Christy Clark is being accused of avoiding tough questions from her opponent in a Vancouver byelection after refusing to commit to an all-candidates debate.
David Eby, Clark's NDP adversary in the May 11 Point Grey byelection, believes that Clark is avoiding him. She took time to attend a Q and A session with private school students Thursday, but hasn't agreed to any debates with Eby.
"If she wants to take questions from junior high students, that's cool, but she should also come down to the community and talk to some of the community members at an all-candidates debate or participate in a real grown-up debate," Eby said.
He says that by avoiding a debate with him, Clark is taking her would-be constituents in Point Grey for granted. He's accepted several invitations to debate the premier, but Clark is blaming a busy schedule for her reluctance to do the same.
"The issue with being the premier and running in a byelection is that you also have to run the province at the same time," Clark said.
"We're not absolutely certain that we're able to do [a debate] but if we can, we're certainly working on it."
The premier does have a lot on her plate, including the government's return to the legislature next week.
But Clark is not an MLA and doesn't have a seat. She called the byelection to fix that problem, pointing out that she has a mandate from the party but not from the people of B.C.
Clark also shied away from television cameras this week.
West Point Grey Academy had invited CTV News to attend its Q and A session with Clark. The school later called to say Clark's office didn't want the media there.
But her representatives say that the request to keep a news camera out of the gymnasium was simply a miscommunication between campaign staff and the school.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Rob Brown
