Former Ontario premier, David Peterson, was on LeDrew Live last night. Peterson ran the province from 1985 until 1990. He said the campaigns back in the '80s were different from today, recalling that all campaigns "really grind you down."
He said campaigns today are "more negative" and the attacks "more personal." Peterson also pointed out that in the '80s he was covered by up to 50 journalists.
The pressure of the constant scrutiny was more intense in his day whereas today there are only about ten reporters or so travelling with each leader. Sure, other reporters show up at local events, but those reporters don't have a sense of the whole campaign. Their questions are about local issues.
Most of those reporters don't know if the leader's statement on any given day is consistent with what he or she said a week ago in a different part of the province.
A provincial campaign also differs significantly from a federal election campaign. In a federal campaign virtually every event is available and carried live by news channels. In this election each leader has a media availability most mornings. But frequently there is no live TV coverage of the event.
In a federal campaign each party is prepped and ready to spend the mornings reacting on TV to these early statements. It creates a buzz that isn't replicated in this campaign.
The simple fact is that the leaders are getting less media exposure than in a federal campaign. This morning the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP agreed to take part in a leaders' debate in Thunder Bay on Friday September 23rd.
The debate is hosted by the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association and is scheduled to be held at 11:00 a.m. There's no word yet if that debate will be made available for TV broadcast.
The Liberals are not yet saying if they will take part. However, this could be an indication -- this morning in Ottawa Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty said "I'm looking forward to a debate that's been scheduled in a format that gets to all Ontarians."
It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. McGuinty is doing only two or three events a day and he will be campaigning in the north tomorrow. I bet the debate question will be all the media in the north will want to talk about.
The Liberal reluctance is already fodder for lots of Twitter action from Tory and NDP partisans. One Liberal is betting McGuinty will back down and show up – so am I. Other observers say the premier has nothing to gain from the Thunder Bay debate and he will not show up.
A call this morning to the Liberals to get the thinking on the Liberal reasoning for not taking part hasn't been returned – yet.
If the Thunder Bay debate happens it will be interesting to see how the leaders do. That Thunder Bay debate is only four days before the main event the big debate in Toronto. Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak and the NDPs Andrea Horwath have not been in a TV leaders' debate.
It is probably good for both to have a preview before the full main channel broadcast on September 27th.
It also can't hurt Horwath and the NDP. First, the NDP are strong in the north and second, for the past month the NDP has been urging the other two parties to add debates. Getting this one would show that lobbying has been heard by the Liberals and Tories and has to give Horwath a boost.
And remember Andrea Horwath will take part in a town hall tomorrow on LeDrew Live at 9 on CP24. We've also invited McGuinty and Hudak to take part in town halls with Stephen LeDrew - still waiting to hear back from those campaigns
