A new guide from Queen’s University’s School of Policy Studies is proposing changes to how municipal election debates are organized. The guide aims to make information about candidates more accessible to Kingston voters.
Better Debates Kingston: A Guide to Help Meet Voters’ Needs was developed by Director of the Centre for International and Defence Policy, Michael Murphy, and Professor in the Department of Political Studies Jonathan Rose. It recommends a debate model that includes crowdsourced questions from residents, candidate responses, and opportunities for one-on-one discussion.
The guide proposes a three-part approach: collecting residents’ concerns before a debate, refining those submissions into a set of questions, and using what it calls an “information and contrast” mode. Residents who can’t attend in person would still be able to submit questions or topics, with the most frequently raised issues generally prioritized by organizers.
During the debate, each candidate would first answer the same questions individually before taking part in one-on-one exchanges, where candidates can question and respond to each other. The guide also recommends randomly determining speaking order and using neutral moderators and organizers to make sure candidates have equal access to information.
In an interview with The Journal, Murphy said the project grew out of concerns about declining municipal voter turnout and unequal access to democratic participation.
According to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, average voter turnout across the province was 32.9 per cent in 2022, a decline from 38.3 per cent in 2018. In 2022, Kingston sat below the average at 31.12 per cent.
“One of my motivating factors to get involved in questions of how to make democracy work better is not only to help everyone participate, in general, but also to identify how democracy is becoming inaccessible,” he said.
One of the guide’s key recommendations is to collect questions from residents before a debate takes place. Murphy said this approach could address some of the barriers that prevent people from attending election events in person.
“People have busy lives, and some people have additional caregiving or employment responsibilities,” he said. “The crowdsourcing of questions ahead of time is just one of those really simple, elegant opportunities to make debates more inclusive.”
Murphy also cited the changing information landscape as a reason to reconsider how voters access information during elections.
“In the contested information environment that we’re living in today with misinformation, disinformation, and AI-generated slop all over social media, it’s becoming increasingly important to make sure that we have robust sources of good information out there,” he said.
Many municipalities do not hold formal debates, like those held during provincial and federal elections, due to lack of resources. While local groups may host town halls, candidate meet‑and‑greets, and similar events, they may not have resources to replicate organized debates.
The guide is intended to provide a model that community organizations can use without placing additional strain on already limited budgets.
Murphy said the guide has already been discussed with some community organizations ahead of the next municipal election.
The Coalition of Kingston Communities, which coordinates all-candidate meetings across Kingston’s districts, has told Murphy that its format for this election has already been established and raised concerns about crowdsourcing questions potentially limiting opportunities for people attending a debate to ask questions directly.
“I think probably the best solution in the long run is to have a number of different points of engagement between voters and the people who want to represent them,” Murphy said.
Tags
2026 municipal elections, Centre for International and Defence Policy, debate, School of Policy Studies
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