This story is part of the Star’s trust initiative, where, every week, we take readers behind the scenes of our journalism. This week, we look at how the Star is making its political endorsements more transparent.

It’s provincial election season in Ontario, and that means the editorial boards of newspapers across the province are studying the platforms of each party and keeping a close eye on their leaders in order to determine which candidate to endorse.

Political endorsements by newspapers, including the Star, are a long tradition in journalism, dating back more than a century.

Historically, the Star’s political endorsements have generally leaned left, in keeping with the newspaper’s alignment with the Atkinson principles, a set of progressive values named for former legendary publisher Joseph E. Atkinson. In the previous 14 federal elections between 1968 and 2015, for example, the Star endorsed the Liberals 10 times, the NDP twice and the Progressive Conservatives twice.

The Star’s editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom, determines which party and candidate to endorse, but not without much scrutiny of the parties’ policies, vision, and the actions and temperament of their leaders.

“It’s part of our role to encourage debate and take a stand on the issues that matter to the community. We’re constantly giving our opinion on everything from subways to trade, so to remain silent on such a big choice as who should lead the province would be odd,” said editorial page editor Andrew Phillips.

He stressed, however, that a position taken by the editorial board doesn’t influence news coverage and an endorsement isn’t “telling” readers who to vote for.

“We’re just sharing our opinion as citizens and making an argument for that choice.”

That’s where editorial board meetings with the candidates come into play. Every election season, the Star invites the leaders of all the major parties to come to One Yonge St. and sit down with members of the editorial board, as well as journalists and editors from across departments. So far during this provincial election campaign, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath have met with the board. PC Leader Doug Ford and Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne have been invited. Wynne will be here May 28 at 1 p.m. Email questions to electionquestions@thestar.ca.

The idea is to see how the leaders react to tough questioning and how they defend their positions.

“Leaders who rely too much on canned talking points don’t come across as very impressive,” said Phillips. “You want to see someone actively considering the arguments and responding intelligently when their positions are challenged. Leaders are going to have to deal with unexpected situations, and having a dozen journalists quiz you on your positions is a pretty good test of how well they’re going to be able to handle that.”

This year, the Star decided to increase transparency by live streaming these meetings on thestar.com. Readers are encouraged to send in questions, which the editorial board poses to the candidates.

For the editorial board meeting with Horwath, which took place last Wednesday over the noon hour, readers sent in more than 100 questions. Many questions covered the similar subjects, so the editorial board chose a few to represent readers’ main concerns.

“The live stream gives readers an opportunity to engage with whatever the politician is saying, and to respond, comment or ask more questions in real-time. The idea is to help readers feel they are involved in the conversation,” said the Star’s social media editor Evelyn Kwong, who relays reader questions to the editorial board.

Phillips notes that the live stream also invites readers into a key part of the way the Star’s editorial board examines the choices in the election campaign.

“Readers often wonder how we go about making up our minds on which party to support at the end of a campaign, and live streaming opens the doors on one of the main tools we use to decide — direct access to the party leaders,” he said.

Do you have any questions about how the Toronto Star does its journalism? What are some topics you’d like to read about? Send the Star’s Trust Project a note with your thoughts to trust@thestar.ca.

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