The City of Toronto has strict policies for city-funded agencies hosting political events during the campaign period. Any debates or other political events hosted by a city-funded agency must extend invitations to all candidates for a given office, to avoid giving unfair advantage to any candidate. The coalition’s initial interpretation of the rules was that all front-running candidates must receive an invitation, and it was upon this understanding that the coalition organized the debate. As the event approached, the coalition learned that in order for the debate to comply with City of Toronto Community Grants Policy, all candidates for mayor must be invited to speak at the debate. While many other debates did not follow this format, the work each coalition member does in Toronto is too important to risk future city funding by failing to comply with the policy. The 2014 mayoral race in Toronto attracted a whopping 65 candidates. Since most candidates do not receive much media coverage, many were thrilled at the opportunity to participate in our debate – far too many for the discussion to be manageable for any moderator, or to tackle the issues we sought to address with any degree of detail or substance within a two-hour timeframe. To compound this problem, the three front-running candidates were unwilling to participate in a debate that involved such a large number of candidates. All three declined to participate once they learned we had invited all candidates.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 01:05:52 +0000
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