By Julia Chapman, CBC News
Posted: Oct 23, 2012 7:25 AM ET
Last Updated: Oct 23, 2012 7:46 AM ET
There were no binders full of women. Just women.
"There will be men here tonight," Belma Dimanate said with a deep stare, eliciting laugher from her female friends.
Dimanate, along with fellow Hamiltonians Gina Remy-Gentili and Barbara Milne, organized a viewing part for the third installment of the U.S. Presidential debates Monday night.
Milne, owner of The Pearl Company Theatre and Gallery, offered her space for the event.
"It's interesting to see the affect on what is around us," Milne said. "We're not American, but we're so engrossed by what they are doing."
The gathering was planned after the first debate — before Republican candidate Mitt Romney's infamous quote about about receiving "binders full of women." Diamante clears the record again.
"It just won't be a bunch of women, like The View," she said, with the ladies still laughing.
The purpose of the gathering was not to dwell on comments like the 'Binders full of women,' she said, but use the debate as a gateway to get Hamiltonians to care more about Canadian politics.
"As Canadians, we're noting taking as much ownership of our own politics," Diamante said. "There is a lot of politics apathy."
"Our economies are tied," said Remy-Gentili. "This impacts upon us. We should be interested."
Diamante, Remy-Gentili and Milne support president and democratic candidate Barack Obama, but don't necessarily identify as Democrats. It's about the issues at stake, they all agreed.
For Dimante, it's funding for public broadcasting, universal health care and education.
"That's what I need to feel like we live in a civilized society," she said.
For Remy-Gentili, it's the environment, gay marriage and foreign policy.
"We live in a very complex world," she said. We need thoughtfulness in our global village."
That's what the Democrats offer, she said. With the cards Obama was dealt after succeeding former president George W. Bush, Milne said he's done a commendable job.
"What a terrible position he was in," she said. "The expectations were unbelievable."
The room won't be filled with solely with Obama supporters. Janet Bielak, a friend of the three organizers, stands by her Republican values and said right-wingers will do a better job
"If the Republicans are in power," Bielak said, "the Democrats have to be better across the table."
She leans towards the Republican stance on pro-life, budget-balancing and foreign relations. She wasn't offended by Romney's comments about women.
"I've prepared those binders full of women," she said with a laugh.
Bielak admits she might be the only Romney-ite present, and that's ok by the organizers.
These women just looking to rejuvenate a lasting politics discourse in Hamilton and get the community involved in a global conversation.
"In the UK, in Brazil, all around the world this election has an impact," Remy-Gentili said. "We're probably not the only gathering tonight."
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