In every riding we reported on—from Taiaiako’n–Parkdale–High Park to Toronto–St. Paul’s to Bowmanville–Oshawa North to across Peel—the pattern has been the same. Most Liberal and NDP candidates have been willing to sit and answer questions. Every Conservative candidate has ignored or declined our requests for interviews.
To be clear, this issue isn’t specific to The Local. Toronto–St. Paul’s candidate Don Stewart didn’t just ignore us, he turned down The Toronto Star and National Post. Across ridings, and across media outlets—from the CBC to Global News to sympathetic conservative newspapers like the National Post—candidates from the Conservative Party are simply refusing to talk with the press.
This party is so clearly presenting a facade that they can’t even afford to talk to the press for the risk of poking a hole. This also means that the party leadership has ironclad grip on its MPs and therefore when in government the decisions really come down to a tiny circle of people with PP at the helm. This is how it was when Harper was our PM too. It was scary even back in 2012.