they felt was a key issue they were hearing about on the doorstep.

Redmond: "People just want opportunity. They want a province that's based on fairness. They want the political patronage — historical Tory/Liberal — to go away."

Bell: "No one except politicians live in four-year cycles. Plans take a lot longer than that."

Hannah Bell says P.E.I.'s small size is an opportunity for new and imaginative approaches to education. (CBC)

Doiron: "We're in there, the Liberal government's there. They're working as best they can. I believe they're doing a good job. I would like to be a part of that and represent the district as well as I can."

Hilton: "We didn't hear about not honouring the vote [on the plebiscite on proportional representation], which I'm hearing at a lot of doors."