In one week, Vancouver-Point Grey voters will decide if Christy Clark deserves a seat in the legislature, but they'll have to make their choice without seeing the premier debate her opponents.

Advanced polls for the May 11 byelection opened on Wednesday, and the NDP opened fire on Clark, taking issue with her refusal to participate in any public debates with rival David Eby.

"I think it's immensely disrespectful of the people. It's taking them for granted," New Democrat leader Adrian Dix said.

Parents at Bayview elementary organized an all-candidates debate for Wednesday night, but Clark will be staying away once again.

Instead, the premier will be on the phone at her campaign office. Her team says that a call will go out to every resident in the riding and people will have an hour to ask pre-screened questions.

Eby says the timing is unfortunate.

"This is a parent advisory council -- they don't have a lot of resources -- and here's the premier advertising that's she's going to do a telephone call at the exact same time," he said.

"If you want to take a phone call from the premier you've got to skip the all-candidates meeting, and so for a lot of people that's very offensive to them."

The Bayview parent advisory committee is not impressed, either.

"We need to know more about what our options are and who we should be voting in," PAC member Hilary Feldman told CTV News.

Clark has claimed that she's too busy to attend debates, but she took a different approach in interviews Wednesday.

"What you'll hear in a debate is what the politicians think is important. What you hear when you go door-to-door or when you talk to them in a telephone town hall, phoning them at their home, is you find out what people think is important," she said outside the legislature.

The campaign tactic of skipping debates is a familiar one for B.C. During the recent federal election campaign, several Conservative candidates refused to show up to all-candidates meetings.

Former premier and Vancouver-Point Grey MLA Gordon Campbell was known for doing the same.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Rob Brown