The Conservative national campaign director told media outlets Tuesday their journalists won’t be allowed to travel with leader Pierre Poilievre on his campaign plane and bus during the upcoming election, ending a decades-old tradition of reporters embedding with a prospective candidate to lead the country.
There is no recent precedent for a major federal party barring reporters, producers, camera operators and broadcast technicians from travelling with a leader during a national election campaign.
In the most recent federal campaigns in 2019 and 2021, for example, major broadcasters, including CBC/Radio-Canada, CTV and Global, a number of print outlets and the wire service, The Canadian Press, had journalists with past Conservative leaders Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole throughout the campaign.
Those journalists documented the leaders’ announcements, asked questions at news conferences, made connections with staff members and met voters along the campaign trail as part of an effort to bring election stories to Canadians.
Travelling with the leader ensured journalists had ready access to the party’s events, which are sometimes in remote areas of the country, or in “news deserts,” where there are few local outlets after years of newsroom closures.
In her letter announcing the move, Jenni Byrne, the national director, said the reason the party is doing away with the embeds is because “costs for travel have risen considerably. At the same time, so has the capacity for digital and remote access to public events.”
Media outlets have historically paid the parties to have their journalists travel with the leaders, often at a considerable cost with travel fees in the tens of thousands of dollars.
“With that in mind, there will be no media contingent on a Conservative bus or plane, though we welcome and encourage participation at all public events,” Byrne said.
She said the party would “like to assure you that this campaign will be one of the most accessible and transparent campaigns in recent memory.”
The Liberals and NDP told media outlets they will allow journalists to travel with their leaders.
“Why does Pierre Poilievre’s team feel like they need to hide him from the media and Canadians in the next federal election? He’s the wrong choice at the wrong time,” a Liberal Party spokesperson told CBC News.
Video footage, conferencing offered
Byrne said the party will give media outlets “a two-to-three-day advance notice” of Poilievre’s event locations so that journalists can be deployed to cover what the leader says and does.
The setup likely means it will be mostly local and regional reporters covering Poilievre’s events and news conferences, not the journalists who cover federal politics full time.
Byrne said the party will also offer “full conferencing services” for Poilievre’s media availabilities, to allow reporters to ask questions from afar, if necessary.
She said the Conservatives will offer a party-controlled “professional-grade feed” of Poilievre’s announcements to give broadcasters access to tape if they can’t send a camera to cover it themselves.
Poilievre has had a fractious relationship with some media outlets, including CBC News, and has denounced some of the journalists that make up the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
He has vowed to defund CBC, if elected.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to call an election soon with the vote expected in late April or early May.
Poilievre’s Conservatives led in public opinion polls for months but have since seen their support slump in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and 51st state taunts.
