The B.C. Liberals have chosen not to send candidates to several debates on important public issues preceding the May 12 provincial election.

Joyce Jones, community cochair of the B.C. Health Coalition, told the Straight in a phone interview that the B.C. Liberals will not be sending a candidate to a health-care debate at the 411 Seniors Centre in downtown Vancouver on Tuesday (May 5). The debate is open to the public and begins at 1 p.m.

"We'll leave a vacant chair at the table," Jones said. "Who knows? Maybe someone will turn up when they know how bad a move it is not to turn up to a seniors' [event] in the afternoon."

In an e-mail to coalition coordinator Lew McDonald, B.C. Liberal communications officer Alexa Young wrote that the party "must unfortunately decline to participate".

"As you can imagine, the number of requests for public appearances compared to the number of days of an election simply does not allow our candidates to schedule all requests," Young wrote.

Jones said she's "appalled" that the Liberals won't appear to discuss seniors' issues. "How many candidates are there down here [Metro Vancouver]? About 20? And nobody's got time?" she said. "It sounds a little odd to me."

On April 27 of this year, the NDP issued a news release claiming that the B.C. Liberals had backed out of the Greater Victoria Seniors' candidates meeting the previous day just an hour before the event began.

On April 21, the B.C. Teachers' Federation issued a news release stating that the B.C. Liberals didn't offer a single candidate to participate in a forum to discuss the party's platform on the school system.

Mel Lehan, the NDP candidate in Vancouver–Point Grey, recently told the Straight that Premier Gordon Campbell hasn't participated in any candidates debates in the constituency in 2005 or 2009, even though he is the local MLA.