Why are the Conservatives hiding Deborah Meredith?

With the Bytown budget and (alleged) bribery brouhaha you may have forgotten that there are four by-elections March 17^th. It seems Deborah Meredith may have forgotten too, as the Conservative candidate in Vancouver-Quadra seems to have been skipping a lot of all-candidates meeting lately.

I wrote last week how Deborah Meredith seems to be boycotting the national media, which really isn't a new campaign strategy for the CPC:

Conservative candidate Deborah Meredith isn't in Ottawa yet but she's already refusing requests for interviews.

Her campaign manager, Dan Tidball, said Meredith wanted to "focus'' on the local media "and you're the national media.''

He said her decision to not be interviewed was arrived at after a discussion among "people above me.''

Now we learn via Sean Holman at Public Eye Online that its not only the national media that Deborah Meredith is ignoring, it's also her own potential constituents.

Reports Sean:

Last month, The Georgia Straight's Carlito Pablo reported Vancouver-Quadra federal Conservative by-election candidate Deborah Meredith "decided not to participate" in a debate being organized by Engineers Without Borders Canada. And now Public Eye has learned she's skipping another chance to face off against her opponents. In an interview, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting spokesperson Jim Thompson said he's been told Ms. Meredith won't be showing up for their all-candidate debate because it's a "busy time."

And that's not all:

In an interview with Public Eye, Voters Taking Action of Climate Change director Kevin Washbrook confirmed Ms. Meredith won't be showing up for their global warming town hall meeting - scheduled to take place this Thursday at the Saint James Community Square.

I know this is a busy time and all, but that's at least three skiped all-candidates meetings, that we know of. Deborah Meredith works at UBC, so it's not like she'd have had far to go. And as for the global warming one, you don't need much prep time when every answer is going to be “it's a myth.” So surely she could find some time in her busy schedule.

I wonder if the decision to skip all these all-candidates meetings, like the decision to boycott the national media, was also made by “people above” her? We could ask Deborah Meredith ...if she ever shows up at an all-candidates meeting.

By the way, if you're in Vancouver-Quadra and you'd like to actually meet one of your by-election candidates, Liberal candidate Joyce Murray will be at both all-candidates meetings. You can get the times and places on her events page. Couldn't find an events page on Deborah's. She will sell you a Conservative toque though.

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