TIMMINS - As the campaign calendar for the Ontario election fills up, there's one gap in Timmins. A debate.
NDP candidate Corey Lepage is calling for a debate in the riding, and for Progressive Conservative incumbent George Pirie to participate.
In past provincial campaigns, the Timmins Chamber of Commerce hosted candidates' debates. The organization is not hosting one this time around.
"Prior to the last (municipal) election, the Chamber opted to stop hosting debates and instead focus on providing businesses with information on election issues. There were a number of other groups that were hosting debates therefore we felt the public was well served in being able to access the candidates," said MJ Filo, communications and policy lead.
Even if there is a local debate, it's not clear if Pirie would attend.
A PC campaign worker recently told The Trillium that it's “against party policy” for their candidates to participate in local candidates’ debates.
It's the same tactic the party took in the 2022 campaign.
At that time, it was Pirie's first campaign at the provincial level and he talked to local media and debates.
So far this campaign, Pirie's campaign team's response to requests has been that they're not doing interviews.
TimminsToday has asked Pirie's campaign if he'll participate in a local debate. No response has been received.
In Nipissing, PC Vic Fedeli is doing the Chamber of Commerce debate, but has turned down other events.
In Sudbury, PC candidate Max Massimiliano has been interviewed by Sudbury.com, which you can read here. However, his Nickel Belt counterpart, Randy Hazlett has, like he did in the last election, refused to be interviewed.
“It seems like it’s a tactic from Doug Ford and the Conservative Party as a whole to prevent the candidates from doing candidate debates," said Lepage.
"It seems to be that they have such an … undefendable track record on things like healthcare, on our public school system, on the housing crisis, on the mental health and addiction crisis. Everything across the board, they’re going to have to defend themselves on because they have been failing Ontario for the last seven years. So that’s probably why they’re not wanting their candidates to do debates and it makes perfect sense for them."
Debates, said Lepage, are a chance for people to hear from the candidates. If the voters hear what candidates are standing up for, he said they're more likely to vote, and know who they're voting for.
"We’re in the middle of winter in a snap election, a year-and-a-half before the election was supposed to be had," said Lepage on Saturday at the opening of his campaign office at 84 Cedar St. S.
"The first week of our campaign, I was speaking to people who were just finding out we’re in the middle of an election right now. It’s important to engage with people, especially my generation because we need to get people involved in actually going out to vote. I’m encouraging everyone to go out and vote, whether they’re voting for me or another party."
Election day is Feb. 27.
So far, Lepage and Pirie are the only two candidates registered in Timmins.
