Excerpts:

About 300 people packed the Albert McCormick Community Centre yesterday to pepper their four mayoral candidates with questions about hydro revenues, fluoridation of drinking water, merger talks with Kitchener, public transit, bicycle trails and leadership.

This city has the most number of mayoral candidates and the people attending Tuesday night’s debate had lots of questions for Brenda Halloran, the incumbent mayor, Jan d’Ailly, a two-term member of city council, Franklin Ramsoomair, a former business professor and Dale Ross, a retired business executive…

On fluoridation, Halloran is alone in her support for the continuation of the practice.

“I was a nurse for a number of years. I have a daughter who is 21 and has one cavity,” Halloran said. “It’s all controlled. It follows strict procedures. I drink our water. I have faith in the system.”

Ross said it is an ethical issue and one group of people does not have the right to force others to put a chemical into their bodies.

D’Ailly said there are now many ways of getting fluoride to the teeth without putting it in drinking water and because he goes by “the precautionary principle,” d’Ailly said he will vote against continued fluoridation of the drinking water.

“I will not be supporting fluoride,” Ramsoomair said. “Fluoride is a poison.”

Waterloo voters will have two referendum questions on their Oct. 25 election ballots. The first deals with fluoridation of the drinking water. The second asks voters if they want their city council to explore the pros and cons of merging with the City of Kitchener.

“It is a very confusing question and that is the main reason you should vote ‘no,’” d’Ailly said…

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