With Ontario’s provincial election day just over two weeks away, downtown Toronto candidates vying for seats at Queen’s Park are taking notice of the lack of debates — and pointing the finger of blame at Doug Ford’s snap election call.
TorontoToday reached out to candidates in Davenport, Parkdale—High Park, Spadina—Fort York, Toronto Centre, University—Rosedale and Toronto—Danforth to ask if they had been invited to any debates.
Only candidates for University—Rosedale and Parkdale—High Park told TorontoToday there are upcoming debates in their ridings.
As for Spadina—Fort York, Toronto Centre and Toronto—Danforth, candidates in those ridings told TorontoToday they are not aware of any planned debates. None of the Davenport nominees responded by publication time.
A spokesperson for NDP candidate Jessica Bell, who hopes to reclaim her seat in University—Rosedale, said she will be attending a debate organized by the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU).
Green Party candidate Ignacio Mongrell said he would also attend the debate, which is slated to take place on February 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the U of T Student Commons.
It’s unclear if the Liberal or Progressive Conservative nominees, Pam Jeffery and Sydney Pothakos, respectively, will attend. TorontoToday did not receive a response from Jeffery or the UTSU by publication time.
A PC Party spokesperson did not directly answer questions about whether any of the party’s candidates have been invited to debates or if they will attend. The spokesperson repeated a statement shared with The Trillium last week that “Ontario PC candidates will spend every day of the campaign at people’s doors, speaking to voters about our plan to protect Ontario.”
Parkdale—High Park appears to be an outlier amongst downtown Toronto ridings. The NDP and Green Party candidates, Alexa Gilmour and Anna Gorka, respectively, told TorontoToday there are four debates planned in their riding.
The debates are being organized by the Junction Residents’ Association for February 13 at 7 p.m., the Swansea Area Ratepayers’ Association for February 18 at 7 p.m., the Parkdale Residents’ Association for February 19 at 6:30 p.m. and the Roncesvalles Macdonnell Residents’ Association for Feb 25 at 6 p.m., the candidates said.
Candidates, community organizations frustrated by snap election
Bell’s spokesperson Alex Treadaway said “debate invitations have been surprisingly light” this provincial election, “which is the result of Doug Ford calling this rushed and unnecessary early election.”
Ontario provincial elections are customarily held four years after the previous vote. The last time Ontarians went to the polls was 2022. Ford called this upcoming election a year early, arguing he needed a “strong mandate” from constituents to fight U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
Speculation that Ford would call an early election began in early 2024, but the uncertainty of when the election would come meant organizations that usually plan local debates were left scrambling.
For instance, the North Rosedale Residents’ Association typically helps plan a University—Rosedale debate. The association’s president Catherine Morton told TorontoToday there simply wasn’t enough time.
“Given the extremely short timelines and the current capacity limitations faced by our volunteer board members this month, we do not feel we have enough time or resources to properly plan and implement a local candidate debate,” Morton wrote in an email.
The Danforth East Community Association, which has held debates for federal and municipal elections in the past, is crowdsourcing questions from residents to send to candidates in lieu of a debate. The association said on its Facebook page that “the short election timeline” meant there wasn’t “enough time” to plan a provincial candidates debate.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance is planning a candidates’ debate on the topic of disability issues, which “had to be pulled together with lightning speed,” according to chair David Lepofsky.
The debate is not restricted to candidates from any one riding and will be held on February 19 at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital.
PC Party isn’t being transparent: critics
Lepofsky also criticized the PC Party for not providing emails for its candidates on the party’s website, saying the lack of transparency has made it hard to invite PC candidates to the debate.
A number of MPP-hopefuls also took aim at the PC Party, condemning the early election call and lack of debates.
“These forums are a crucial part of the democratic process, helping voters make informed decisions,” said Green candidate Mongrell. “It’s disappointing that there aren’t more all-candidates’ debates in the riding.”
NDP candidate Kristyn Wong-Tam, who hopes to reclaim her seat in Toronto Centre, slammed the snap election as “wasteful and came as a complete surprise to voters.”
Spadina—Fort York Green Party candidate Patrick Macklem said he reached out to multiple community groups in his riding to see if a debate could be organized, but to no avail.
“I think it's the lack of advance knowledge about the election coming,” Macklem said. “[Organizations] have to pencil in this whole new project on their work agenda… but they're busy.”
Winter weather hobbles candidate outreach
Macklem said it’s been challenging to reach voters in his riding, considering the snap election was called in the winter.
“It's cold, nobody wants to talk on the street,” he said. “It’s very hard to connect with voters while canvasing and knocking on doors.”
Macklem noted the last provincial election had the worst voter turnout in the province’s history. Less than 44 per cent of Ontarians cast a ballot in 2022. Without debates for residents to get to know candidates, Macklem fears voters will stay home on the February 27 election day.
Orlando Wright, the Green Party candidate for Toronto—Danforth, echoed Macklem’s sentiments about voter turnout suffering due to the lack of debates, and also took aim at his PC opponent for not being active enough in the Danforth community.
“It's going to depress turnout even lower, which to anyone who values democracy is a crisis,” he wrote in an email to TorontoToday. “If I'm frustrated by this as a candidate, I can only imagine what politically active citizens are feeling watching ads for candidates that won't even argue their case — or set foot in the neighbourhood more than once.”
Toronto—Danforth has been held by NDP candidate Peter Tabuns for nearly two decades. The PC Party is running Adam Ratkowski, who graduated from the University of Guelph last year.
