The Conservatives and NDP are attacking the Liberal Party for not yet committing to any election debates, with the Tories saying Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is afraid to take on the other federal leaders.

The debate over debates has heated up in Ottawa ever since the Conservatives announced last week that Prime Minister Stephen Harper would not participate in the traditional televised leaders' debates ahead of the upcoming election, scheduled for Oct. 19. Rather, Harper plans to take part in five debates at most, some ahead of the official start of the election campaign.

Now the conversation is now turning towards the fact that the Liberals have not committed to any election debates. While the Conservatives and NDP have agreed to two debates in August – one by the French-language network TVA and another by Maclean's magazine – the Liberals have not committed to any.

Speaking on CTV's Question Period, Conservative campaign spokesperson Kory Teneycke pressed Liberal debate strategist Rob Silver to explain why his party hasn't committed to any debates.

"All the other parties have agreed to two debates, and you've agreed to zero," said Teneycke. "My question would be, Rob, why are you afraid to go on TVA and debate us? Why are you afraid to go on Rogers and debate us? Everyone is there, not Justin Trudeau though."

NDP National Director Anne McGrath had the same question for the Liberals.

"I think that the Liberals might want to answer the question about why, if they say they're open to more debates, they haven't agreed to a single one yet," said McGrath.

Silver immediately went on the defensive, saying the Liberals are taking their time in considering debate proposals.

"There's no rush. Let's see who comes forward with debates proposals," said Silver. "Unless you (Teneycke) know something about when Stephen Harper is planning on dropping the writ, the debate is not tomorrow.”

As of last week, Silver said there were 18 different debates being proposed. He expects that number will jump to 30 this week.

For decades, election debates have been organized by a consortium of broadcasters: CTV, Global, CBC and Radio-Canada. In 2011, the English and French debates were viewed by more than 10 million people. The broadcast consortium responded to Conservatives' plan to bow out of the traditional debates, saying it provides a public service during election campaigns.

"As a public service, Canada's major broadcasters come together to make sure that the debates are exposed to as many Canadians as possible airing on all the networks," said the consortium in a statement last week.

The consortium had proposed to hold four debates this year in the lead up to the election. Teneycke said the Conservatives rejected the offer in favour of participating in debates with a variety of individual media outlets.

"I know the consortium would love to continue to have a monopoly on hosting debates, but we're not sure that actually produces the best results in terms of a variety of different options," said Teneycke.

"I think CTV, CBC , Global -- very credible news organizations, no knock against them -- but if somebody else hosts a debate, I think they will come and cover it, and I think it will get to all of the Canadian households with a television set."

Teneycke said Harper will participate in a debate hosted by TVA and Maclean's magazine (owned by Rogers Communications), and is open to participating in one more in French and two more in English. While Tenenycke said there will be "lots of back and forth in the TVA" debate, he cautioned against "a lot of cross-talk and a lot of yelling where you can't get an answer out," saying it doesn't serve the audience or the leaders well.

McGrath said the NDP has not shut down any debate proposals, adding that Leader Tom Mulcair is ready to debate as often as possible. She called on the Conservatives to participate in the consortium debates.

Silver called the Conservative decision "petulant" and "childish."

"They didn’t like the way the game was played, so they tried to take their bat and ball and say, ‘This is what we're going to play instead,’" said Silver. "This wild west of 20, 30 different competing (debate) proposals is a rather bizarre way to sort through who is going to be hosting debates."

If elected, the Liberals have promised to create a new independent debate commission to oversee the arrangements.

With files from the Canadian Press