November 18, 2016
The Conservative Party’s Leadership Election Organizing Committee has announced the next debate moderator and the next host city for the official leadership debates.
The debate moderator for the next debate on December 6th in Moncton, New Brunswick, will be Monica Barley.
Monica was raised in rural New Brunswick, and has been a prominent lawyer in the Moncton area for more than a decade, as well as a dedicated volunteer to many initiatives in New Brunswick. Most recently she was also a candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.
“Moncton will be our first bilingual debate, and we’re incredibly fortunate to have Monica agree to moderate it,” said Daniel Nowlan, chair of the Leadership Election Organizing Committee. “She brings a wealth of experience from both her ventures in the private and public sector, and I’m confident she will help make our Moncton debate as successful as our Saskatoon debate.”
The Moncton debate will cover two themes – Employment, Infrastructure, and Labour, and Family, Children and, Health.
The Leadership Election Organizing Committee also announced the location of the third Leadership debate and will be on January 17th, 2017 in Quebec City, Quebec. This debate will be a French debate with tickets going on sale November 24th.
“Quebec City is a great fit for our French language debate. Our members there have shown enthusiasm to hold this third debate in our series, and the Leadership Election Organizing Committee is pleased to be able to have Quebec City play host to our first debate of the New Year,” said Nowlan. “Choosing the next Conservative leader will be an important part of Canada’s future, and we’re pleased to provide Conservatives, and all Canadians, the opportunity to inform their choice with these debates.”
All debates will be streamed live online for Conservative members and all Canadians to see.
There will be five party sanctioned debates total that all official leadership candidates will be expected to attend. The remaining debates, their formats, exact locations, and further timing details will be announced at a later date.
All debates will be open for Conservative Party members to attend.
The Conservative Party Leadership election will be on May 27th, 2017, and only current members of the Conservative Party of Canada will be eligible to vote. To ensure eligibility, members and those interested in becoming members are encouraged to call membership services at 1-866-808-8407 or visit conservative.ca.
The rules for the Conservative Party’s leadership election can be found online, here.
