Third official Conservative party leadership debate happening Aug. 3

The third official debate of the Conservative party leadership race has been scheduled for Aug. 3 in Ottawa, with plans to see the participating contenders square off in both English and French.

Party spokesperson Yaroslav Baran confirmed the details to CTV News on Friday, pledging more information would be released as the logistics and format of the event are finalized.

As was the case with the previous English-language debate May 11 in Edmonton and the French-language debate in Quebec on May 25, the party is planning for media scrums with the participating candidates, following the debate.

After surveying Conservative party members, the Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) announced Thursday that it would be holding a third official leadership debate next month.

The potential for a third showdown was left open by the party when it announced the initial debates, but the decision to go ahead with the debate now—with just weeks to go before all ballots have to be submitted—has been met with resistance from two of the five remaining candidates.

Not long after the debate was announced, perceived leadership election frontrunner Pierre Poilievre's campaign said he wouldn't be participating, slamming the party for the structure of the initial debates and saying that now with membership sales closed, Poilievre's focus is on getting out the vote.

Leslyn Lewis has also expressed reservations about the "hastily scheduled" third debate, saying in a statement on Thursday that the initial events gave the candidates "ample opportunity" to present their visions for Canada.

"I have planned out an extremely packed schedule in order to maximize the amount of Conservative members I can meet face-to-face and hear from. I am not convinced that a high-level debate will cover new ground, or be watched by many members," Lewis said.

According to the rules of the party's leadership race, participation in LEOC-organized debates is mandatory, and failure to attend will result in "an automatic $50,000 penalty…which shall be applied to the compliance deposit of the leadership candidate immediately."

Candidates Jean Charest, Roman Baber, and Scott Aitchison have all expressed interest in seeing the party pull together another debate before the end of the months-long campaign comes to a close when a winner is announced on Sept. 10 in Ottawa.

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"This leadership race is a significant moment in the Conservative Party of Canada's history," said Charest's campaign in a statement reacting to the news of Poilievre skipping the upcoming debate. "To refrain from a debate is disrespectful to party leadership and its 675,000 members."

The decision to hold an additional debate comes on the heels of the party being embroiled in controversy surrounding the decision to disqualify Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown from the race, citing “serious allegations of wrongdoing” that they were referring to federal elections authorities.

Defending the decision to hold another debate now, Conservative Party President Rob Batherson told CTV News Channel on Thursday that "plenty" of notice was given to those in the running, and the party thinks doing so is in the interest of its members.

He also confirmed that the party intends to uphold the rules requiring any candidates who don't participate to face a steep sanction.

"Individual campaigns will have to make decisions as to whether they want to follow the rules. I think we've seen over the last couple of weeks that the Conservative Party of Canada isn't reluctant to make difficult decisions around potential rule breaking by leadership candidates," Batherson said.

According to Batherson, in soliciting membership interest in a third debate, the party fundraised $25,000 to help cover the cost of the event.

"We encourage all five leadership candidates to participate. Our members want to see a third debate," Batherson said, adding that it'll give undecided members another opportunity to hear from the leadership hopefuls before filling in and submitting their ballots, which are due back to the party no later than Sept. 6.

"What we see for the third debate is something that is less elaborate, more focused on the candidates making their case to Conservative party members," Batherson said. "This is a chance for leadership candidates on the same stage, to make their final pitch to members equally."