Ontario Party Leader Derek Sloan is objecting to his party’s exclusion from the Ontario election leaders’ debate that took place on May 16, saying it puts his party at a disadvantage. The New Blue Party which, like the Ontario Party, has a sitting MPP in the current legislature, is also objecting.
“Preventing the leader of a political party with a sitting MPP from participating in leadership debates is nothing less than election tampering and is a profoundly anti-democratic act.”
According to the press release, the Ontario Party has 105 registered candidates running in the current election.Per the rules of the consortium, a party must be running a full slate of 124 candidates in order to participate in the election debates. The rule sparked controversy when Steven Del Duca’s Liberals were allowed to participate in the debate, despite running only 122 candidates after three were dropped last week due to controversial remarks.
The New Blue Party led by Jim Karahalios was also barred from the debate despite registering a full slate of 124 candidates and having a sitting MPP. Responding to the exclusion, Karahalios accused the consortium of bias and violating its own rules.
Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, was allowed to participate despite the party having only one MPP, making it the first time in history the Greens participated in the televised leaders’ debate.
“This is the first time a fourth party has been included in the televised leaders’ debate and I think it’s a great opportunity for the people of Ontario to hear about new solutions and new ideas to a lot of the old problems many of us are facing right now.”
