Liberals charge admission fee for debates

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This article was published 15/08/2017 (2438 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It will cost you $5 to watch the Liberal provincial leadership candidates debate each other.

The Manitoba Liberals are charging an admission fee to attend debates in the campaign to elect a new leader Oct. 21 —  a fee that local pundits say is the first they can recall for a political rally.

The party’s website says there will be a $5 admission charge for a Sept. 6 debate at the Gaynor Family Library in Selkirk. There was a similar fee Aug. 1 at the West End Cultural Centre.

Another Winnipeg debate will be held in mid-September — date and location to be determined — with no mention yet of an admission charge.

And there is no mention of having to pay to get in to a picnic Sept. 10 in St. Vital Park and a barbecue at Assiniboine Park Sept. 11, which candidates will attend.

 

Liberal Party officials did not respond to an interview request Wednesday, but MLA and candidate Jon Gerrard said late Wednesday evening that he wants the admission fee reviewed. Nevertheless, said Gerrard, debates carry a cost.

“It is a practice which is definitely worth reviewing.  My preference would be for these forums to be free, but there are expenses incurred to hold them and $5 helps with the cost,” Gerrard said.

However, other parties generally do not pass on such costs to the public.

MLA and candidate Cindy Lamoureux said, without directly addressing the $5 charge, “I have trust in the convention committee to run the leadership convention believing that they will go out of their way to ensure that Liberals are provided the opportunity to participate, and most importantly, to vote in a fair way.”

Candidate Dougald Lamont’s campaign has yet to comment.

“I’ve never heard of it before,” Chris Adams, a political scientist at St. Paul’s College, said Wednesday.

Adams didn’t consider the admission charge a deterrent to the public, but the Manitoba Liberals certainly need the cash, he said.

“The party does not have high financial resources,” which was evident in the 2016 election campaign, he said.

“It’s not a high threshold. I’m thinking that it might be that it shows a level of commitment” from anyone who shows up, Adams said in an interview. 

“It’s a way to screen people who are just there out of curiosity. An open meeting sometimes attracts people who want to make noise about whatever soap box they’re standing on,” he said.

“That’s a fair response,” agreed University of Winnipeg Prof. Shannon Sampert, director and editor of The Evidence Network.

Some Liberals felt that former leader Rana Bokhari signed up members at the last leadership convention, who subsequently didn’t stick around for the provincial election campaign, Sampert said. Charging a fee “may be a way to curtail johnny-come-latelies,” she said.

NDP leadership candidate Steve Ashton scoffed Wednesday when he heard the Liberals are charging admission.

“I can’t imagine that — I’m just amazed at that,” said Ashton, who is running against MLA Wab Kinew for NDP leadership. 

“New Democrats have a tradition of passing the hat,” but encourage people to check them out for free, he said.

The Liberal candidates will be at a Sept. 21 Laurier Club luncheon, which the party is billing as a “contestant showcase for all contestants,” but the party has not yet announced how and when they will address the convention.

The NDP has no further debates scheduled — Kinew and Ashton will speak individually at the convention.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca