DCHP-2

bear-pit session bearpit session, bear pit session DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — especially Ontario & Western Canada, informal, usually Politics

  an event where candidates or elected officials face intense questioning.

  Type: 1. Origin — The term bear-pit session connects metaphorically to the perceived ruthlessness of the questioning, in which someone powerful is attacked,like a bear by dogs. The term is exclusive to Canada, as demonstrated in Chart 1. Although newspaper attestations come from all regions of Canada, the term is most prevalent in Ontario and the Canadian West (see Chart 2).
  See also Gage-5, s.v. "bear-pit session" and COD-2, s.v. "bear-pit session", which are marked as "Cdn."; not in ITP Nelson.