OTTAWA — The first debates of the Conservative leadership race will be held June 17 and 18 in Toronto after being delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The French-language debate will be Wednesday, June 17, with the English-language debate to follow the next night. Both debates will be live-streamed on the party’s website; neither will have an in-person audience.
Four candidates have qualified to take part: Erin O’Toole, Peter MacKay, Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan.
The debate will be moderated by the co-chairs of the leadership election organizing committee, Dan Nowlan and Lisa Raitt. The public can submit questions for the candidates by video until June 10 at www.cpc-leadership2020.ca . Each debate will also feature a portion where candidates debate each other one-on-one.
It is highly unusual that the race has gone this far without a debate, as membership sales for voters were cut off on May 15. But debates that had been planned earlier this spring by the party and other organizations such as the Manning Centre had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
“These debates will allow our candidates to have a robust exchange of ideas and policy, while giving members a chance to better inform their choice among the candidates,” said Raitt in a statement. “While traditionally we’d like to have these debates in different parts of the country, the ongoing uncertainty around COVID-19 makes this the most sensible way to hold these debates.”
The party says it will be taking measures “to ensure social distancing is respected among candidates and technical personnel — this includes keeping candidates separate and limiting staff that are present.”
The language skills of the candidates will be tested in the French debate. MacKay’s ability was mocked by the Journal de Montreal on its front page in January, but he argued he was just out of practice and would improve as the campaign went along. O’Toole has said he speaks a “soldier’s French,” noting that he learned it while attending the Royal Military College.
These debates will allow our candidates to have a robust exchange of ideas and policy
Lewis has been taking lessons and will participate in the debate to the best of her ability, her campaign manager said. Sloan’s campaign also said he’ll be taking part; Sloan told CBC in January that his French is “mid- to high-level intermediate.”
These may turn out to be the only debates of the race, as so far no other organizations have said they plan to hold one.
Voting will take place by mail-in ballot this summer and is scheduled to conclude on Aug. 21. The race uses a ranked ballot, meaning that in each round, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated and their votes redistributed until one candidate passes 50 per cent.
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