As election season heats up, the Airdrie City View has been conducting interviews with candidates in the Banff-Airdrie riding. Interviews asking candidates four simple questions (Tell us about yourself. Why should voters choose you? What issues are most vital to you? Why are you running?) have been completed with the Banff-Airdrie Liberal, Green Party and Conservative candidates.
On Aug. 8, Joanne Boissonneault was announced as the NDP candidate in the riding during a campaign launch in Jensen Park.
However, despite multiple phone and email requests for an interview with Boissonneault dating back to Aug. 11, no interview was secured as of Sept. 1.
Handlers did offer email responses as an alternative, but a phone call with Boissonneault appeared to be off the table.
“Please submit questions to this email address in point form,” said campaign manager Caleb Cummings in an Aug. 11 email to the Airdrie City View. “Joanne will respond via email. All media inquiries will be handled this way for the time being.”
Further requests for a phone interview with the candidate were not met with responses from campaign staff.
The Airdrie City View is unwilling to conduct an email interview as there is no way to confirm statements in the interview came directly from the candidate.
“I would discourage any journalist from relying on email to conduct interviews with people,” said Terry Field, journalism professor at Mount Royal University. “I think in any case, when you’re talking about politicians or trying to discuss issues with politicians, (with) the complexity of issues, they can’t really be effectively discussed by email, to get clarification (or) to ask for amplification.
“There’s no certainty that the candidate is actually answering the questions.”
According to a press release sent out by campaign staff, Boissonneault is an Airdrie resident who has served as a high school teacher in Alberta schools for the past 10 years, and has served three terms with the Alberta Teachers Association as a district representative.
Doreen Barrie, an adjunct assistant professor in the political science department at the University of Calgary, said lack of media access to candidates spoke to the “sorry state” of Canadian democracy.
“I think that the problem may be that Canadians are just too nice. There’s a fabled niceness and courtesy about Canadians, but I think you can carry that niceness too far,” she said. “In an election campaign, voters need to have an opportunity to question candidates who hope to govern them.
“I think the problem is that if you are seen as a ‘frontrunner’ you want to play it safe. So you can see from the party’s point of view how wise that could be but (it may not be) from the perspective of the electorate,” she said. “The media can say, ‘We understand.’ You can understand it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it right. I think we should be more demanding of our candidates.”
