The leader of the Bloc Québécois is questioning why the Green Party can participate in a national televised debate even though the party falls short of qualifying criteria set by Canada’s Leaders’ Debates Commission.
“I have nothing against the Green Party, but if the rules disqualify it, how can we explain why it’s invited to the debate? The main effect is to reduce the speaking time of others,” Yves-François Blanchet wrote in a social media post in French on April 13.
The commission did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times. A spokesperson for the commission told the CBC it had “made its decision with respect to which political parties met the debate participation criteria 27 days before election day.”
“The timelines were set to ensure that the debates producer has sufficient time to produce a debate of high quality,” the spokesperson said.
Parties must meet two of three criteria to be invited to the debates: Having a sitting MP who’s been elected as a member of that party; having at least four percent national support in opinion polls; and running candidates in at least 90 per cent of all 343 ridings, which amount to 309.
The commission, an independent body, invited the Greens to participate in the debate, saying the party had met the first and third criteria. However, that invitation was sent a week before the April 7 deadline for parties to submit their final list of candidates.
The Green Party had submitted names for candidates in all ridings, on which the commission based its decision on April 1. However, Elections Canada only lists 232 Green candidates, for just 68 percent of all ridings. Nevertheless, Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault will participate in the French debate on April 16 and the English debate on April 17.
At a press conference on April 14, Pedneault said, “it simply benefits Canadian democracy to have the Greens at the table and have as many voices to debate the future of our country.”
Pedneault also said People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier should be included.
“The PPC should be at the table because those are issues and views that Canadians actually hold,” Pedneault said.
The Green Party is polling around two percent and the PPC one percent.
Bernier said on social media that he received his first indication that he would not participate in the debate when Radio Canada TV host Celine Galipeau called Bernier in French “a leader who will not be at the debate.”
In a March 25 press release, Bernier said, “How is it possible that Ms. Galipeau know[s] this already? I think I have the answer. Radio-Canada/CBC will produce the debates, so they’re talking to the Commission, and I presume everybody there already knows that I won’t be invited.”
The press release said the PPC was invited to send a representative to a preparation meeting at La Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal on March 31 but that “the party will not waste precious time during an extremely busy campaign to play this silly game and legitimize the Commission’s phony process.”
Bernier added that under the 2021 rules he would automatically have been invited because the PPC received almost 5 percent of the vote in the last election, alleging the commission “changed the rules only to exclude us.”
Previous Rules
In 2021, the commission decided a party could participate in debates if it met one of three criteria: a sitting MP in the House elected as a member of that party, candidates in the previous election received at least four percent of total valid votes cast, and polls taken five days after the election is called found the party had a national support level of at least four percent.
The PPC was left out of the 2021 debates, as it had earned just 1.62 per cent of the popular vote in 2019, did not elect an MP, and had an average level of 3.27 percent support in polls prior to the 2021 election. However, the party earned 840,993 votes for 4.94 per cent support in the 2021 election.
The commission was announced by the Government of Canada in 2018. In November of that year, Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould announced that the newly formed People’s Party would be eligible to speak in debates if they satisfied two of three criteria: Parties must either have an elected MP or intend to run candidates in 90 percent of the ridings, or have won at least four percent of the vote in 2015 — or at least stand a “legitimate chance” of winning seats in the next vote.
Heading into the 2019 election, the People’s Party met the 90 percent threshold of candidates, and Bernier was a sitting MP. However, his party was initially rejected from participating in the 2019 debates because Bernier had won his seat of Beauce as a Conservative, not a People’s Party member. Commission head David Johnston wrote Bernier to say recent polls left him doubtful any PPC candidate would win a seat.
The PPC subsequently provided public opinion polling to the commission that showed more than 25 percent of respondents in some ridings were willing to consider the PPC. Based on this information, Bernier was able to participate in the 2019 debates.
The inclusion of the Greens in the French debate ensures Liberal Leader Mark Carney will be involved. Carney announced March 25 he would not participate in an additional French debate, to be broadcast on TVA, because of the Green Party’s absence. As a result, the TVA debate was cancelled.
