No recent precedent for a major party barring reporters from accompanying campaign

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.