For decades, it has been a longstanding election tradition for candidates to share their responses and views on important questions asked by the local news team in the community.
Ahead of the upcoming federal election on April 28, Black Press Media was able to publish profiles on a majority of Greater Victoria candidates, including in this week's print edition and online.
As of Monday, April 14, only two of the four Greater Victoria Conservative canddiates – Jeff Kibble and Cathie Ounsted – had agreed to interviews with Black Press Media reporters.
A Black Press Media reporter interviewed Kibble, the Conservative candidate for the Cowichan-Malahat-Langford riding, in person on the campaign trail on Friday, April 11. He said he did not respond sooner because his campaign is "dealing with multiple requests and are doing our best – and I am speaking to the media. But my overriding guidance to my team is this: our primary goal is to always leave a positive impression and knock on as many doors as possible, so we can meet people and listen to what they want, their concerns."
Questions were emailed March 31 to candidates in the four Greater Victoria ridings – Victoria, Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, Saanich-Gulf Islands and Cowichan-Malahat-Langford. They were given until April 7 to submit responses.
Despite numerous calls and emails to candidates and their campaign offices, Saanich-Gulf Island candidate Ounsted was the only Conservative candidate to respond. All local candidates from the other major parties responded to the questions.
