EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Ontario Progressive Conservatives will be out knocking on doors in this cold campaign — but don’t expect to see them inside on the debate stage.
A source working on a local PC campaign told The Trillium that it's “against party policy” for their candidates to participate in local candidates’ debates.
When asked to confirm or deny this, a Doug Ford campaign spokesperson said only that “Ontario PC candidates will spend every day of the campaign at people’s doors, speaking to voters about our plan to protect Ontario.”
It’s not a new strategy for the party.
It’s the same rationale Ford and party officials used in the 2022 campaign in response to media questions about local PC candidates’ absences from debates.
For instance, after the PC candidate in Guelph missed four debates, her campaign manager told GuelphToday, "It's more important that we're out meeting people."
"We're knocking on doors, meeting people and telling them what our plans are," Bob Coole said at the time.
This time around, Coole is the PC candidate.
It comes as the PCs announced a new media strategy on Wednesday: Leader Doug Ford will only take questions from six reporters per press conference.
Trillium reporter Alan S. Hale was among the reporters who attended Ford’s media availability in Pickering but didn’t get a turn at the microphone before questions were cut off and Ford left the room.
After a journalist with HaltonHillsToday noted that a local Tory candidate has declined debate invitations, Hale went to the press conference intending to ask Ford if PC candidates would be participating in local debates in this election. He tried to do so as the premier left but did not receive an answer.
Watch the exchange video below:
—With files from Charlie Pinkerton, HaltonHillsToday and GuelphToday
