Two of the leading Conservative leadership candidates will not take part in the party’s final official debate.
Conservative officials have confirmed that Pierre Poilievre and Leslyn Lewis have told party officials they will not attend the Aug. 3 debate in Ottawa.
That leaves Jean Charest, Roman Baber and Scott Aitchison to do it for 90 minutes on Wednesday at 6pm ET.
Under party rules, both Poilievre and Lewis must now pay an automatic penalty of $50,000 for skipping an official debate. Both had already made it known that they were unhappy with the decision to hold a third debate.
Poilievre senior adviser Jenni Byrne released a statement last week saying the party’s first official debate in Edmonton was “widely recognized as an embarrassment” and blaming the party for its choice of moderator and format.
Byrne wrote that since the time to sign up new members is over, Poilievre must be up and running “without interruption” for members to fill out their ballots. She mocked Charest, saying she needed Poilievre’s participation in the debate to attract an audience.
Lewis, meanwhile, publicly shared a letter he had sent to the Conservative steering committee. In it, Lewis claimed that he had not received any information about the format of the debate and that he had told the party that he would not be available on the date set for the event.
He asked the committee if the debate would address “the usual questions” about pipelines and budgets, or instead deal with issues he said he hears every day from conservatives, such as calls for an inquiry into the response to the Canada’s pandemic and concerns about the World Economic Forum. .
An open letter to LEOC. pic.twitter.com/sbeBMJjRhM
—@LeslynLewis
The Conservative Party held an online poll asking its members to weigh in on whether a third debate was warranted. He said there was an “overwhelming consensus” in favor of the debate, which he sees as a “key opportunity” to help members decide who should lead the party.
The party began sending classified ballots to members earlier this month and roughly 80,000 have already been returned, a party spokesman said.
Patrick Brown’s name appears on that ballot, despite his disqualification by officials on July 5 over what the party’s steering committee called “serious allegations of impropriety” related to campaign finance.
Charest suggests Poilievre deserves some ‘freedom’
Charest’s campaign used the upcoming debate as an opportunity to mock Poilievre.
Let Pierre debate. It’s time to pic.twitter.com/U5WzVeemTN
—@JeanCharest_
In the hours before the party confirmed the Carleton MP would not be participating in the debate, Charest’s campaign posted a video online with the caption “It’s time to #FreePierre,” apparently a riff on the campaign theme of Poilievre, freedom.
Conservatives have until September 6th at 5pm ET to send in the envelope containing their ballots. The winner will be announced on September 10.