The conservative national campaign director told the media on Tuesday that their journalists will not be able to travel with the leader Pierre Poilievre on his campaign and bus plane during the next elections, ending a tradition of journalists of decades that embed with a possible candidate to direct the country.
There is no recent precedent for an important federal party that prohibits reporters, producers, camera operators and travel technicians to travel with a leader during a national electoral campaign.
In the most recent federal campaigns in 2019 and 2021, for example, the main issuers, including CBC/Radio-Canadá, CTV and Global, a series of points of sale and the cable service, The Canadian Press, had journalists with previous conservative leaders Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole throughout the campaign.
These journalists documented the ads of the leaders, asked questions at the news conferences, made connections with the staff members and complied with the voters throughout the campaign as part of an effort to bring electoral stories to the Canadians.
Traveling with the leader said that journalists had access to the events of the party, which are sometimes found in remote areas of the country, or in “news deserts”, where there are few local points of sale after years of writing closures.
In his letter announcing the measure, Jenni Byrne, the national director, said that the reason why the party is eliminating inlays is because “travel costs have increased considerably. At the same time, so has done the ability to access digital and remote access to public events.”
Now that Mark Carny is a liberal leader, Adrienne Arsenault of the national part asks the survey analysts Éric Grenier and Philippe J. Fournier to break down the numbers and where the popularity of Carney faces the conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
Historically, the media have paid the parties so that their journalists travel with the leaders, often at a considerable cost with travel rates in the tens of thousands of dollars.
“With that in mind, there will be no contingent media on a conservative bus or plane, although we welcome and encourage participation in all public events,” said Byrne.
She said the game “would like to ensure that this campaign will be one of the most accessible and transparent campaigns in recent memory.”
The liberals and the PND told the media that will allow journalists to travel with their leaders.
“Why does the team of Pierre Poilievre feel that they need to hide it from the media and Canadians in the next federal elections? It is the wrong election at the wrong time,” said a spokesman for the Liberal Party to CBC News.
Video images, conferences offered
Byrne said that the party will give the media “an early warning of two to three days” of Poilievre events locations so that journalists can be deployed to cover what the leader says and does.
The configuration probably means that they will be mainly local and regional reporters that cover the events and news conferences of Poilievre, not the journalists who cover the federal policy full -time.
Byrne said that the party will also offer “complete conference services” for Poilievre media availability, to allow journalists to ask questions from afar, if necessary.
She said that conservatives will offer a “professional feed” controlled by the Pailievre ads party to give the stations access to the tape if they cannot send a camera to cover them themselves.
Pailievre has had a frantic relationship with some media, including CBC News, and has denounced some of the journalists who make up the parliamentary press gallery.
He has promised to defuse CBC, if chosen.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to soon call an election with the expected vote at the end of April or early May.
Poilievre conservatives led in public opinion surveys for months, but since then they have seen their support support following the tariff threats of US President Donald Trump and 51 state teasing.
