The future of "demcoracy" - don't talk to the public

Tory candidates told to avoid debates, media during campaign

Conservatives running in the federal election have been advised not to attend all-candidates’ meetings or speak to reporters during the campaign, a party source says

STAR FILE PHOTO   Reporters are finding it almost impossible to reach Joe Daniel, the Conservative MP for Don Valley East, who is running in the new riding of Don Valley North.

Toronto Star,

26 November, 2014

Conservatives running in the federal election have been advised not to attend all-candidates’ meetings or speak to reporters during the campaign, a party source says.

A Conservative insider said Wednesday that most of Stephen Harper’s flag-bearers have “been told no debates and no media.”

The informal edict appears to affect Tory candidates across the country, which explains why so many press interviews are being rebuffed.

“They’re getting pulled out of everything,” the source said, noting even some experienced cabinet ministers are being instructed to avoid candidates’ forums before the Oct. 19 election.

Locally, reporters are finding it almost impossible to reach Joe Daniel, the Conservative MP for Don Valley East, who is running in the new riding of Don Valley North.

“He has his own priorities. Maybe the media might not be his priority as of today but in coming weeks, yes,” said a volunteer at Daniel’s office, who refused to identify himself, after chiding a Star reporter for calling three times to speak to the candidate or a media contact.

“Just give him time. He will approach you,” said the volunteer

“We don’t go by your deadlines, sir. We go by our deadlines and you don’t happen to accept that.”

Daniel’s campaign told the Ottawa Citizen last week the backbencher wouldn’t be doing any interviews until after the election.

In an email, Conservative spokeswoman Meagan Murdoch said: “Candidates are of course encouraged to talk to voters in their ridings about Prime Minister Harper’s low-tax plan to create jobs and economic growth.”

Andrew MacDougall, Harper’s director of communications from 2012 to 2013, said it’s a better use of Tory candidates’ time to be knocking on doors and talking to voters.

“The number one job of a candidate is to meet voters and identify votes,” MacDougall said Wednesday from London, England.

“Going to an all-candidates’ debate — I think people romanticize the kind of democratic notion of that experience. But it’s also a highly partisan experience where people pack the rooms and I don’t think Conservatives in particular think there are a lot of persuadables there,” he said.

“The people who show up to these things are committed one way or another and are not open to persuasion, (whereas) somebody at the doorstep, with a candidate or a candidate’s canvassing team, would be open to that.”

As for dealing with the media, MacDougall said “it’s much more effective to get your message to a voter on their doorstep than through a filter.”

“Take 45 minutes where you were going to do interviews and knock on 100 doors and find another 30 people who were going to vote for you,” he said.

That voter-focused strategy, noted MacDougall, has worked successfully for the Conservatives in the 2006, 2008 and 2011 elections.

“They know who votes for them, know why they vote for them, and pull them to vote when the time comes. I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that.”

Star columnist Tim Harper recently criss-crossed Canada, encountering roadblocks when trying to reach Conservative candidates.

In Edmonton-Mill Woods, Tim Uppal’s campaign told him the minister of state for multiculturalism was too busy to meet even though Harper first requested time with Uppal in June, before the election had been called.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, a one-time Progressive Conservative staffer on Parliament Hill and later a Liberal cabinet minister at Queen’s Park, had hoped to chat with nine area Conservative candidates Tuesday about the city’s priorities, but they declined the invitation at the last minute.

In a tweet later Tuesday, Watson said “just had a call from @PierrePoilievre - pleased that he has personally committed to attend (with colleagues) a briefing in the next 2 weeks.” Poilievre, the minister of employment and social development, is the Conservative candidate for Nepean-Carleton