Canadians who want to show up to hear Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the election campaign trail will have to apply for an invitation and be vetted by the Conservative Party, says the party’s chief campaign spokesman.

While most political parties allow Canadians to drop in to hear their leaders during rallies or other campaign events, Conservative campaign events with Harper are going to be by invitation only, says Kory Teneycke.

“To get into our events it will be the same as any campaign we have had in the past, you need to have a ticket,” Teneycke explained. “You need to have been invited and if you don’t have a ticket then you’re not getting in.”

Asked whether the party is concerned about people trying to disrupt Harper’s campaign events, Teneycke said different rules could apply to different events.

“It depends on the nature of the event that one is holding. If we are having an event at a factory, for instance, the way you get into that event is to work at that factory. If we’re having an event for campaign volunteers at a given riding association, you would have to be a campaign volunteer to go to that. If it’s a rally for party supporters, you have to be a supporter of the party.”

“If it was a general public event for anyone in the public, they would be invited. If it was at a university where you had to be a student of that university, that would be the requirement.”

“It’s entirely conditional on what the actual event is so to try to stamp some one size fits all rules or criteria would be false.”

While all parties keep an eye on who is showing up for events, largely for security reasons, most parties do not screen people before they are allowed into the room to hear their leaders.

During the 2011 election campaign, there were a couple of incidents where people who showed up to listen to Harper were turned away because party workers discovered Facebook posts critical of Harper, pictures of them posing with another party leader or a pro-NDP bumper sticker.

At the time, Harper apologized.

“If anybody is kept out of any of our events that’s there to hear our message, we obviously apologize to them,” Harper told reporters on the campaign trail.

This time, though, the Conservatives are unapologetic – serving notice that “by invitation only” is going to be the norm throughout the campaign, expected to last 11 weeks.

The tight control is in keeping with Harper’s style of government, particularly since the Conservatives won a majority government in 2011.

George Smith, spokesman for NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, says the Conservatives’ by-invitation-only policy is in sharp contrast with Mulcair’s tour this summer.

“Over the past couple of weeks we have held dozens of public events, which have included thousands of Canadians,” he said. “You can expect the same type of approach during a campaign.”

A spokesman for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said the party does not vet people who attend his events and has no plans to start.

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