Conservatives Missed All-Candidates Events at a Much Higher Rate Than Other Major Parties

In the run-up to today’s federal election, local MP candidates spent weeks making their case to the public that they were the best person to represent their interests in the House of Commons. But not all of the candidates took the opportunities in front of them.

Through extensive online searches for articles, videos and social media posts featuring or referring to all-candidate forums in each of the 343 federal ridings, PressProgress has turned up over 80 examples of candidates from the Liberal, Conservative and New Democratic parties missing local town halls and debates. Of these absentee candidates, 57 were Conservative, 17 NDP and nine Liberal (see table at bottom). These counts exclude party leaders, whose campaign itineraries typically involve criss-crossing the whole country.

They do include four London-area Conservatives — Adam Benni, Stephen Gallant, Kurt Holman and embattled candidate Andrew Lawton — that skipped their ridings’ Rogers TV debates.

In Sudbury East–Manitoulin–Nickel Belt, Conservative candidate Jim Belanger missed three consecutive all-candidates events this election.

And in the BC riding of Vernon–Lake Country–Monashee, Conservative candidate Scott Anderson did not take part in a forum on climate and the environment because he was “scheduled elsewhere.”

Michael Prince, a professor of public policy at the University of Victoria, told PressProgress that candidates skipping these public functions is an issue for a number of reasons.

“For the general population that may attend these, it’s a chance to get to see the candidates and compare and contrast,” he said. “In any given election, most of the candidates are unknown.”

Prince added that the local groups sponsoring these events benefit from being able to get their concerns discussed between the people competing to become their new member of Parliament.

He observed that for the kinds of groups that often sponsor these debates — such as social planning councils, chambers of commerce and organizations focused on vulnerable populations — it can be a chance to inform the candidates about their priorities.

Prince says that while there are other ways to get to know candidates in your riding, like newspaper articles, podcasts or social media posts, all-candidates meetings will remain important as long as Canadians believe in electing each member to the House of Commons to represent a specific physical location.

The absence of a political opponent at these events can sometimes draw criticism from other candidates. The Liberal incumbent for Sault Ste. Marie–Algoma, Terry Sheehan, criticized his Conservative opponent’s absence at an all-candidates debate, saying he’d never seen a candidate not show up like this, and that the “silence was deafening.”

Surrey Liberal Party candidate Randeep Sarai also criticized his opponents for missing multiple all-candidates forums, saying on social media, “When you decide to put your name forward in an election, you need to show up when asked.”

A spokesperson for the Surrey Board of Trade, an organization that held one of the debates Sarai was referring to, told PressProgress that they understood it’s not always possible for every candidate to attend every event, but emphasized the importance of local forums during a federal election.

“When candidates are unable to participate, it limits voters’ opportunities to hear a full range of perspectives.”

Prince said that he has moderated all-candidates debates in the past, and occasionally there would be empty seats, but he believes something else is happening this election.

“It seems to be an intentional strategy of avoidance, you know, of not wanting to or being instructed by party headquarters or party strategists at the national level not to participate,” said Prince.

(Progressive Conservative candidates in February’s Ontario election were also accused of ducking debates.)

Prince said that it doesn’t make a lot of sense for the federal Conservatives to avoid the public, given how badly they wanted this election in the first place.

“You guys were chomping at the bit, and this is the best you came up with in five weeks?” he said.

The Conservative Party was reached for comment but did not respond in time for publication.