Pallister won’t take part in Sun-WCG debate

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This article was published 02/03/2016 (3746 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba has announced which debates leader Brian Pallister will attend leading up to the provincial election — and only one Brandon event made the cut.

Pallister will attend the Brandon Chamber of Commerce debate on April 7, as will NDP Leader Greg Selinger and Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari. It was confirmed this week that Pallister will not attend a debate later that same day, hosted by The Brandon Sun and Westman Communications Group.

“It’s always a balancing act with campaigns in terms of how many debates we do, and we balance that with tour plans,” said PC campaign spokesman Michael Richards. “We have a very aggressive tour plan involving travelling thousands of kilometres, three different telephone town halls, and we’re doing five leaders debates, so unfortunately we just couldn’t make the schedule work.”

In addition to the Brandon chamber debate, Richards said Pallister will attend a CJOB debate on March 14, a TV consortium debate on April 12 and a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce debate on April 14.Richards pointed out Pallister attended the first debate of the pre-election campaign in Brandon last November at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities convention.

“We’ve tried to provide maximum notice to the organizations that are sponsoring these debates and … with those we couldn’t accommodate, we’re proposing alternative PCP members who can participate, where appropriate,” Richards said.

Brandon Chamber of Commerce president Jordan Ludwig is pleased that all three leaders will attend the organization’s debate.

“I think it’s an important part of the election process to have candidates debate the issues in front their constituents,” he said. “We’re pleased to see them coming out and pleased to see the chamber is going to be able to get their business issues in front of the candidates.”

The debate being organized by The Brandon Sun and WCG will still go on, as both Selinger and Bokhari have confirmed their attendance.

“The Manitoba Liberal Party and Rana Bokhari take Westman very seriously and will be attending the debate even if PC Leader Brian Pallister does not,” Mike Brown, director of communications with Manitoba Liberal Party, said via email.

The debate will be broadcast live on CKLQ radio and WCGtv. The Brandon Sun publisher Eric Lawson said he is glad to see the chamber debate going ahead as planned, and is still hopeful that all three leaders will attend the evening debate as well.

“Our debate will cover all aspects of public policy that affect Westman, will be free to the public, will be in the evening when the public can attend, and will be broadcast and extensively reported in print,” Lawson said. “That means that a broad range of issues will be discussed, reflecting the interests of a broad range of citizens.

“The event is booked and ready to go, the invitations will remain open until the debate itself, and we continue to hope that all three leaders will come and talk to the public.”

CKLQ/Star FM general manager Cam Clark echoed Lawson’s sentiments.

“Personally, I am excited that all three party leaders will be in our area to participate in the lunchtime debate at the Brandon Chamber of Commerce. However, as you would expect the nature of those questions will be more business specific, where as an open and free public debate on that same date would, in my mind, be an efficient use of the leaders time,” Clark said.

“While we have the commitment of the leaders of both the premier of Manitoba and the leader of the Liberal party, we will continue to hold a spot to the leader of the Progressive Conservative party.”

Pallister also declined an invitation to attend a debate hosted by the Winnipeg Free Press and the University of Winnipeg on April 4.

“I am disappointed the Progressive Conservatives voted against the debate the province’s largest newspaper has organized,” said Winnipeg Free Press editor Paul Samyn. “But there is still time for them to reconsider and I hope they will change their mind and join the NDP and Liberal leaders at the forum we will live stream.”

The NDP campaign team had Selinger respond to The Brandon Sun’s request on the debate topic. The NDP leader said he’s trying to go attend as many debates as possible.

“Simply, it’s an opportunity for the political leaders to put their policy choices forward for Manitobans and give people a chance to understand them and what a difference it will make in their lives,” Selinger said. “I think it’s important that we’re out there listening and talking to people and showing what we’re planning to do.”

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» For an editorial on the provincial election debates, turn to Page A7.