‘disservice to democracy’ — windsor-essex pc candidates dodge ontario election debates, interviews
essex county’s tory candidates are under fire for refus...
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local tory candidates anthony leardi (essex), left, and tony francis (windsor west) joined pc party leader doug ford on jan. 29, 2025, at unifor's turner road union hall in windsor.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
essex county’s tory candidates are under fire for refusing to face their ontario election rivals in public debate during the current campaign — and they and their party appear unwilling to say why.
progressive conservative party of ontario headquarters will not acknowledge if it’s an official policy or edict from pc leader doug ford, and local candidates haven’t responded to the star’s calls or messages.
but the local practice of dodging debates and media questions appears to be a common theme for tory candidates across ontario.
“it is inherently less democratic,” jeffrey dvorkin, a senior fellow at massey college and former university of toronto journalism program director, told the star.
“this is about micromanaging a campaign, which ford has done in the past, which is to say there’ll be one message and it should always be from either the premier or a senior cabinet minister.”
the windsor-essex regional chamber of commerce was forced to cancel its traditional all-candidates election debate this week for the ridings of windsor west, windsor-tecumseh, and essex due to lack of participation.
chamber president ryan donally said some parties had yet to choose candidates, while all candidates for one party declined to participate. a source with knowledge of the debates told the star the party refusing to take part was the progressive conservatives.
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parties eligible for the debate included the liberals, ndp, green party, and pcs, who all have representation at queen’s park.
incumbent pc candidates anthony leardi in essex and andrew dowie in windsor-tecumseh, along with windsor west candidate tony francis, did not respond to the star’s repeated requests for comments about why they refused to join the debate.
leardi and francis also refused to talk to reporters following pc party leader doug ford’s campaign kickoff in windsor. dowie did talk to reporters that day, but has since ignored multiple interview requests from the star, including for a phone interview or emailed responses to questions for an election riding profile.
progressive conservative party of ontario leader doug ford greets local workers near the ambassador bridge in windsor on jan. 29, 2025, where he launched his re-election campaign.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
dowie and francis were also no-shows at a windsor-tecumseh and windsor west candidates forum hosted wednesday night by emmanuel united church. other candidates running in those ridings showed up.
windsor’s ward 9 coun. kieran mckenzie, who watched that debate, took to social media to congratulate the candidates “who had enough courage and respect for basic principles of democracy to show up.” he also wrote “shame on you” to those who didn’t appear.
mckenzie told the star that it’s “incumbent” on candidates to take all steps possible to communicate what they will do if elected. that includes attending debates and responding to media questions, he said.
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“they need to talk,” said mckenzie. “that’s what an election campaign is about, having that conversation with the public. they’re not engaging, and it’s sad.
“it’s undemocratic, and hopefully they’ll reconsider.”
tory candidates in several other cities have also refused media interview requests or debate invitations, including those in timmins, sudbury, halton, walkerton, owen sound, durham, sarnia-lambton, and brampton, among others.
in response to the star’s request for comment, a pc party staffer identified only as caitlin repeated verbatim a terse message sent to media in other cities who had similar questions about the lack of engagement.
“ontario pc candidates will spend every day of the campaign at people’s doors, speaking to voters about our plan to protect ontario.”
caitlin did not respond to a follow-up email asking for more explanation, including how attending a debate would negate the ability to knock on doors, as candidates from other parties are doing.
it’s a similar strategy to one the ontario tories employed during the 2022 provincial election when they won a majority of seats at queen’s park.
“parties have always wanted more control over the message,” said dvorkin. “the internet has made that more complicated. so in order to manage the message, political parties have limited who can speak on behalf of anybody.
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“i think that’s the downside of the digital culture. even though it promises to let 1,000 opinions bloom, the effort to control the message is greater than ever.”
during the current election campaign, doug ford has also started limiting his exposure to media scrutiny, allowing questions from only six reporters per press conference.
“it used to be that when you were on the campaign trail, it meant that you got a lot of information out of people, and then you were able to write a report around that,” said dvorkin, a former journalist and journalism instructor.
“now you’re not able to do that because nobody’s talking to you. i think that is a disservice to elections, and it’s a disservice to democracy.”
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