Several candidates call for third Conservative leadership debate, but Poilievre and Lewis non-committal

'Thousands of Canadians across this country have joined our party for the first time, and many of them don’t know their leadership candidates very well'

Nationalpost.com
June 9, 2022

A majority of Conservative leadership hopefuls are pushing for a third official debate before the hundreds of thousands of new members that recently signed up start filling in their ballots this summer.

Jean Charest, Patrick Brown, Roman Baber and Scott Aitchison all said they would be in favour of an extra debate, now that the only two officially scheduled leadership debates are over. There was one official English debate, held in Edmonton, and one official French debate, held in Laval, Que. A debate was also held in Ottawa by the Canada Strong and Free Network, although Brown chose not to attend.

Pierre Poilievre’s team did not answer when asked about the possibility of a third debate. Leslyn Lewis’s campaign indicated it has “no preference” on the question of another debate, but would participate if the Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) organizes another one.

Charest was the first candidate, on Wednesday, to declare his enthusiasm about an extra chance to debate the other contestants.

“We welcome the opportunity for another debate -- ideally in both official languages -- on policy ideas. Members deserve another opportunity to know where candidates stand on issues and their future vision for the Party,” said Charest’s spokesperson, Laurence Toth, in an email.

“We hope the Party will consider taking this debate to the East Coast,” she added.

Three of the other official candidates quickly weighed in to say they would also welcome another chance to present their vision to the new members.

“Thousands of Canadians across this country have joined our party for the first time, and many of them don’t know their leadership candidates very well,” said Aitchison in a video posted on Twitter. “So it would be great to have a third debate on policy where we can talk about ideas that not only these new members of our party, but millions of Canadians across the country can hear.”

Baber tweeted his two cents: “But no Tom Clark this time,” he said, referring to the moderator of the English debate in Edmonton, which was controversial for its rigid rules, as well as the use of sound effects, personal questions and game-show-style devices.

The Conservative Party of Canada has reserved the right to hold more than one official debate in each official language during the race, as it mentions in its rules there would be “at least” one in English and one in French.

Party president Rob Batherson told National Post that “no decision” has been made on the third official debate, but he expects to have a decision “in the weeks to come.”
The feistiest debate exchanges so far happened during the only unofficial debate held at the Canada Strong and Free conference in Ottawa at the start of May. All candidates except Brown participated, and viewers witnessed Poilievre and Charest attacking each other relentlessly over Poilievre’s support for the Freedom Convoy protest earlier this year, and Charest’s links to Chinese telecom firm Huawei. Lewis also challenged Poilievre’s views on abortion issues.

The party’s official debate in English followed shortly after, and was criticized for its lack of substance and rigid rules which left little or no time for meaningful exchanges. The French debate adapted its rules and let candidates debate more freely, but the whole exercise proved to be a challenge for the candidates who do not speak the language fluently, most notably Lewis.

The candidates’ request for an extra debate is happening as Poilievre’s team has unveiled membership numbers that prove to be nearly insurmountable for his opponents to win the leadership race -- unless these new members flock in large numbers to vote for them instead.

Poilievre’s team reports having sold nearly 312,000 memberships through its campaign website, more than double than the number reported by Brown’s campaign, which has said it sold 150,000 memberships. Charest has sold “tens of thousands” of memberships, according to his team. The others have not released any numbers.

The National Post could not independently confirm these numbers, and they are subject to change as the Conservative Party is reviewing the validity of each membership. But given the reportedly high numbers, the process will prove to be a Herculean task that will take several weeks. The party is obliged under the rules to provide a final voters list to candidates no later than July 29.

The voting period will be taking place during the summer, and the new leader is scheduled to be announced on September 10.

Former federal Conservative cabinet minister Lisa Raitt said on the Curse of Politics podcast released on Wednesday that she expects the party to be “six to eight weeks” behind processing memberships, and she openly wondered if all the members would receive their ballots in time to cast their votes.

The speculation on a possible delayed leadership race prompted LEOC chair Ian Brodie, who has kept fairly quiet about the race until now, to come out on Twitter to reassure members that the expected deadlines would be met as planned.

“I do not see a scenario in which the race could be delayed. Candidates have signed up many, many new members and Party staff are doing extraordinary work to produce a voters’ list,” he wrote.

“I expect we will meet all the deadlines set out in the #cpcldr (CPC leadership) rules.”