Another all-candidates meeting in Milton has been called off due to a lack of participation from candidates, leaving voters with fewer opportunities to hear directly from those seeking to represent them at a public forum.
Event organizer Elaine Reid, president of CFUW Milton and District, confirmed that only Liberal candidate Kristina Tesser Derksen agreed to take part. Efforts to get a response from the NDP's Katherine Cirlincione and John Spina of the New Blue Party were unsuccessful, while Green candidate Susan Doyle declined.
Reid said PC candidate Zee Hamid has not responded to multiple outreach attempts. Hamid said he did try calling and texted fellow CFUW member Cindy Lunau. However, the text conversation offered no clear decision about his meeting participation.
Reid called the situation unprecedented.
“This is unusual,” Reid told MiltonToday in a phone interview. “This sort of thing has never happened before.”
CFUW has hosted election forums for years, which typically see strong candidate and public turnout. The trend of some candidates avoiding public forums, she believes, is part of a broader shift.
“This seems to be the way we're going with things,” she said. ”My understanding, anecdotally, is that the Conservative Party — both federally and provincially — is being instructed not to engage in public forums, and I find that incredibly disappointing.”
Reid noted that during last year’s byelection, Hamid initially agreed to attend CFUW’s forum but withdrew at the last minute, although he participated in other election debates.
The CFUW-organized forum was scheduled for Feb. 18. A separate all-candidates event in Campbellville was also cancelled earlier this week due to lack of confirmed participants.
“Those were the only two forums in which the public were able to directly connect with all of the candidates in an unbiased way. So it is very disappointing,” said Reid.
With the debate scrapped, CFUW is refining its candidate engagement approach. The organization plans to post key voter questions on social media in the coming days, encouraging residents to press candidates for answers when they come knocking.
“We do still feel a sense of responsibility to encourage voters to engage,” Reid said.
She stressed the importance of debates in local elections.
“It’s an opportunity for people to pose specific questions,” she said. “Town halls are important in local politics. They're very important.”