Before last night's Independent Press Gallery Conservative (IPG) leadership debate in Toronto, candidate Dr. Leslyn Lewis had to withdraw due to medical issues, later clarifying that her ongoing ear infection was “serious” and was “strongly advised” to stay away from public events.

Within hours, Peter MacKay announced that he too would skip the debate in solidarity, suggesting that the newly formed IPG reschedule the event.

The originally scheduled debate format was changed to a fireside chat hosted by Andrew Lawton with attending candidates Erin O'Toole and Derek Sloan .

Dr. Lewis' campaign manager Steve Outhouse attended the event as a representative.

When asked about MacKay's withdrawal from the event, Outhouse told Rebel News:

“Every campaign needs to do what they believe is best, we did not ask for Mr. MacKay's campaign to put out any type of statement related to Dr. Lewis... no disrespect would've been felt at all if [MacKay] had participated tonight, there have been other events that we've participated in that he has not participated in, there's been events that he's participated in [but] we've not been there.

“It would've been up to him to decide what he wanted to do with his schedule and we would've totally respected that.”

Watch the full video to hear about the Lewis campaign's goals for the event, and their thoughts on the mainstream media versus independent media, including Rebel News!