DCHP-2

all-candidates meeting all-candidates' meeting, all candidates meeting DCHP-2 (September 2016)

• n. — Politics

  a public meeting in which candidates from all parties debate issues pertaining to the election.

  Type: 5. Frequency — The term is almost exclusively restricted to Canada (see Chart 1), where it is widespread. While all-candidates meeting, with the plural qualifier, denotes a feature of Canadian election campaigns, the related term all-candidate meeting, with a singular qualifier, has some frequency in the US, but is limited in Canada. In general, however, AmE prefers compounds with 'debate', such as in (Democratic or Republican) presidential debate.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "all-candidates meeting", which is marked "Cdn".