An idealized democratic expression, an all-candidates\u2019 debate offers Canadian voters a chance to hear directly from \u2013 and pose questions to \u2013 the politicians who want to represent them in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
But democratic ideals rarely factor into the calculations that professional political campaign operatives consider when deciding if they want candidates to participate in these forums. (It\u2019s a different story sometimes for the candidates vying to win a seat in the House of Commons.)<\/p>\n
Despite widespread pessimism about the vote-winning utility of local all-candidates\u2019 debates among politicos, the forums persist<\/a> as a mainstay of local federal election campaigns, even during the September federal election that took place during a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n As part of a book that UBC Press plans to publish in 2022, I explore why debate organizers host the events and why political campaigns, despite their reservations about the vote-maximizing efficacy of these forums, continue to participate in them. I interviewed about a dozen professional political workers, candidates and local debate organizers \u2013 and read hundreds of local news reports about the debates that happened during the 2021 campaign that propelled the Liberals to their second consecutive minority government.<\/p>\n All the campaign staff to whom I spoke \u2013 the professional operatives of all political stripes involved in multiple campaigns over many federal elections \u2013 believe campaign debates are not efficient vote maximizers.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s the choice between spending three hours at a debate and an hour or two on prep, and knocking on doors in an apartment building downtown,\u201d said one long-time political operative who has worked on NDP and Liberal campaigns, \u201cI would go to the apartment building almost every chance I can get.\u201d<\/p>\n Increasingly candidates for the House of Commons have eschewed church-basement and community-hall debates, once an expected ritual of local elections, believing the events really matter only in close races.<\/p>\n In recent federal elections, some candidates have conceded<\/a> they think their time is better spent making personal connections instead of performing well in front of an audience of what most campaigns believe to be decided voters. In 2011, in fact, critics charged<\/a> that the Conservative Party of Canada\u2019s (CPC) national campaign instructed their candidates to avoid local debates. Candidates \u2013 even in the most recent election \u2013 do, however, continue to take heat<\/a> for skipping them.<\/p>\n Debate organizers in Alberta, where 30 of the province\u2019s 34 seats went Conservative blue in the 2021 federal election, say it\u2019s tough to get Conservatives, particularly in the cities, to participate in all-candidates\u2019 debates or forums.<\/p>\n Phillip Meintzer, who organized an environmental-themed debate in Alberta as part of the 100 Debates on the Environment<\/a> project, said the Conservative candidate he invited declined his invitation.<\/p>\n Like many organizers, Meintzer hoped his online debate would spark a dialogue about environmental issues such as the climate crisis, calling the event a chance to hold politicians accountable and \u201cincredibly important for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n Conservative campaigns concede they often turn down single-issue local debates. A debate about the environment, after all, doesn\u2019t attract the CPC\u2019s target audience, one political campaign official told me, stressing that the candidate\u2019s time is better spent door-knocking.<\/p>\n The rationale for all-candidates\u2019 debates is premised on the normative notion that debates \u2013 and the information voters take from these exchanges of views \u2013 are a healthy part of a functioning democracy. But recent political science research<\/a> suggests local candidate evaluations matter only for about four per cent of voters and in only about 10 per cent of Canada\u2019s 338 federal constituencies.<\/p>\n That margin can, however, be significant in battleground ridings. In the recent election, the difference between the winner and loser in more than 30 constituencies was less than four per cent<\/a>.<\/p>\n So, in tight races, campaign staffers admit to being more inclined to accept an invitation to a community all-candidates\u2019 debate, especially if they know the news media will be in attendance or the event is going to be televised or live-streamed.<\/p>\n Incumbents (from all the main federal parties) are a bit more cautious about participating in local debates. All the professional political strategists stress that the first rule of local debates is \u201cdo no harm.\u201d<\/p>\n Debates come with risks. Cameras, including ubiquitous smartphones, can capture gaffes or so-called \u201cbozo eruptions<\/a>\u201d that go viral, hurting the local candidate and forcing the national campaign off its message because it needs to respond to one of its local candidate\u2019s blunders.<\/p>\n Underdog campaigns have a different take on local debates, leaping at any chance to be in the public or make some news, said a Liberal campaign worker in Alberta running against a formidable Conservative heavyweight in one of the safest CPC seats in the country. In these \u201cno-win\u201d situations, longshot campaigns \u201cparticipate in everything,\u201d said the politico, stressing that when you are behind, \u201cyou take more risks.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Liberal MP and cabinet minister Kent Hehr says he participated in an all-candidates\u2019 debate early in the 2015 election<\/a> because he wanted to solidify his stature in the minds of centre-left voters in his Calgary Centre riding as the only candidate who could beat the Conservatives.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not always about strategy or winning votes.<\/p>\n Sometimes the candidates, knowing a debate isn\u2019t going to win them many votes, decide to take part in the event because they think it\u2019s the democratic or correct thing to do.<\/p>\n Calgary-based pollster Janet Brown, a keen observer of politics and politicians, suggests ego also can\u2019t be discounted when it comes to most politicians\u2019 belief in their skill to persuade. Almost all federal candidates, Brown believes, run for office convinced their personal brand will help win the day. Politics is a bruising contest. Politicians, says Brown, inure themselves by building up in their own minds a faith in their \u201cpersonal power to influence.\u201d<\/p>\n No doubt, for many politicians, including the ones I interviewed, politics is about persuasion. People running for the House of Commons want to talk about their plan for Canada. They want to win the argument.<\/p>\n Hehr recalls his father taking him to political debates as a child where he heard important ideas to consider. For him, politics is, of course, about winning power, but he also wants to influence people with the ideas he holds dear.<\/p>\n So, while politicians know their local campaigns are not won and lost in the debates held in school auditoriums and community halls, they, like the people who organize the debates, hold ideal \u2013 almost romantic \u2013 notions of democracy.<\/p>\n Akin to Theodore Roosevelt\u2019s famous \u201cCitizenship in a Republic<\/a>\u201d speech in 1910, local debate participants seemingly believe \u201cthe credit belongs\u201d to the people \u201cactually in the arena,\u201d even if they fail while trying.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Debates-_-CeCillia-_-Vancouver-forum-zoom.png\")
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